Family Visit
30/08/2018 Mariah H, Rochester, Minnesota
I booked 2 nights in a king room thru Hotels.com. I then discovered that we needed a third night and there was nothing available on Hotels.com so I called the hotel & personally booked thru them. Obvi... more
I booked 2 nights in a king room thru Hotels.com. I then discovered that we needed a third night and there was nothing available on Hotels.com so I called the hotel & personally booked thru them. Obviously, I asked if we could get the same room, a king, and they said they made the reservation for the third night in the same room. Once we arrived, they were not able to find my reservation and told me they had nothing to do with it, that I had to call hotels.com. I showed them my paid receipt along with my conformation number. After about 15 minutes, they were able to locate it but they still seemed confused as to why we had 2 different reservations. I simply said because our plans had changed. It seemed to be a big deal & complicated to them. I am still unsure why. I wanted to pay cash for the 1 night I booked with them. They then told me that I needed to give them a $100 deposit. I was in shock as we stay at the Laquinta 99% of the time, are Elite members and had never heard of this. So, I gave them the $100 with confidence we had no problem getting it back. Once we got into our room, it was a queen handicap accessible room. I then called the front desk & informed her that we were put in the wrong room & were given the wrong discount. She said that the room we were in was the room on the reservation. It was not at all. By this time, we were so exhausted from driving 10 hours and 1500 miles from home so I did not make a big deal about it, until now. The room seemed very outdated. The carpet was old, smelly, because we were in a handicapped room, the water in the shower went everywhere, the hallway reeked of smoke, there was a strange couple down the hall that were constantly fighting, there were cigarette butts left on the picnic table outside (mind you I smoke myself but always properly dispose). The front lobby looked to be new and updated but it was deceiving because the room was so old. Breakfast was good. Once we were ready to checkout, we put all the bedding in a pile and the towels in another, emptied fridge and went to the front to collect the $100 deposit. She told me to have a seat while they inspected the room. I was somewhat appalled because I have never heard of such a thing. She came back and said they had to keep $50 for a stained towel. So, coffee was spilt and they expected us to leave it there or clean it up? That's what it was used for. We went back and forth because there was no way thay their cheap linens could possibly cost $50. We then waited 45 minutes for them to wash everything while sitting outside. They still charged us $13. That is ridiculous. We are very respectful people, respect properties and do a lot of their job for them and it seemed if we would had not argued the situation, they would have kept everything. We will never stay at any Best Western again. We always stay at Laquinta, are greeted with a smile, a bag of goodies and never have issues with anything at all, but....there is not one in the area. Be prepared for this place to take as much of your hard earned money for a old, outdated hotel. We will not be back. less
BWReading, General Manager at Best Western Plus Reading Inn & Suites, responded to this review
Mariah, we're sorry again about your experience, but I'm glad I had the chance to speak with you earlier today to discuss some of the issues that you encountered. You definitely should have been notified that your room was changed from the king to a queen, although our intentions were to save you from having to go up to the 4th floor with 3 dogs when we had a more convenient room for you on the 1st floor, with easy access to take the dogs outside. The deposit does vary from hotel to hotel, so I would always advise any traveler to inquire with the hotel prior to arriving so they are prepared. Our hotel gives the option to provide a credit card which holds $50.00 and is released upon checkout, or in cash for the amount of $100.00, also returned at checkout upon inspection of the guest room (to ensure the room was not smoked in or damaged in any way). One of the things we check is the linen, as some substances like make-up, hair dye, sauce, red wine, and grease do not come out easily, if at all. The staff member that checked your room found several linens with potential "stains" and advised we'd have to put them through the wash before giving back the full deposit. The $50 was based off the amount of linens that were marked up, which I personally handled and put to wash right away to help speed up the process for you. After the wash was completed, we determined that all stains were successfully removed with the exception of 1 bed sheet which costs the hotel $10 + tax and shipping, which is what you were billed for. You also mention your Elite Status with LaQuinta, and we do have a program like that as well. Best Western even has a status match program so that you could immediately become an Elite member with us as well and receive those same (if not better) great benefits. You can speak to our corporate office if you're interested in that program... I hope I was able to bring clarity and justification for some of the issues and I hope that you'll take advantage of my offer to return to us in the future. We look forward to making your next stay better.