OH Canton Days Inn

[JulieAmber]

1* Canton Days Inn, $49... 2/29/08-3/2/08 (4 rooms)

I purchased 4 rooms for 12 adults...

Hotel 4 room(s) @ $49.00 per night x 2 night(s) = $392.00

Tax recovery charge and fees = $49.98

Total = $441.98

Because I was traveling with 11 college students, I did two things prior to the arrival date:

1) Called hotwire.com to challenge the "Double the Difference." I saw on Days Inn.com that a room in advance was $46.55! Challenging this was initially silly, as I was tired when reading the daysinn.com website and didn't realize that the $46.55 rate was for one person in one room. I obviously lost the challenge. Hotwire rep said it was because I will have four rooms with double beds, which on the website goes for 59.99/night (true, if you pay for it in person... days inn's actual price online is $50.99/night for four rooms for twelve adults. I think this is the least I've ever "saved" on hotwire or priceline!).

2) I then called Days Inn to confirm that I'd have FOUR double rooms. They confirmed.

Night of Arrival:

6pm, my students and I arrive to check in. Anytime I've traveled with them, they'll stay in the car, I'll check in, and we're all in rooms within 10 minutes. The manager was training who appeared to be a son and daughter on how to check me in. They were issuing the last set of keys to me when the manager kind of joked and said to me "I know I'm not allowed to ask, but I'm just curious. How much did you pay a night?" Yes, hotels are not supposed to ask. However, in my travels, I've often been asked this question and never had a problem with answering (until now). "$49/night per room," I said. The manager then proceeded to explode with anger. "Hotwire is making so much money from you!" he yelled. "This is not a double bed room," he continued. At that moment, he grabbed the keys back, and reissued them to me. "You paid hotwire for a single bed, and that is what you will get. I'm sick of this hotwire nonsense."

I was completely stunned, but insisted I had a contract with hotwire for four rooms for 12 adults. I asked the manager how he expected 3-4 adults/room to sleep on one bed! The manager then started to turn this around as if it's hotwire's fault. He didn't speak English well, but started to try and argue that he no longer had double bed rooms available. "You will get four single bed rooms." I asked that we call hotwire, and he said "Please, let me!" He then started yelling at hotwire.com's rep asking how they could possibly expect 12 adults to sleep in four single bed rooms! After 20 minutes of yelling, the hotwire rep and Days Inn manager clearly weren't getting anywhere. I asked to speak with hotwire, and the manager put me on the phone. I rationally explained my side of the story, which hotwire clearly understood. They said "we don't understand how Days Inn expects 3 adults sleep in a single bed in each room." I agreed, and demanded to know how hotwire was going to resolve this problem.

The Days Inn manager chimed in that "two double bed rooms" just came open (in the meantime, no one had called or checked in the lobby)! So, he was willing to give us TWO double bed rooms and TWO single bed rooms. This still isn't what I paid for... two people were still set to sleep on the floor without free cots!

Hotwire.com then proceeded to tell me they were going to additionally bill me $85 as a "cot charge" to ensure that all our adults had beds! I told him this was completely unacceptable. He then said that he'd "fax" me a receipt that I can "fax back" to them next week to receive a refund of the cot charge. I was at the mercy of the Days Inn, who said their FAX machine wasn't working. I reinforced to Hotwire that I need them to resolve this. They said if I don't like their cot charge solution (which didn't come down in price even though I negotiated with the DI manager for 2/4 of the single bed rooms now as doubles), then they'd be happy to refund my money for the hotwire.com purchase. I said, "yes, please refund my money," when the DI manager literally grabbed the phone out of my hand and told hotwire "Look, I'm a nice guy, and don't want to lose customers because of your incompetence. I'm going to give her a third double bed room. She doesn't need a fourth, because she will be the only one in it." At that point, we were pushing 2 hours of arguing, and we were an hour late for our conference. I took the deal, even though it was less than what I paid for (Four double bed rooms). At least they all had beds, which is what hotwire replied when I filed for a "double the difference" amount for my individual room after the trip. I paid $49 for a $46.55 room.

To make matters worse, the creepy son quickly noticed that my van was full of 8 college women. He actually asked me if they were single. There was only one entry door to the hotel rooms, which passed through the lobby. The angry manager verbally did a head count on us as we passed by to ensure that only 12 of us were using the rooms!

Please take caution with this hotel. I actually felt unsafe here due the hotel employees (not to mention feeling like an unwelcome guest!)!

Other than that, your typical one star hotel... gross bedding, ripped towels, slimy carpet with a distant stench of smoke and something else unpleasant.

This is the first time I've ever been burned on hotwire. Not for the accomodations, but the refusal by both Hotwire and Days Inn to honor the hotwire contract.