716darwinp
March 8, 2022
We were scheduled to stay here a few weeks back. We'd stayed here about 5 years ago. We knew it was a low end (maybe 2 star) place. But we didn't plan to spend any time except sleeping, so we were ok (we thought). Our plane got in about 10a, so we figured, we'd Uber over, drop our bags, maybe check in and go do our thing. We figured we'd better call. 1. No answer - Learned why in 2 2. Arrival: We got out of the uber. The manager was sitting on the curb outside the office. The phone in the office was ringing, and ringing, and ringing... 3. We told Mgr we'd like to check in, were any rooms ready? She said, "no checkin until 3P". We asked if there was somewhere we could leave our bags. "You can't leave bags if you are not a guest" (refer to 3P rule) Then, "You can't leave bags anyway." 4. We said then, "well, it's a nice day, we'll just hang out and do some work on our computers until 3p" Mgr: "non-guests are not allowed on the property. You will have to leave." I asked if there was any way that perhaps an exception could be made. Mgr: "it's corporate policy: No non-guests on the property at any time." So, that's enough with the sequences. Now I'm going to paint a picture. It was then that I realized that I was trying to check into a "hotel" that would most likely see 3 or 4 visits from the police once the sun went down. Imagine about 20 people, mostly under 30, sitting around the outside of the motel grouped around the office. There are babies, teenage moms, Kids from 3 to 16 (guess), and other males. The majority of them were in the 20-30 range as far as I could tell. 20 years ago, they would all be smoking. Now, I'm guessing that smokes were too expensive for this crowd. The Mgr had her smokes. The impression I had was that I'd walked into a convention from a trailer park. The manager bolstered that impression. She had absolutely no desire to work with a new guest, especially one that really didn't belong there. She continued to sit on her curb, not moving and repeating that it was corporate policy that we had to leave until the checkin time of 3P. We walked on the the "public" sidewalk and went to sit in the shade at the end of the hotel property. (not ON the property, mind you, still on the sidewalk). 30 seconds later, some of the older males in the group took up residence about 15 feet from us on the stairs of the hotel. We called a new driver and left. At the same time, we called priceline and cancelled the 2 day stay. We had to pay the first day since we were too late for a real cancellation. We booked a stay at our favorite Marriott for the stay. I was incredibly grateful that Marriotts existed at that point. Now lest you think I just had high expectations, I'm 70+, I've traveled the world and currently live in Ecuador. I'm used to rat hole hotels and hostels. This was not one of those. This was a level under that. I don't have a description that applies to this place. From the management to the grounds, the only way I'd