Choice Hotels
reviews and complaints

BEWARE of this hotel. After paying for two nights in Memphis, my boyfriend and I went to Beale Street our second night and our debit card was rejected, stating that we had reached our withdrawal limit for the day of $1, 000.00, which was NOT right. Sure enough, after consulting our bank account, the EconoLodge we were staying at had charged our card FOUR separate times in the same night. This was nearly an $880.00 unauthorized charge made by Econolodge in the course of a single day. My boyfriend called the front desk instanty and they had no clue on how to handle the situation (REFUND OUR MONEY? you took it out, you can put it back in!), they were rude, and acted as if WE had our information wrong. After nearly an hour of discussing the matter and being on hold, my boyfriend finally reached someone who assured us the situation was resolved. Low and behold, once back in Arkansas, our account HAD NOT been refunded. My boyfriend spent hours on hold trying to find someone who knew what the heck they were doing, while Choice Hotels held on to over $800.00 of our money for a $200.00 hotel stay. Finally, he reached someone who assured him the matter would be investigated and resolved within 72 hours. Wow, thats fast...Not. The next day my boyfriend received 3 calls while at work, an environment in which he cannot answer his phone, and was left a hateful voicemail by a customer service rep who not only got his last name entirely wrong, but declared that if he did not call back at once the matter would not be resolved. He called the next day, and they asked for personal bank information while he was sitting in his office, etc, etc, I cannot begin to describe the rudeness and unprofessionalism and waste of our time! Finally we were told the money would be credited back within 48 hrs. We shall see. In the meantime, we requested a free night, and were DENIED! They were nice enough to refund our $20.00 parking pass...thanks a million, EconoLodge. Not only this, but we were underwhelmed by our stay and the overall condition of the hotel. The downtown Memphis hotel is dirty, outdated, has an unfriendly and slow staff, and the best part was the cleaning lady opened the door on us after knocking once at 9 am the second day of our two night stay. Then she never came back, and rudely told US we should have put a do not disturb sign on the door when we saw her in the hallway. The rooms were dirty, and you could hear everything going on in the next room. WE WILL NEVER STAY AT A CHOICE HOTEL AGAIN!

Checked in on Saturday 9/11/2010 at 1130 AM, by midnight my son was asleep and when I looked at him a saw a gug on him. Immediately I grabbed it and when I did I saw several more on the sheets. After examining them I was able to recognize that they were bed bugs. I pulled back the sheets and saw 15-20 more running around on the mattress. Needless to say we went to the front desk to make a complaint, which they refused to do anything or act concerned whats so ever. I am calling the Health Department on them.

We were staying @ the econolodge in Plantsville CT, my daughter arived earlier than we did, THe person behind the counter was flirting with her and INSITSED that he carry up her bags for her, when they got into the room, I was told that the employie "fentyl" tried to kiss my daughter. She said no and pulled away. He threw her on the bed. He continued to kiss her. Thank go he did not rape her or hit her. But he did say that all american girls are sluts and that he can have sex with them all the time, . SHe left the room and stayed with her Best friend for the night, WOuldnt you bellieve, This guy knocke don that door. They woudlnt let him in, he however used the master card to unlock the door but they had the bolt on the door. WHen she finaly told me when happend, we were already in chicago and i coudl not confront him. This is UNEXCEPTABLE. I WANT SOMETHING DONE TO THIS MAN OR I WILL DO IT MYSELF. It is not fair to my daulghter...she held a certain level of trust with these people that is non-existant at this point. WE may have to take her to therapy. If this is the case, I will have to sue you. I think it woudl ne in all of our best interest if you terminate this employee because if he does this with my daughter, he must have done it before and will continue to do it. BTW I almost forgot, he offered her money. Like I said, unexceptable... I can not be the only person who has filed a coplaint about this guy. Plz take care of this. I am asking you as a proffesional, please. I am hurt and mad. I dont want to go to jail for ringing his neck...but this is my 14 yo daughter.

Choice Priviliges is a hotel rewards program that promised a free night stay if you stayed at one of their member hotels for 2 nights. My wife and I took them up on the offer but we have never been allowed to use the free stay.
After repeated phone calls over a number of months, we have been told the hotels we want to stay at require more points than we earned with our stays. "Points" were never mentioned in the ad that enticed us. Even after staying one more night in one of their very dirty and run-down Comfort Inns in Petaluma, CA, we were told we still do not have enough points for a free stay.
I asked for a list of hotels that we did have enough points for and was told they don't have such a list, that I would have to go through hotel by hotel for my request to figure out which hotels would qualify.
Lesson: Do not trust Choice Priviliges advertisements and don't fall for gimmicks

My wife and I stayed at Cambria Suites in Dania Beach Florida. When I state that we thought we were in a 3rd class country, I am not exaggerating.

When I made reservation arrangements, Kamal at the front desk stated that the hotel was a 5 Star property. Although the hotel is nice, at best is a three star.

He also said that because the occupancy rate was high, he would offer the room to us because he considered our stay to be long term, 6 days. However, because he was oversold on rooms, he said that if we check out prior to the 6th day, we would be responsible for all 6 days. At that time I didn't think much about his claim.

Here is what occurred:

On Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday there was not hot water. Each day I had to call about not having hot water for a shower.

The few days we could use the pool we could not stay poolside. A truck pulled into the hotel parking lot towing a large power washer which was used to wash cars. This went on for 3 hours. The din was so loud, we were forced to leave the pool area.

We went to the pool area for towels and there were none. The manager happened to pass by and said that he would return with towels. He never returned and we had to return to the room to dry off.

At 10:00 PM, a bus was idling near the front entrance of the hotel. The noise and fumes woke us up. I called the front desk to ask why the bus was idling. The girl at the front desk said she would check into this. After another hour, I called the front desk again because the bus was still idling. Again, she said she would check into this. A half-hour later the bus moved to the driveway.

During the three days we spent poolside, I noticed that the pool and jacuzzi filters never ran. However, on February 22nd, the board of health was inspecting the hotel, the pool was temporarily closed while they completed their inspection. This was the first time that the pool filters were operating.

Because of a medical condition, I have a prescription for a narcotic pain killer. I packed 7 tablets and didn't have to use any of them. When I returned home there were only 3 in the bottle. I can't prove that the maid stole them but I have no other explanation for them being missing.

Their $8. breakfast buffet was average for a resort hotel. But we elected not to participate because I felt that they fell far short of what is considered to be basic food service health concerns. No sneeze bar, food temperatures were questionable, and tinted green scrambled eggs indicated that the eggs were not fresh.

On Saturday of our horrific stay, our room key card which permit access to the pool, door entrances, gym and outside doors would not function. We had to walk around the perimeter of the hotel to the front entrance. The front desk said that either their card readers were malfunctioning or an employee invalidated our key cards.

We would have left after two days if we could, but then we would have been charged for the entire 6 days.

I submitted a complaint form and recieved an e-mail that I would be contacted by customer service within 24 hours. I waited. After TWO weeks, I called customer service. They offered us a reduction of two nights stay. When Chris from customer service asked if this was acceptable, I said no. I wanted to be reimbursed 50% of our hotel bill and also wanted a 6 night comp at a Choice Hotel.

Bottom line after REPEATED, REPEATED phone calls and e-mails and 2 e-mails sent to Kevin Lewis, CEO of Premier Division (?) which were not responded to I was able to recieve a 50% reduction of our hotel bill. Corporate office said that they would not offer the 6 night comp to compensate us for the grief and aggrivation of our 6 night FORCED "imprisonment" at the Cambria Suites Hotel.

I thought that my request for the comp and reimburserment was reasonable considering that if we could have left after the second day, we would have but could not afford to be billed for 4 nights and then find another hotel and pay for another 4 nights.

there customer relations, and mangers are far from being good. they don’t care about there customers. My stay was horrible, when I complained about it, they offered me reward points? why in the world would I want to stay at that hotel chain. As far as Im coinsured I believe they should be shut down. my issue was not even solved. they seamed to think they can get away with anything. I have read a lot of complaints from this hotel chain. And I would not ever suggest ANYONE to stay there. so in that note, I hope this company can fix there issues with there staff. so no one has to go threw a bunch of crap to get no where!

I traveled to EconoLodge (OH430) in Worthington, OH for a high school wrestling tournament on 3/5/09. Two rooms were reserved by the team coordinator. Upon check in, I requested to reserve my own room as the motel was empty and I wished to use my AAA discount. The clerk assured me I had the lowest rate available--lower than the AAA rate. Upon check out, I was amazed to see that my VISA had been charge double the nightly room rate and more than double the AAA rate. The clerk would not give me her name or a room receipt. She would only write her initials ("BR") on my VISA receipt. I have contacted customer service to no avail. I received a form letter apology by email addressed to "Dear ___." In the letter, the general manager, Bob Patel, said it would not happen with future customers. I also received $50 in Econoldge coupons which I have no use for.

I would like to be reimbursed for the $100 for which I was deliberately overcharged.

I booked a hotel room in a Comfort Inn hotel in which I've stayed before, on choicehotels.com. The "fine print" room description did not read, "no pets allowed." The hotel accepts pets and on its website, at the time I booked, it listed no pet fees. I typed in the Special Requests section that I would need a pet room and was bringing two small dogs. When I checked in the computers were down. Whatever... I got checked in. The room was very nice. I've stayed there several times before in their pet rooms. The next morning when I went to check out, there was a large, rather unfriendly office manager, Victor (Richards, I think, was his last name) behind the counter. He gave me my invoice to sign and I noticed a $25 pet fee on it. I refused to sign it or pay the pet fee, because it wasn't indicated on the website and I've never had to pay a pet fee at that hotel before. He said it was their new policy. I said you can't spring a new policy on me like that, I didn't book expecting to pay a pet fee. He handed me a hotel business card and told me to call the manager on Monday (this was Saturday morning). I said no and asked him to call his manager right then. He did, on a cell phone (his own? the company's? who knows). Right in front of me, in a "long suffering" unfriendly tone of voice, he told the manager he had a customer who didn't want to pay the pet fee, and then he said, "I explained that to her." He handed me the phone to talk to the general manager, Neelam Patel, who tried to argue with me. The phone reception was lousy and I couldn't even hear half of what she said, but she tried to explain their cleaning process and the new policy, etc., etc., blah blah blah. I insisted on her authorizing the removal of the pet fee from my bill, and she finally agreed to do so. But she kept speaking to me in an argumentative tone! Finally, I said, "Could you please tell Victor here to take off the pet fee?" And she finally said yes so I handed the phone back to him and he printed me out a new bill without the fee. After all that, Victor had the nerve to tell me it would probably take a month for the website to be updated and he hoped to see me again. I told him I would not be staying there again. When I got home my stay wasn't listed on my account, so I feared I'd have a hassle getting my points credited, but they finally, several days later, came through and I saw the listing of my stay.

We checked into the country inn and suites and the only room available was a room next to four chain smoking rooms. The room reeked of smoke. We went back to the service desk and requested a different room. None were available. We were sent to the comfort inn down the street. We were sent up the stairs and the hallway was filthy. There was dirt and grass all over. When we walked into the room, the first thing we noticed was that something had spilled all down the side of the tv. Milk? I went to see the bathroom and you could feel the hairspray on the countertop and the toilet cover. I wiped it off with a wetwipe and the wipe was grey. I then went to check out the bed and there was a hair in it. I tried to call the front desk and phone didn't work. It was late, i was exhauted and already changed into my pj's. Headed off to bed and talked to someone in the morning. Told him of the problems and his response was. I will tell the management, he won't be happy. There was no apology whatsoever. It was a gross experience.

I reserved a room at the hotel for a dog show we were attending held on May 10 and 11th. The hotel was advertised on the back of the dog show premium list as pet friendly. Upon arrival we check in and get our suite(#322). It had no toilet paper and the carpet was nasty. We bring our dogs in and go to unload the car and the clerk tells us there is a "situation". The building doesn't allow dogs because it serves breakfast. I told them I was coming for the dog show and had dogs at the time of the reservation. They moved us from our suite to a small room(#214). We are sound asleep and at 4:30 a.m. there is a loud crashing noise and my husband screams. When I turn on the light I see that the picture above the bed fell off the wall hit the head board and fell on my husband's head. Shattering glass imbedded in my husband's shoulder and glass shards 6"-10" long all over his neck and upper torso and all over the bed, pillows and dog blanket. I removed the glass from my husband's neck so my husband could move and I could clean his wound. I went to get assistance and bandages but the desk clerk didn't know where a first aid kit was. She tried to be helpful but was new to the job and was the only one on duty. They moved us to another room(#217). Again no toilet paper. We went to the front desk at least 3 times to get the manager or owner, or anyone in charge to come to the room and meet with us. The clerk couldn't give us an extra blanket or sheet to replace my dogs blanket now imbedded in glass because she'd "get fired". I asked her to call the manager/owner and she tried several times. When she finally reached the owner we were told to return after the dog show in the afternoon to discuss this mess, the owner was too busy with a "little one". We return and, again, no manager, no owner. The desk clerk said she couldn't call the owner again on their cell phone because she'd "be fired". We were told to go to the other hotel that the owner has, Econo Lodge, we did not go. We went to our room and found my husbands personal pillow lying on the dirty hallway floor. At appx. 2:30 with no one in authority, in sight, I went and found a room at a competitor's hotel. So we moved again. We had a nice room and they actually had breakfast and pet friendly room. The owner of this hotel is Ms. Patel. Choice hotels, who is the Franchisor was of no help and told me it's not their responsability to provide a sheet or blanket for dogs, even though mine is now filled with glass. We got a "gee whiz" "I'm sorry" letter from Ms. Patel telling us how seriously they take our complaint and offering us a free nights stay. What a crock! I plan on contacting the AG's office and am happy to discuss this. This is not the only problem we encountered here and several other people in the hotel were complaining about their stay!

I stayed at the Econo Lodge in Cornelius NC. I was there under contract from Duke Energy. When I checked in i stated that I was there under Duke Energy. Was suppose to have gotten the Duke rate. After staying there for 2 weeks i checked out and asked did I get the Duke rate the lady at the desk told me no I didn't check in under Duke. Told her I did she then got rude and told me it was my tough luck to bad. I work with a company that travels all over the east coast working at power plants. They will be told
not to stay at a Econo Lodge due to this hotel.

We spent two free nights at this hotel over the Labor Day Weekend (2009). The lodging was free because we had suffered numerous insect bites on our previous stay there. The hotel indicated that room had fleas. We started breaking out with bites shortly after leaving to go home after staying the second night. I might mention that we have experienced this numerous times, but only complained the one time. Now we are livid. We have spent two weeks of misery with the itching. Our research indicates that the room probably had bed bugs. We have complained and were told that an externinator found nothing in the room. I find that information insulting. We have had this happen in numerous rooms at this hotel. The average tourist probably wouldn't realize where they got bit if only stopping en route to somewhere else. I know this is only seen by the hotel as a minor annoyance, but it was misery and is two weeks of my life that I'll never get back. I believe this hotel is infested with bedbugs and/or fleas. I won't be back even though we go to that region regularly.

On Thursday, August 13, I made a reservation on the internet for the Hillsboro, Oregon Econolodge. Not five minutes later I realized that I hadn't put the correct day (1 night) so I cancelled the reservation. I then called the Hillsboro Econolodge and made a reservation for the correct night, after they assured me that the other reservation "wasn't in the system" and I wouldn't be charged twice.

The hotel room was stuffy and stunk like wet carpet and cleaning agents. There was mildew on the shower knob. We went to bed aroun 10:30 and that's when the party next door started. Laughing, giggling, girls coming in and out, doors closing/opening, little "secret" knocks and more giggles, you get the picture. Loud talking, laughing and whatever partiers do was going on. My teenaged daughters and I were subjected to this and did not call the front desk as we were afraid. And quite frankly, I got the feeling that there was a lot more going on at the hotel than meets the eye. We were very afraid.

Trying to sleep, the refrigerator had a really loud buzzing sound, so I turned it off. We turned on the air/fan attempting to drown out the party. A lot of unscrupulous people were about and that includes the desk clerk. No thank you, Hillsboro, Econolodge. NEVER AGAIN.

Then I get home and checked my bank account online to find out that I WAS charged twice for the room. It didn't matter that I cancelled within five minutes. It wouldn't have mattered if I cancelled in 1 minute from the time I made the reservation. You, see, you CAN'T cancel a reservation for Econolodge. They refuse to reimburse you and if they decide to, you still have to pay $25 of it to them. This place is a ripoff, fraud, and very dishonest. Their "policy" states that you CAN'T make mistakes in tiny writing at the bottom of their site. So it brings the question, why did the manager say that my reservation "never went through." These people are a disgrace not only to the hotel industry, but to anyone who has the misfortune of doing "business" with them as their business is consumer fraud.