I stayed in room 125 for one night, checking in about 9 PM Friday evening, May 12th, 2006. There was only scalding hot water in the shower, the water in both the sink and the shower comes out a light blue color and stains the sink bowl, the tub and the towels a light blue; no toilet seat lid cover; the toilet bowl/seat tilts your body to the left which was very uncomfortable; there was a fan exhaust vent in the bathroom with an on/off wall switch but no fan motor in it. I opened up the vent cover to look inside - nothing but rust; there was a wall mount for a hair dryer but no hair dryer; the TV remote control was all taped up with duct tape to keep the batteries from falling out, no "courtesy" folding stand to place a suit case on; light bulb missing from the lamp stand; no room clock/radio.
The manager deliberately made himself unavailable to discuss the room situation that night and made himself deliberately unavailable again when we checked out the next morning. I had left him a message around 9 am that I wished to meet with him after our check out at 11 am. Only another desk "auditor" was available, who showed absolutely no interest or concern. As a matter of fact, the morning desk "auditor" had an impolite demeanor and vocal tone with me (although she did pick her words very carefully) in spite of my own calm and courteous interaction with her. (I believe she is accustomed to hearing a lot of customer dissatisfaction and this is her way of dealing with it). When I politely asked her if she would "please" contact the manager she did make a phone call, spoke to someone in authority on the other end of the phone then hung up and told me (in her coldest vocal tone) that the manager was "out and could not be reached".
I don't know how they could possibly handle emergency situations that require management authority. Her only response to our problem was that we could "have moved to another room". Yes, that's right! They just can't seem to understand why, after a 10 hour drive and then taking about two hours to get settled into the room (unpack car, put food in fridge, unpack bags, hang up clothes, make miscellaneous adjustments to the comfort of the room for proper temperature, block outside light from ill fitting curtains, my fiancée had already taken her make-up off, we were already in our nightclothes and ready for bed just prior to finding out that the shower water was nothing but scalding hot) we were in no mood to be further inconvenienced by spending another hour or two getting dressed, moving all our stuff and get settled into another room! It is very irresponsible for management to purposely ignore this little fact about their traveling customers and simply dismiss their own problems with "you could have moved to another room"! I received an on-line survey asking me how I "enjoyed my stay at the Day's Inn in Fayetteville, North Carolina?" to which I responded with the above information and requested that someone in a "corporate" authority contact me. I did not get a response from a "corporate authority". I received instead an email from an assistant manager at the Fayetteville Days Inn who said "we're sorry" and that they would give me a 50% discount on our next visit to the same hotel in Fayetteville! Come to think of it, that would be more than the "policy" $20 late check out fee (huh?). Isn't life strange? But they also know that they aren't going to lose any money by offering me a discount for my next visit because experience has taught them that there won't be a next visit. Pretty crafty! The ideal opportunity to make me happy was while I was still staying in their hotel. Not after I left. Will they never learn? I have stayed at many a Days Inn (about 30). The lobby looked fantastic (deceptive "hook") but the room was absolutely dismal and pathetic in comparison to the lobby. I will say something very positive about the night "auditor" who was exceptionally nice when we talked to her on the phone about the facility. She said glowing things about the Days Inn that she works at! We even met her in person when we checked in. Actually, she was the real reason we chose to stay there because she represented herself and the hotel very nicely over the phone. She was also sincerely sympathetic and apologetic when we called her later that evening about the hot water problem (we said nothing about any other problems with the room and were going to leave it at that). She discounted our bill a few dollars (without our expecting or suggesting it). However, the one thing we really did care about (my one and only request in spite of all the other problems) was that we have a little later checkout. That would have made us very happy and we would never have written this letter and posted it on the internet (this and the fact that the owner/manager never did, has not, will not or ever will, return our calls). She told us that the night manager (who I found out later is actually a "franchisee owner") would have to authorize it and she said that she would leave a note for him to call us as soon as he came on duty at 11 pm. So, I called him at 11:10 pm (because I wanted to go to sleep and not stay up any longer waiting for his call) and instead I got a different "desk auditor" who put me on hold (as if he was going to get the manager) and then came back on the phone to tell me that the night manager was "busy" and unavailable. The desk auditor further explained to me that it is "policy" that an additional $20 fee be charged if we wanted to check out after 11am (I've never stayed in a hotel in my life where they didn't offer a late check out upon request). Talk about missing the perfect opportunity to satisfy a customer in the face of so many issues. If the manager had just extended the courtesy of speaking to me and had given us the courtesy of a later check out (even an hour) for our being so inconvenienced by the scalding hot water which prevented us from showering before going to bed, that would have more than satisfied us. The very least he could have done was given us his sincerest thanks for preventing a future disaster and lawsuit. The most important and very best indicator that this particular Day's Inn "owner/manager" has no regard for the customer or its services is the fact that I have left "several" messages for the "franchisee owner", who has repeatedly refused to return my calls. Every time the "desk auditor" answers the phone, I am given the indication that he is close by in his office, but after a pause, the desk auditor always comes back on the line to tell me that he is "not here" and "do I want his voice mail?" So, I leave another message on his voice mail to which he continues to ignore (I have wondered if he might actually be answering the phone and pretending to be the desk auditor?). Well, he now has one more thing to ignore. A job for which I am sure he is very well qualified. The interesting thing is that all I wanted to ask him was why the hotel tap water comes out blue and stains everything that it touches? But it appears that he would rather evade a customer than to show an interest in them or their concerns. Why then do companies spend all that money trying to get our "opinion" so that they can provide us with "better customer service" just to turn around and ignore us? I think after reading this, you travelers know what you can expect when you get to this hotel. Oh, be sure to wear your slippers when walking on the carpet in your room, otherwise the bottom of your feet may mysteriously start to burn (mine sure did). What's that all about? Maybe it's the blue water! I'll be posting this on the internet and forwarding this to other resources within the Day's Inn Corporate structure (if it exists) until I can get a satisfactory response from somebody. Stay tuned and Happy Traveling!