The letter below is the one I sent to the Desert Inn
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is John E Conley and I recently attended Bike Week 2008 and stayed at The Desert Inn at Daytona Beach with 4 of my friends. The trip from February 29 to Saturday March 8, 2008 was booked by my friend Jack Shayer. We arrived at the hotel Friday, February 29, 2008 at approximately 11:30 pm. Once entering the lobby which is very nice we were given room 437. The room was anything but nice and clean. The condition of the room was deplorable, the room had two fold out couches that when opened revealed mattresses that were not fit for an animal to sleep on they were very seriously stained. The general condition of the room was unacceptable, the biggest problem it was not clean and the ceiling tiles were falling out etc. We decided to sleep on the floor which seemed to be the better choice than the couches. The next morning Jim Peterson one of the guys in our party went to the desk and informed the person about the conditions of the room. He left his phone number after being told if there was anything they could do they would call him. To make a long story short after a while we were assigned room 232.Going to the room I noticed the conditions of the hallways, dirt, broken tiles, and cigarette butts etc. The general condition of the room was just so so. There was mold in the bathroom and dust on the ceiling also there was a old half eaten egg and muffin under a chair that we had to move. We decided it was better than room 437. We then moved our belongings to this room. After resting for a little while we decided to take showers it was then we discovered there was very little water pressure. This water pressure problem was consistent through the rest of our stay. This was not what we expected for the price we were paying for a room ($2350.00). We then went to get our motorcycles and on my way going to the parking garage I then saw conditions that were very dangerous if not a serious health problem. The area in this walk way was very wet with water leaking out of the ceiling, a fan in the ping pong area was tied to the sprinkler system and there was a very serious mold problem everywhere, and wet electrical outlets plus many other serious problems, exit signs not lit or just broken etc (I took pictures of all this and will be sending them to the proper Health Department and Fire and Safety Officials and Building Inspector).
In general the girl cleaning our room though very nice but did the very minimum no vacuuming, no cleaning she did not change the bed linens or cart linens no cleaning the bathroom just supplying new towels and fixing the beds and carts. I could go on and on but I won't. I will however give you my party's opinion of the staff and the hotel itself. The staff seems nice but there is a serious lack of supervision and leadership. (As all of us in the party said it seems there is no one in charge!!) The place is filthy and run down and the City or State should do a surprise Fire, Safety and Health inspection of the Hotel. I am sure they would find many serious violations. We as a group would never recommend the place to anyone. We will tell every one we talk to about our bad experience. I must say in my 51 years of traveling this is the worst place I have ever stayed in.
Ps Your room card says Daytona's# 1 Oceanfront Resort Hotel, Lie!!!
John E Conley