I am a former Housekeeping and Maintenance Manager at a Three Star Hotel on a prominent nationally known University campus as well as a past member of IEHA and feel I am more than qualified to comment on the upkeep or what I can say is the total lack of upkeep at the Romulus, Michigan Ramada Inn. Are these rooms or the hotel in general ever inspected by a trained supervisor or manager? There is no way this hotel should have the 2-2.5 star rating that Hotwire was allowed to advertise. Based on the rooms I stayed in and the parts of the hotel I utilized I would have to question the sanitation quality on every level in this facility.
I was in Romulus with my son for the Youth Bowling National Tournament in nearby Taylor, Michigan. I had hoped this would be a relaxing and enjoyable father-son “early” weekend. It was, until we checked into the hotel. Had I the time and not had other friends (they were not happy either) at this facility I would have left for another hotel and fought Ramada Inn and/or Hotwire later for a refund. The old adage you get what you pay for is not true in this case, the Hotwire rate was $49.00 per night, I way overpaid.
I have stayed at Ramada’s in the past and have been satisfied with the quality of the rooms and service. However, after this stay I find it highly unlikely that I will stay or even consider staying at another Ramada Inn and certainly not at the Romulus, Michigan location. I probably should not judge the entire chain by this one disaster, but I have to wonder what franchise or corporate oversight is in place to have a facility in this state of disrepair and still have the good name of Ramada on it.
There is so much that I cannot even begin to use the Customer Survey Card so I have broken it down:
Room 114 (Our initial room)
We also had a friend of my son along with us and he had room 116 which he said was “ok”. He is too polite to complain and I did not feel it appropriate to go inspect his room for him. He is eighteen and can make his own observations, though he did mention he had trouble finding a good outlet to plug his laptop into.
? The blue carpet was FILTHY and stained literally brown and black throughout the room to the point I went out to buy flip flops so I did not have to touch it. Disgusting does not begin to describe this carpet. I do not know how anyone in good conscience could rent this room out unless all they cared about was revenue.
? Doors and door jambs were filthy and covered with hand prints.
? Lamp shade over desk was burned and torn; all were crooked and very yellowed.
? The desk was sticky, probably from the humidity from the defective AC.
? Room smelled musty again makes me wonder how long the AC has not been working correctly and more importantly if this carpet has ever been cleaned.
? I could not get a WIFI connection for my laptop and there were no instructions and the front desk just said “default” should work.
? Refrigerator was beat up and did not look overly clean.
? Air conditioning did not work (The final straw that I asked for another room).
Room 324 (Where we were moved to from 114)
? The blue carpet again was dirty and stained though not nearly as bad as 114. It was especially bad around the sink area including what appeared to be a bleach spot, the room entrance area and in front of the bed was dirty and badly stained including obvious spill marks. There were also burn marks between the bed and desk (This was as supposedly a No Smoking Room???).
? The cover on the AC was being held in place with Black Duct Tape.
? There was no blanket on the sofa bed. To be honest I was surprised it even had a clean sheet on it.
? Could not get all cable channels. My friends noted that they could not get any ESPN channels while I could not get news channels or TBS.
? The mattresses on the bed and sofa bed were both stained.
? No do not disturb door hanger. My son made one to stick on the door.
? The soda machine on the 3rd floor did not work. My son just told me this as he did not realize that he could have told the front desk even at 11pm, when it ripped him off for a total of $3.10, that it was broken.
? The lights by the bed and sofa were unplugged when we arrived. This tells me that the Housekeepers either do not care or have not been trained on how to clean and check a room. It also tells me that there is no supervision doing follow up checks on the quality of these rooms.
? All lamp shades were crooked, dusty and yellowed.
? There was mildew around the tub drain, soap dish and in the caulking around the tub.
? The desk was dirty and sticky.
? The sofa was generally dirty and the arms worn. The sofa seat cushions were torn and dirty.
? The bathroom light did not work. The front desk put in a work order immediately on Thursday morning when I reported it and by late afternoon on Thursday it was fixed and turned on when we came back to the room. However, after we turned it off to make it turn on again I had to reach up and tap the fixture, after which we just left it on all night.
? Again no WIFI, I was told try “default” if the RamadaInn network did not work. I could never find a network with more than a “POOR” signal strength. I never got caught up on the work I needed to do and had to wait until I returned home on Friday. Now I know why so many people were sweating in the lobby with their laptops. I had a friend also on the 3rd floor that could get the WIFI signal, which tells me the network is either not being maintained, old technology is in use or is failing, or more than likely after seeing this facility it was not set up right in the first place. I am currently a Microsoft Certified technician providing high end financial software and networking support which again I believe makes me qualified to comment in this area.
Lobby/Breakfast Area/Halls
? Very HOT both mornings, I have never sweat when eating breakfast before.
? The trash cans were overflowing in the breakfast area especially on Friday morning.
? One person is not enough to maintain this area; the woman assigned was friendly but overwhelmed. Tables were dirty, food (eggs, sausage, bacon, waffle batter, etc) were not stocked in a timely manner (15 minutes they sat empty while I assume she went to a kitchen to cook them), especially on Friday morning.
? Elevator was dirty, broken and missing tile on the floor in which my suit case wheel caught.
? The Exit door going out towards the pool was propped open with a trash can on multiple occasions.
? Hallways also had dirty walls and carpets.
Exterior
? The flower bed by the front entrance was so over watered on Thursday that the walk in front flooded and had to be cleared into the parking lot by an un-uniformed staff member.
? A garden hose/reel was left and leaking in the middle of the sidewalk around room 122. I had another guest with me that was in Room 116 so I had to navigate into the flower bed to get around it.
? The Lobby entrance was not marked clearly so the guest has to take a wild guess where the lobby is just to check in.
The only bright spot, besides leaving, was Karen on the night shift when we checked in. She was polite, friendly and was very responsive to getting us another room when the AC failed. I did not bring all the rest of this up on check out as there was a line of others trying to leave, I also had an appointment to make and I did not feel that I should put Laurie, the front Desk Clerk at the time, in such an awkward position.
All in all this was the worst stay I have ever had in a Hotel. I will not recommend this location and would be hard pressed to recommend any Ramada if asked. I would be embarrassed to have my name connected with this facility or worse yet have my corporate name associated with it. If ever there was a facility that needed a total floor to ceiling remodeling and reorganizing, this is it.