Econo Lodge Lake of the Ozarks Motel - Page 1

My wife and I stayed at this facility when we were in Osage Beach. This motel is the ONLY place I used my debit card the entire time we were in the area. I used it to pay the bill when we checked out....within a week I noticed a $150.00 debit pending in my account. There was an 800 number referenced and I called it.....it turned out to be Western Union and they stated that I had used my card to authorize a withdrawl from my account to be sent to OSAGE BEACH!! I wonder where the crook got my account number. I am so glad I check my account regularly. You'd better too if you use a card to pay at EconoLodge

Needed a pet friendly hotel to stay at as we attended a wedding at Lake of the Ozarks. We decided to stay at this hotel and were very disappointed in the lack of accommodations and service. First of all, the hotel management informed us that their hotel had “several places” for our dog to use the bathroom. However, we found this to be far from the truth. Your choice for this came in one of two places. One, a small spot of about 10 square yards that did not have grass and, on top of this, was covered in commercial grade rock and gravel. The next area did have grass, but was located just off the main highway in front of the building. In addition, it was a hill that was at least a 45 degree angle! Not an ideal place to walk a dog. We had to load our dog in the car and travel to another area. As if this was not enough, during one afternoon of our stay, water began to leak from the ceiling and walls from the room above us. We were fortunate to be in the room at the time in order to move our belongings otherwise, we would have suffered major damage to them. We called the front desk and were told that an attendant would first go to the room above us and then to our room to help with any clean up. After more than an hour, NOT ONE PERSON CALLED OR CAME TO OUR ROOM. After this, we decided to leave and find another hotel. As we were at the front desk paying for our one of two nights, I explained our issues. This was met with complete sarcasm, rudeness and a complete lack of empathy on the part of the hotel mgr, Ron. I mentioned the fact that there is not an area to walk a dog as I pointed at the dangerous, highway-side hill. He sarcastically remarked that “this is the Ozarks ya know”. Then, as far as the water issue, no apologies given or reasoning as to why no one came to our room or even called. He explained that they went to the source of the issue and that’s all that was needed. Even when I explained that WE were left to deal with clean up and that we were told that someone be at our room asap, he actually griped at us that we had our ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door! This was ridiculous considering WE CALLED ABOUT THE ISSUE! He continued to act rude as we checked out and I basically had to raise Cain just to get some sort of compensation for our troubles. Of course, this came not as a discount from the hotel, but a charge of $20 TO THE PEOPLE IN THE ROOM ABOVE US. Ron took absolutely no responsibility in the fact that the place was not “pet friendly” as advertised and that fact they should have come to our room to help with the water issue regardless of how the issue began.

Stay far away from this place and stay instead at the Dogwood Inn that has much better accommodations and service and is just a few blocks away. Just learned that there are several other reviews citing how lousy this place is as well as complaints w/ the Better Business Bureau.

On 09/09/07, I made a reservation at this hotel for the night of 09/29/07. I was told at that time that the room reservation was non-cancellable, a fact that I understood to mean that I would be charged for the room if I canceled the reservation between that time and the actual date of arrival. This is something I do NOT have a problem with. In review of that checking account statement this morning, I discovered that the hotel personnel took it upon themselves to post the charge on the day the reservation was made and that it was withdrawn from my account effective 09/10/07. NO ONE told me that my account would be charged prior to my arrival on the 29th, therefore I had no idea that these funds had been removed from that account. As a direct result of this, I had no idea of the actual balance in that account and with several other charges arriving shortly thereafter, the account was overdrawn and the bank charged me $70.00 for two overdraft fees. I FINALLY was able to speak with the hotel manager, Don Newhart, this afternoon and he was EXTREMELY unhelpful and unapologetic. I have reserved many many hotel rooms at locations throughout the country and I have NEVER been charged prior to my arrival date. While I understand that the hotel wants to make sure that they make the money for the room, I do think that the employee who took my reservation should have informed me on the 9th that they were going to charge my account immediately. I could have then made the decision to go forward or decline based on this information. Mr. Newhart seems to believe that I was to infer from the statement that the reservation was non-cancellable, that they would be immediately charging my account. I am not and never have been in the hospitality industry and have no idea how I was supposed to make that assumption. Mr. Newhart actually implied that the overdraft charges were my own fault for not keeping sufficient funds in my account. I keep sufficient funds in that account to cover expenses I am anticipating. Anything else is no one's business but my own.

I stay at Choice Hotels with some regularity and have in the past written complimentary letters and emails when I felt that service I received warranted it.

A very unethical manager. This franchise gives Econolodge a black eye. I made reservations there for three nights in January, and called back 10 days before the reservation to change to two days. The manager changed the charge so that two nights cost more than three. I tried to cancel, and the manager said there was a policy of no cancellations within 2 weeks of the reservation. He claimed an email was sent with that policy at time of reservation. None was received. Called the corporate offices in Maryland, they were sympathetic but could not force a cancellation. I stayed there unwillingly, the manager asked at check out if I had stolen his iron.

The laundry facilities were not large enough for the number of rooms. The elevator stalled several times during our visit. The staff however, was very friendly, and made the visit a pleasant one.