This must be the worst hotel on the planet! We checked in at 9 p.m. on a Monday night, and were given one of the last rooms in the hotel. When we entered our room, the first thing we were struck with was the awful, nose-burning stench of moldy carpeting. Over by the window, the management had left a large maintenance fan blowing downwards on a huge wet spot on the carpet. Obviously, that's where the obnoxious smell was coming from.
While my husband went downstairs to the front desk to ask for a different room, I opened the window (which was screened) and tried to air the room out. Bad mistake. I didn't know that the screen on the window was ill-fitting, and while I went downstairs to see if my husband was having any luck getting a different room, dozens of tiny bugs entered our room through the gaps between the window and the screen.
The desk clerk said that the only other room available was a "smoking" room, so we had to choose between a stinky smoky room or a stinky moldy room. Being assured that we'd be moved to a different room in the morning ("...to one of our GOOD rooms." the clerk said.), we chose to stay in the moldy-carpeting room. (Did I mention that I have bad asthma, am on daily medication, and am sensitive to many airborne irritants, such as mold or smoke? And yes, we made sure that the front desk knew about my condition, not that they cared.)
We went back upstairs to our moldy room, and that's when we saw, to our great dismay, that we'd been invaded by many, many tiny crawling bugs. So, we spent the next hour (after having driven 14 hours and being exhausted) climbing on furniture and swatting these bugs on the ceiling & walls. Yuk! (We found out later that the hotel staff, upon being told of our bug-swatting ordeal, had a huge laugh amongst themselves at our expense, and one of them even joked to me later, at the end of our stay, "But if you leave, who's going to swat our bugs for us? Har har har!")
Also, the maid had left a dried, crusty washrag from a previous guest hanging on the shower rod in our bathroom. Ugh!
The next morning, we went downstairs to speak with the manager. He refused to come out, but communicated only through the desk clerk. The desk clerk apologized and said that, "You should never have been given that room, what with the wet carpeting and all. That window leaks with every rain." She also said that as soon as the current guests left, we'd be given a "GOOD room." Since we were planning to stay 8 more nights, we were glad to hear this. Not that we had any choice, since there are very few hotels in Bastrop, TX.
My husband made it very clear to the desk clerk, who supposedly communicated it to the invisible manager, that we did not expect to have to pay for our first night in that awful room. She said that she understood.
Well, guess what? When we checked out at the end of our stay, we WERE charged for our first night in the "moldy" room. We pointed out in their brochure that Holiday Inn has a "Hospitality Promise" which states that "...if any part of your stay is not a complete success, you will not pay for that part of your stay."
The manager, who continued to hide out in a back room and communicate only through the desk clerk, said that he would only give us a $30 credit on the $116 room charge.
So, apparently, the "Holiday Inn Hospitality Promise" means nothing to this man, if you're interested. Enough said on that count.
We are going to file a complaint with the corporate headquarters of Holiday Inn (Intercontinental Hotels Group), and hope to get them to honor their "Hospitality Promise", and perhaps yank this owner's franchise to avoid a lawsuit.
In closing, we urge all of you who care about your health, sanity, dignity and peace-of-mind, avoid this hotel.