On December 29, 2006 my boyfriend and I checked into the Legacy Inn and from the time of our arrival until our departure, 10 weeks later, it was an experience that I will not soon forget.
I paid $226.00 per week and upon check in, the room was anything but clean. The room had not been vacuumed thoroughly, there was Christmas wrapping paper and security ties under the bed and under the bathroom sink in the cabinet. The box spring mattress on one of the beds was broken. The mini refrigerator and the microwave had not been cleaned. The bathroom had a kitty litter type material left on the floor. The television did not work properly. The hanging lamp shades were broken and they easily fell from the fixture they were supposed to be attached to and two of the lights in the room did not work at all. There was also a half gallon milk container left under the kitchenette sink with mold growing in it. The door to the room was not secure and could be easily accessed without a key. I asked the management for a key to the dead bolt on the door for added security and I was told that the only people who had a key to the dead bolt was the manager and they do not give them out to anyone.
That day I called and complained about the condition of the room and the maintenance man came down and replaced the television and hammered in the existing nails already in the door frame and when the housekeeper came to clean the room, she was very rude and nasty about having to come back and clean the room. I called the front office and complained about the housekeeper’s attitude regarding her job. The office sent the housekeeper back and her attitude was better, but the job she did was not. She informed us that the room was "trashed" by the occupants prior to our check-in. When I asked the housekeeper to please mop the bathroom and kitchenette area her response to me was "We don't have mops."
Our housekeeping days fell on Tuesdays and Fridays and when we asked the housekeepers to vacuum under the beds to remove the trash left under the beds by the previous occupants we were told "They don't pay me enough to do all of that." They would vacuum the carpet and when they were done it didn't look like the floor had been vacuumed. I asked the housekeeper if there was something wrong with the vacuum and her response was "They aren't the best but it's what we have to work with." On several occasions we asked for toilet paper and we were told time and time again they did not have any. I ended up having to purchase toilet paper from the convenience store.
Because of the poor housekeeping service we told the front office we did not request housekeeping any longer but we would still like to have two rolls of toilet paper left at the front desk on each of the housekeeping days and we would pick it up from the front desk. Very seldom would toilet paper be available and the front desk clerk would give me the key to another room for me to get some toilet paper.
When we checked in we paid a $5 phone deposit in order to make phone calls from the room and on one, the first of three separate occasions, our phone was shut off and we were not notified about it until after we called to find out if there was some type of trouble with the phone system and then we were told that our phone deposit had been used up and we needed to pay $5 more dollars to have our phone cut back on. I walked up to the front desk and asked for a print out of the phone calls we were being charged for and my boyfriend had made a few phone calls to his brothers' cell phone that had a charge but, there was a phone call on our phone log to a (910) area code, I disputed that call. The clerk placed a copy of the phone log in a file for the manager to review and our phone was cut back on. A few weeks later the same thing happened, so I went to the front desk again and the manager pulled another call log report and there was another phone call that had been made from the room next door to us and the charges were on our call log. After the manager found the mistake our phone was cut back on. He apologized and stated "It was an honest mistake."
The last week we were there I paid $200 of the $226 owed and I explained to the front desk clerk I would pay the remaining $26 the following day. (When the room rent was due) The next day our phone was shut off again. When I questioned why our phone service had been interrupted it was explained that the $5 phone deposit I paid had been put towards the balance of the $26 I owed and they shut my phone off. When I asked to speak to the manager I was told he would not be available until the next day, then I requested a name and contact number for the owner of the hotel and the only response I received was the manager’s name and no contact number was offered.
The next day I spoke with the manager of the hotel again and I explained to him that I did not feel safe in the hotel not having access to a telephone because of the criminal element that is associated with this hotel. We ordered Chinese food and the delivery driver would not deliver to our room because of the location, at the back, and I had to walk to the front desk to pick up my food. I contacted the Chinese restaurant and asked why they did not deliver to the back of the hotel and the manager told me "It's too dangerous." The people next door to us were always having a lot of in and out traffic at all hours of the night and on the same day our phone was shut off for owing a balance on the room a man who frequented that room was arrested on the property.
After talking with the manager and expressing my concerns related to our stay at the hotel the manager told me he would consider turning our phone back on, so we left until the next day. When we returned the message light on the phone was on. I called the front office and the front desk clerk stated that there was a letter for me. I walked down and picked up the letter and the manager had stated that because I did not feel safe on the premises he expected me to check out as of that Friday and turn in our key and pay the balance owed.