Arrived to a nasty room with no air conditoning and unconcerned staff. Had to leave and get another hotel

Had a room there in JAN08. Was toasty warm and clean. Bathroom was well stocked.

Made reservations two weeks in advance. Told check in was at 3pm. Arrived at hotel at 3:45pm to a very unorganized staff in a filthy hotel. I was told that they were extremely busy the night before and they were short staffed on housekeeping so our room would not be ready for another half an hour. (First mistake, your staffing issues are not my problem. No Excuses)

Loaded luggage back in the car and went to find something to do. Arrived back at the hotel at 5:00pm... room was still not ready but we were checked in and given keys to our "Deluxe King" room. Decided to walk the strip for awhile since I room was still not ready. (again more excuses offered by front desk)

Came back at 7:30pm and was told our room was clean and ready. Unloaded luggage and went to our room on the top floor. Walked into the room to find beer cans and beer bottles, trash, dirty towels, food containers and paper all over the floor. Also requested smoking room and it was not. Went back downstairs to a front desk staff that told me the room was "showing to be clean". At this point apologies were offered again along with excuse after excuse. We were given keys to another room on the same floor and was told it was a smoking room that should be cleaned. Moved all luggage to the new room. Finally a clean room but it was not stocked with towels or any other linen items other than the bed sheets. No iron or remote and again this was a non smoking room. Called the front desk and spoke with a young girl who told me they would bring towels and an ashtray. I told her I did not want to smoke in a non-smoking room because that was not fair to other future guests and I did not want to chance them charging me for smoking in this room. (I guess this is a common practice to allow smoking in any room, keep that in mind if you decide to stay here)

The hotel was an old hotel with a lot of potential but I could not get past the lack of upkeep and cleanliness. The entire hotel smelled of wet mildew carpet and the rooms and decor were so outdated and just down right dirty.

We left the room because it was so depressing. We went to the front desk to talk with someone about the conditions of our stay so far and were met with a man who offered what seemed to be a sincere apology for all the problems and assured us that he would go up to our room personally and check to make sure it was stocked and clean to his standards. (Finally someone taking some ownership and responsibility.)

We asked him if he had a recommendation for dinner since we were in no mood to go restaurant hunting. He recommended Angels an the Park, another hotel within walking distance. The food was outstanding and the atmosphere of the restaurant was perfect for a relaxing dinner after a struggling afternoon. Great choice!! Finally the night was going much better and it seemed that we would salvage this "relaxing weekend getaway"

Upon returning to the Velda Rose and arriving at our room, the door card would not work. Here we go again! Went back downstairs and was ignored for a few minutes until I flagged down a gentleman who appeared to be a owner/manager type. (You wouldn't know it since nobody wears a uniform or name tag, in fact one guy behind the counter was wearing a basketball jersey?professional huh?)

Was told by this manager type person, who wouldn't offer his name/title, that my credit card was declined and I needed to give some other form of payment before they would activate my key. At this point I am very embarrassed and angry. I used another card and went to my room. I called my credit card company immediately to get to the bottom of this problem. I was told by my credit card company that along with the initial pre-authorization that was placed on my card two weeks prior, that the hotel tried to charge my card 5 additional times in a two hour period on that very evening I checked into the hotel, so as a security action they froze my card. Thank God they did or who knows how many times they would have charged my card. When I found this information I went back to the front desk and was trying to inform another young lady of the situation, She told me that they were having computer problems and did not know if they had already run my card or not so they ran it again. Then another person tried to run it again and so on and so forth.

The moral of this story....

Overall experience was a joke. Hotel was terribly filthy and smelled terrible. The staff is very unprofessional with the exception of the one gentleman. The rest of the staff could learn something from this gentleman.

I understand an older hotel will have more problems and flaws but there is no excuse for filth and dirt everywhere you look.

I would never recommend this hotel to anyone.