Washington Inn

I had read a couple of bad reviews about the management of this hotel online - specifically about the General Manager - and chose to give it the benefit of the doubt. I called them to ask a question about the hotel, and made the mistake to assume that I might as well make a reservation over the phone. I specifically asked for the reservation for Thursday evening, November 29th, as I would be flying out of Oakland airport the next morning. They were not able to send me an e-mail confirmation, since they are not set up for that (which should have raised a red flag for me). I ended up having to change my flight to flying out of San Jose last minute and happened to call them on Thursday afternoon to see if if was possible to cancel my reservation, which they informed me I would not be able to do due to their cancellation policy, which was fair enough. However, when the General Manager went to look up my reservation, he informed me that I did not have a reservation for that night, but for the previous day instead. I politely let him know that this had been a mistake on their part. The GM was completely inflexible, claiming that I had made the reservation for the wrong date and that there was nothing he could do about it. He even went as far as implying that I was trying to take the advantage of the situation, since I had called initially trying to cancel my reservation. To add insult upon injury, I did not have a hotel reservation for that night, which, if I hadn't called I would have found out at 11PM that night when I arrived at the hotel and would have to scramble to find a room. When I mentioned that, he only responded that I basing my argument on speculation and it was therefore invalid. I don't believe that it is much extrapolation to realize that I could have been without a hotel room that night. I continued to try to reason with him - never once using any bad language and always trying to make him understand my situation, but he simply would not hear it. So, in addition to having to change my plans last minutes due to an emergency business situation, I was left to scramble for a hotel room for that same night as well as being charged for a night that I couldn't possibly have stayed at that hotel - and no recourses. I let the GM know that I would be calling the Better Business Bureau ( and it was not an empty threat) to which he simply responded "I'm sorry you feel that way." I was really looking forward to staying there and was willing to work with them - perhaps have a stay at a later date instead of a refund or something of the sort. This has been an extremely frustrating and disappointing experience and I will not support this kind of business.