This hotel should be shut down and not allowed to serve the public in any way. On July 24, 2024, my mother and I arrived at the hotel to check into a 2 bed ADA room for 2 nights - a reservation for which we had a confirmation (email) and also confirmed by calling the hotel days before we arrived. When we arrived, they had no room, they said it was given away (on a day BEFORE the day I had confirmed the reservation by phone, which is the typical ADA violation bait and switch in the hotel industry).
The clerk checking us in, Ayden, was rude and dismissive, denying any knowledge of the Americans with Disabilities Act or his responsibilities. This hotel has so many ADA violations, they would never survive a review by the DOJ. The first violation costs a hotel $75,000. Every subsequent violation costs the hotel, $150,000. After it became clear that Ayden was not going to do what needed to be done, he showed my mom a non ADA room with two beds (one we could not stay in because I use a wheelchair) and then said we could take the ADA room with ONE bed or he could cancel our reservation. As we had nowhere else to go or stay, we had to stay in the room with one bed (their version of an ADA room that did not wholly accommodate the use of my wheelchair throughout the room).
I am so tired of ADA violations in hotels and their total and complete lack of caring attitude at violating federal law (that is 34 years old).
On July 25, 20224 the day after my 75 year old mother and I (again, disabled, in a wheelchair) had been forced to check into the Holiday Inn Express in an ADA room that only had one bed, we attempted to speak to the manager in the morning (she was expecting us to speak to her as Ayden had said she would be in the next morning at 8AM). Despite our attempt to talk to her, she would not come out of her office and we waited a significant amount of time and were told we were going to have to wait even longer (an indeterminate amount of time), but we had to leave and she never spoke to us.
When we returned to the hotel and went up to our room later that day we discovered we were locked out of our room. Ayden, who had checked us in and denied that the hotel was required to follow the ADA and lied to us about the rooms available and also about his manager speaking to us (she never came, she never spoke to us) was working at the desk when we returned to the hotel. He said nothing to us and let us go up to our room (on the 4th floor) and discover we had been locked out.
The keys would not open the door. My mother went downstairs to see what was happening and I got on the phone with guest relations (since I had contacted them the day before regarding the incident and opened a case, #10548146663). She returned with a luggage cart and a new key card and told me we were being asked to leave. When I asked why, she said “because we were rude to the staff and the manager and other customers” NONE OF WHICH IS TRUE, ESPECIALLY THE MANAGER WHO NEVER SPOKE TO US, NOT ON THE PHONE OR FACE TO FACE! The key card did not work. So my mother went downstairs and got a new key card. The key card did not work. So my mother went downstairs again and got yet another key card. That key card did not work. So then a female employee came up to us and said she could get us into the room and she used a physical metal key to unlock the door and let us into the room.
While all of this is happening I kept calling guest relations. I spoke to numerous guest relations representatives and all of them said they were sorry we were having the experience. One guy said he would call the GM and rectify the situation and call me back immediately. He never called back.
I spoke to Remi (who had opened the case originally) and she told me the only thing they could do was encourage me to work with the hotel. I stated I could not do that, they were telling us we had to leave in 15 minutes or they would have us forcibly removed.
Ayden called our room phone and was yelling at and threatening my mother (she answered the phone and she attempted to reason with him). He kept saying “my manager says you need to leave and if you don’t leave we will have you forcibly removed” and “I’m going to call my manager” and my mother said, "please do, have her come and speak with us.” The manager (named Katt Stevens), would not return to the hotel. But she told Ayden she wanted us out. SO HE CALLED THE POLICE TO HAVE US FORCIBLY REMOVED FROM THE HOTEL.
When the police arrived, they told us they were there to remove us from the hotel and we objected and told our side of the story (which, initially, the officer was not interested in hearing, but my mother said he needed to hear it). She also stated that we had nowhere else to go (true), I can’t drive (true), she can’t drive at night (true), SO WHERE WERE WE SUPPOSED TO GO?
The cop then went downstairs to speak to Ayden again (and apparently Katt Stevens, via phone). When he came back to our room he had Katt on the phone and put her on speaker phone and told us we could stay the night as long as we checked out by 9AM (my mother’s idea, not hers, when regular checkout is 11AM), and as long as we weren’t loud or rude to any staff or customers.
We were instructed to remain in our room and not interact with anyone, to which my mother stated she needed to leave the hotel to get food for us to eat. The cop stated he was not telling us we could not leave the room and that my mother, obviously, could go and buy food and return to the hotel room.
We woke up early on July 26, 2024, and packed our things, tidied the room and checked out. I took 20 photos of the room before we left so that we could prove, if need be, that we left the room tidy. My mom even left a tip for housekeeping.
When we left the hotel, Ayden was working at the front desk and when he saw us he put his head down and would not look at either of us. After my mother got everything in the car and then I left the building (in my wheelchair) and got into the car, my mom said to Ayden (who, again, would not look at her) that we were checking out and that the keys were in the room, ALL of them (referring to all of the keys he had given her the day before that did not work).
This hotel is disgusting. Their attitude, from management down, is that they do not care about violating federal law, threatening disabled and elderly guests, lying about accommodations they do not have, lying about behavior they accused us of that never happened, or handling customer service and human interactions in any kind of acceptable manner.
I have had so many bad experiences with hotels and all of the ADA violations that exist in each and every hotel in this country, but I have NEVER experienced anything like this. I know that the only reason the outcome was not violent or worse is that the police who came to the hotel were reasonable and were able to diffuse the situation.
This hotel should be shut down and not allowed to serve the public in any way.