We were on vacation for my husband's 50th birthday with our four children along the coast of California. One of our stops was at the Comfort Inn Redwood Country - Fortuna. We chose the hotel as it had a swimming pool and hot tub for our children and booked a large suite with a king and 2 queens that offered free cancellation until 16:00 the day before arrival. When we arrived in the late afternoon my husband checked in, his credit card processed, and as he was handed the room key, he was told the pool was not working. There were two men who appeared to be with maintenance and they were overheard making a joke that he’d fix the pool when he got around to it. My husband replied to the front desk clerk that it was really unfortunate as the kids had been waiting all day for the pool. When he returned to the car and relayed the information to the family, the kids were understandably upset. We went back into the lobby to ask to check out as we really needed a place with a pool. They said we could leave but we would be charged the full rate for the room. Even though we hadn’t even stepped into the room, it was past their cancellation deadline. When I asked to speak to the manager the maintenance guy came over! Apparently they are one and the same at this property. He had no compassion and came across smug and righteous as he said there were no refunds because my husband was told at check in about the pool. So “too bad”. His words. I begged him to reconsider and he offered a discount of 50%. That wasn’t good enough for us…they weren’t delivering what we had purchased…a pool! We hadn’t even stepped into the room, their website was still advertising a pool (incredibly as I write this two weeks later, their website still doesn’t reflect the out of service pool), and we were never informed of the pool being out of service before the cancellation deadline. We left with a van full of upset kids and a feeling we’d been robbed. We contacted Choice Hotels that night to ask for them to reverse the hold on the credit card. After hearing our story they said they would and it would take place within 30 days. They also offered us a Disney World stay at one of their resorts (one of those things you have to go and listen to their time share presentation) so my husband purchased it for $299 that night. We thought everything was fine, and felt good about the hotel chain we were loyal to and my husband used for work. But a week later, the charge finalized on the credit card. When my husband called Choice back to let them know it was no longer a hold but an actual charge, they informed us they had decided to side with the manager and not refund our $190. Needless to say my husband cancelled the Disney World thing right away and we will be switching hotel brands going forward. This whole thing was incredibly poor customer service. It makes me sick to think they are stealing from families who work hard to give their families a nice vacation. Be careful if you book here. Yo
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