The Baymont Inn in Salt Lake City quoted Ryan a price of $739 for his stay, but when he arrived, the hotel manager claimed the rate was $1,400. The manager refused to lower the price, even after a desk clerk verified that Ryan had been offered the $739 rate. The manager finally relented after telling Ryan that the hotel would recoup the loss by taking the difference out of the clerk’s salary. Two days after Ryan checked out, he discovered that the manager had tried to charge over $2,000 to his credit card.
Ryan writes:
I just wanted to warn people against staying at the Baymont Inn on 2080 West North Temple, Salt Lake City, UT.
They quoted me $739 plus tax on four occasions by three employees before I arrived. When I went to check out they tried to charge me $1400 almost double what the told me the price would be. When I said that is unfair and if I did that in my engineering firm the manager than began to demean me as not being smart enough to be worth his time because I was a lowly mechanical engineer not a computer science major. The employee (Sloan) that originally quoted $739 was right there and told the manager that I was telling the truth, The manager (Mohammed) then told me I was a lying and that he would not honor what his employees told me. During this time he was very hostile to me and tried to guilt me into paying the $1400 by telling me he was going to take it out of the employees (Sloan’s) pay. I told him that is not my concern he could do as he pleased.
I than told him if he tried to charge me anything more than I was quoted I would issue a charge back on my credit card and he could fight with them. After some more ranting about how I evidently don’t understand math since I only have a masters in Mechanical Engineering he agreed to a charge of $760 plus tax, which came out to $860. Once I left I called Baymont Corporate to complain since I wanted it in there before he tried to charge me damage’s in order to make his money back. Once I got home checked my credit card holds and he had tried to charge me over $2000 over four different holds including one that was initiated 2 days after I checked out. I called Baymont Corporate again to complain and the next business day all the charges were removed, and a day later the agreed upon amount was charged. While I did end up paying more than was agreed upon before at least I got it close. If I had been someone who was afraid of conflict or somone who could be bullied he would have succeded in charging me 200% of what was quoted. This whole argument took place in the middle of the lobby and took nearly an hour of him trying to bully me into paying.
I just want to warn people not to stay at this hotel. I also will not be staying at any Baymont Inn / Windham Hotel owned property again. This is not how I wanted to spend the last morning of my ski trip. Also I just wanted to remind people to always get the quotes in writing, since that would have made proving the price quoted easier. Think you guys are doing a great job keep it up.
More From Consumerist
-
Holiday Inn Sends Me Wrong Receipt, Reveals How Much Of A Discount It Gives To Travelocity
-
Dick’s Sporting Goods Sale Makes A Mockery Of The Buy One Get One Free Concept
-
Dallas Hotel Blatantly Offers To Pay Guests For Positive Online Reviews
-
There Is Such A Thing As The Milk Cliff: If Congress Doesn’t Act Soon, Prices Could Double
-
Best Buy Names New CEO, Even As Founder Angles To Buy Company Back
Baymont sucks old dirty underwear. We have one here and town that was previously a Holiday Inn then another name after that. Worn out worthless rooms and trying to pass them off as new, Baymont what a freaking joke, I wouldn’t even let my ex-wife stay in one and I dislike her with a vengeance.
@Allen Harkleroad:
WOW, that bad hu?
lol
$760 for a hotel room? Good god, man!
@Mr. Chip: In Utah no less.
@Mr. Chip:
Damn, and ta tink Motel 6 will leave the light on for ya fer just $39 per night.
To Mr. Chip (since the reply button isn’t working): I think the $760 was for the length og this stay. So that could cover multiple days/
@Anathema777:
What, a farking 3 week visit?
@Corporate-Shill: You obviously haven’t paid for a hotel room in the last 15 years…or have some nasty bedbugs…even the “cheap” hotels in some cities run close to 80 bucks a night at the cheapest…
Reading comprehension FTW.
Holy crap! That’s crazy!
I can’t think of any reason I’d go to Salt Lake City to begin with, but if I do I’ll avoid this hotel.
@HogwartsAlum: you go to SLC for the skiing. Totally awesome, runs everywhere, great snow and really close to downtown.
@Marshfield: Your still better off camping in the snow.
I had a bad experience with baymont at the houston hobby airport location before. This was my ONLY stop on my big roadtrip moving from California to Florida. I desperately needed the sleep after 27+ hours of driving. I arrived at 2am and didn’t get a room until 4am. Here’s what happened: they fiddled around trying to find a room key for 30 minutes, then found me one. I went up to the room and put the key in… surprise! There were PEOPLE IN THE ROOM ALREADY, SLEEPING! Went back down to the desk and told them, the lady brushed it off “oh, oops oh well we’ll let’s try to find you another one” and that’s what the next 1.5 hours was. Then they found the only room and the bathtub water was stuck on. At that point I didn’t care and went to bed. When I went to check out, the price was $375. I had paid $50 for this room online and was damned if I was paying a cent more. I talked with the receptionist lady, she asked whom the lady was from the night before who checked me in, I gave the name and that was it. My stay was free. Apparently the overnight receptionist is notorious for not doing her job.
“The manager finally relented after telling Ryan that the hotel would recoup the loss by taking the difference out of the clerk’s salary.”
That’s so ridiculous! You need to follow up on this… Report it to the local media as well, if you can.
@DePaulBlueDemon: If it were me, I’d be insisting to corporate management that the manager at their SLC hotel be fired because he clearly posed legal risks to the corporation. I’d tell them that while I know they would not be allowed to disclose to me any resolution of a personnel case, that I could still find out by periodically having “an undercover colleague” wander into the hotel to see if he was still working there.
@Skaperen:
You can insist all you want, and they can handle it however they want. You can be pissed that they didn’t handle it the way you wanted them to, but beyond being pissed and staying at another hotel, what are you going to do?
Don’t make demands unless you can force compliance. You’ll just make yourself look silly and combative. Customers like that are more trouble than they’re worth.
@I_am_Awesome: Tell Consumerist and write a detailed review on Trip Advisor.
Hotel owners really get their panties in a twist if you detail the failings of their hotel on a website.
@bohemian: Just don’t do it on Yelp or you’ll be hearing from a lawyer.
@DePaulBlueDemon: That guy sure is a dick. The clerk didn’t play along with his scam job so he takes the difference out of the clerk’s pay? And we wonder why we can’t get good service at many of these places…managerial abuse and incompetence is not a good morale booster.
@Con Seannery wants the azure F back!: I seriously doubt that manager has the ability to deduct anything from the clerk’s pay, or anyone else’s. It was just big talk on his part (he sounds like a real blowhard).
Ouch… bait and switch *and* a crappy manager, all in one convenient package. Seems like a recipe for failure to me. You’re lucky you got resolution.
Kudos to Sloan for sticking with the truth. Here’s hoping he still has his job.
I wonder if the charges in question were actual posted transactions or pre-authorization holds?
@Jesse:
seems like holds to me.
@Corporate-Shill: Why would they initiate holds two days after he leaves?
@Smashville: Cuz the manager is a crook? LOL
Is Baymont one of those chains that franchises and someone local actually owns the hotel, just using the Baymont name? I have found that hotels in this situation more than not suck rocks. Comfort Inn and Country Inn do this and so many of the locations are horrible, broken amenities and nasty apathetic ownership that just wants your money.
I would rather stay at a more expensive corporate owned hotel since you have a bit more ability to be treated like an actual customer.
Just wondering how Ryan’s master’s in mechanical engineering became known to the hotel manager.
@sendbillmoney: “When I said that is unfair and if I did that in my engineering firm the manager than began to demean me as not being smart enough to be worth his time because I was a lowly mechanical engineer not a computer science major.”
@verucalise: Clearly not an English major. The “if…then(than)” doesn’t follow any logical path here…
@verucalise:
Apparently English courses aren’t a requirement for engineering degrees from the OP’s alma mater.
@MyPetFly: Mechanical engineers are often very smart despite being functionally illiterate.
@reynwrap582: Interesting side note, several of the most brilliant mechanical and electrical engineers I’ve known also happened to have Asperger’s Syndrome. Coincidence?
@Groovymarlin: Asperger’s != illiteracy.
And, yes, there is a high concentration of Asperger’s diagnosees in engineering professions, but it’s very dangerous to assume or hint that a given engineer has asperger’s.
The extra would be taken out of the clerk’s salary? I’d love to know if that’s even legal.
@JulesNoctambule:
Well, if the employee made a mistake that cost the hotel $700 (should have offered $1400, quoted $739), the owner could just fire the employee, so the compromise might be “make good on your mistake, and I don’t can you.”
What I’m suprised about is why there wasn’t anything in writing at checkin about the rate – I’ve never had a hotel not show me a form with the rate to initial when I check in.
@JustThatGuy3: I was thinking the very same thing. Even cheap hotels (and I’ve been in cheap ones) had me review their (I think they call it ) ledger card that shows how much I’m to be charged and how long I’m to stay.
@JustThatGuy3: It didn’t cost the hotel $700. If you haven’t noticed, people aren’t traveling much anymore for business or pleasure. I’d imagine that the hotel was full of empty rooms like all hotels are these days.
@JustThatGuy3: Even assuming they can do that, what’s the chances that the guy manning the front desk when he showed up was also the guy who gave him the quote (much less, what’s the chance that the same guy gave him the same quote on all three occasions)?
I mean come on, I can’t possibly see it being “Those three guys over there all messed up big time, so you’re gonna be the one taking the hit even though you had no involvement”
@JulesNoctambule:
Not legal, at least for most types of work. There might be a few exceptions.
the hotel i used to work at, it was standard practice to write the room rate on the key packet at check in, instead of saying it out loud. this way the guest had a written record of the rate and the person standing next to them didn’t argue about why they were paying the ‘best available’ rate and the other guy was paying a much lower corporate negotiated rate.
but if you book online or book over the phone and get a confirmation number for your reservation [which you should ALWAYS do] then things always went much more smoothly at the desk with a printout of the confirmation from the hotel’s website. i worked for a starwood property and the rate is always included on the reservation confirmation page
@bohemian — It’s a franchise. In addition to Baymont (and Wyndham) their branding includes Howard Johnson, Super 8, Travelodge and Days Inn.
@Hoss: Wow that is just a parade of sucky hotels!
@Hoss: Ugh, Travelodge. Say no more.
Did you have a confirmation number? a printout? an email confirmation? I always make sure a hotel emails or faxes me the confirmation when I make reservations over the phone (which is what I assume was done here). Without that piece of paper, it’s simply a he said he said situation. That said, the comment by the manager that he would take the difference out of the clerk’s salary is wrong on many levels (not to mention illegal).
It is NEVER okay when a hotel does something like that, especially when the guest has quoted results. This is a pathetic story (on the host’s part) that should be publicized and the manager should be reprimanded. He puts shame to all motel/hotel owners across America. If Ryan was a guest at the Baymont Inn, then he should be treated like one. Obviously, the manager has no clue how to handle ANY situation.
Seriously, though… Take out money from the clerk’s salary? Anyone can easily assume that the Manager did not do his job correctly. A four year old knows from right and wrong in this situation.
Lastly, however, I recommend that anyone who is faced with a situation like this follow in Ryan’s footsteps. Amazingly done, at least he stood up to the bully (who was obviously wrong) because that is the best thing to do in such a situation.
Fight for your right and right is your fight.
Corporate should fire that manager and promote that desk clerk. In that way, honest employee gets good, dishonest employee gets the door.
What I don’t get is where the manager feels justified comparing the OP to a computer science major, or any other major for that matter. Last time I checked Mechanical Engineer was still more impressive than Hotel Manager…
@Darin Strouts:
Unless the hotel manager has a PhD in Assholery.
@Cyclokitty: from Douchebag U.
@Smashville: Cum Lauding
Well he sure as hell isn’t an English major…
@ngc6027: English is not the native language of over half the engineers I work with. I know at least one of the non-native speakers is named Ryan (he happens to be Korean IIRC). He wouldn’t be the engineer in the story.
@ngc6027: It seems to me that someone who transcribed the text dropped a sentence out…
What the heck is up with this Ryan weirdo?
“When I said that is unfair and if I did that in my engineering firm the manager than began to demean me as not being smart enough to be worth his time because I was a lowly mechanical engineer not a computer science major.”
“After some more ranting about how I evidently don’t understand math since I only have a masters in Mechanical Engineering he agreed to a charge of $760 plus tax, which came out to $860.”
I bet he sits at home on Friday nights staring at the diploma on his wall, sipping brandy and chuckling to himself.
@nuton2wheels: Actually, it sounds like he spends his free time clutching the CS course catalog of his academic institution, muttering with jealousy while his eyes well with tears.
/CS Degree. It’s sooooo nice, Ryan.
@nuton2wheels: My thoughts exactly.
Also, it seems Baymont Corporate handled things pretty well, messy as they were.
@usa_gatekeeper: Mopping up after their franchisees is one of their main jobs. Stories like this tend to get publicized quickly and reflect upon the entire chain.
As evidenced here.
It’s obvious, the manager Mohammad is a member of the Taliban, sent to this country to annoy us. Good job so far Mo!
@JustThatGuy3: I could understand considering approaching an employee with that kind of deal, but to just flat-out do it without their consent or prior knowledge of that being the ‘deal’ sounds awfully shady to me.
As a hotel employee (though not at this chain), I can tell you that holds aren’t charges. They do exactly what their name implies, they pre-authorize charges to your card so that they will get their money no matter what. It usually happens when the guest checks in and is for the price of the total stay (including taxes, fees, etc). Holds go away in 48-72 hours usually.
What probably happened is they put a hold on your card when you checked in for the price you were quoted, then when the manager tried changing the price on you they authorized it again for the $1400 which doesn’t increase the original hold, it just adds a new one which would end up with $2200+ in holds. When you paid the lower amount, it came out of the holds and then the rest was released back.
So the manager was still a scumbag for trying to change the rate on you, but they didn’t charge you the $1400 anyway.
I have added this hotel chain to a helpful profile page at my travel agent’s site. They have a section where you can list airlines and Hotels that you won’t stay at. Air Canada heads my airline list but this hotel chain is now second place on the hotel list. They also show you other people’s least favorite places so I will have to check to see if this one made other people’s lists.
Unless there is a convention in town, $700+ is better than $0 if he decided to leave. A good business reputation is priceless.
Wyndham—a sorry organization
This rewards program is the worst. I travel infrequently but when I do it is for long periods..months..THIS company had the temerity to delete my account with tens of thousands of points because I hadn’t used it in 18 months. NO courtesy email or telephone just terminate. JUST SO they would not have to pay out anything. NEVER EVER WILL I STAY AT ONE OF THEIR HOTELS AGAIN. The joke is on them though I am going to Chicago in 2 hours for two weeks and am staying with MARRIOT. So WYNDHAM hows it feel to lose a customer for life
@JZDK8B: Do they read Consumerist? Exactly how will they “feel” this?
I’ve found that letters directly to company HQ are very effective in allowing them to make “exceptions” to ridiculous policies like this. It also puts them on notice that their scumbaggy terms only harm their business over the long term. Now that businesses are slowing down and revenue is more important, they may have time to re-read those old customer complaint letters and learn reasons why they might be clearing out their desks next week. Treat me bad when times are great, and I’m certainly not coming back when it’s a buyer’s market.
As someone who has traveled extensively in the mid east I wonder if the manager was Muslim and the engineer non muslim. If that was true this was perfectly legit as the engineer is not a person in the managers eyes
@JZDK8B: If so, the manager needs to find another position more suited to prejudism. (I hear Homeland Security is hiring…)
It’s because of fly-by-night operations like this that I am willing to drive 45 minutes to an hour to stay at a Marriott when I am on travel. Of course that is the rare exception since there are so many Marriotts all over the place.
Sorry you had such a bad experience. Next time, find a Marriott.
@sleze69: Should be pretty easy in Utah, it’s a Mormon company…
Wow, that is a lot of pillow mints.
why bother arguing with that sand nigga. Just walk out and go to another hotel.
SEcondly, i’ve stayed at marriot hotels in Italy and my bill was no where near 700+ dollars and this rinky dinky hotel is in Utah!
Stayed in a Baymont in Nashville once. The first room they stuck us in reeked of mildew and had soggy carpets. The replacement room was ok but never stayed there again.
I have been able to get rates so good that the front desk had to call a manager to verify it wasn’t a typo. They commented it was a better rate than they could give their mother. Still gave me great service, and at a Windham Garden.
I would have let the manager know how interested the Department of Labor is going to be in him taking money out of his employees checks.
I wouldn’t have argued for that long. Just give the guy his options: charge the correct price or charge back and be on my way.
Honestly, that sucks, but you won’t get much sympathy if people can’t figure out what the hell you’re saying. And what’s being an engineer have anything to do with this at all?
I’m thinking that being an engineer just MIGHT have something to do with this. Would there have happened to be an engineering convention in town?
I always remember reading about the old COMDEX days in Las Vegas. If you were going to the convention, you paid the convention hotel rate – if you booked differently, and then you were found to be a convention attendee, I believe the hotel could either modify your rate or throw you out.
This kind of thing would explain the huge $2000 vs. $739 difference in the rates. If the Baymont has blocked out a chunk of rooms for a week’s duration at convention rates (in conjunction with the convention organizers) so that all convention attendees are guaranteed a room, that limits what they can sell for leisure travelers, and kills a lot of “room-nights”.
So two of the potential issues if there was an engineering convention in town are:
1) Employee not asking if Ryan was attending convention. (Hence the docking the pay comment – understandable in concept, not practice)
2) Ryan possibly not being forthright about convention attendance.
There has got to be more to this than the version presented here.
How is a hotel manager telling a guy with a masters in mechanical engineering that he is “lowly”?
@Saboth: I worked for a hotel with a boss named Mohammed. He even had business cards printed up that said he had a BA in business. I just thought it was funny to list that on a business card, rather than just the normal information like phone number and position.
@usa_gatekeeper: How is accusing a customer of lying, reneging on a previously agreed to rate, using guilt to convince a customer to pay extra money, and attempting to deduct money from a customer’s credit card without the customer allowing it “handling things well”?
That’s like saying that a breakup that ends with your girlfriend throwing your computer out the window, baking your cat, and then banging your parents was “handled well”.
@Bathmat: Well, going by his comment,
“I called Baymont Corporate again to complain and the next business day all the charges were removed, and a day later the agreed upon amount was charged…”
So it seems he received no hassle at the corporate level; in fact they responded quite promptly. I agree the manager was a total ass, but corporate responded reasonably.
I stayed at the Baymont Inn in Columbia, SC and definitely won’t be staying at a Baymont again. The room was smelled, there were stains on the carpet and bedspread, I saw that the maid carts didn’t have fresh linens stocked on them , the bathtub had a crack in it and was not clean. I had to go buy flip-flops to wear in the shower. They couldn’t switch our room because they were booked up and there weren’t any other rooms available at any other hotels in the area…
time to get the Attorney General on the phone…
i suppose the hotel manager has a PHD in Mechanical Engineering, and only took his current job because he wanted to spend time helping people.
When my wife and I were dating, she was visiting me and stayed in a Baymont here in Jacksonville. Two days before she was supposed to leave, Central Florida got evacuated due to a hurricane. As soon as they gave the evacuation order, the manager called and said that her CC was declined and she had to pack her stuff and get out. She called the CC company who said there was nothing wrong with her card and she had plenty of space. The thieving manager wanted to clear everyone out so he could raise his rates and price gouge the evacuees coming up from Orlando. After that, we vowed to never stay in one of their hotels again.
HOLD ON. First “The manager finally relented after telling Ryan that the hotel would recoup the loss by taking the difference out of the clerk’s salary.”
I trust the poster had a WRITTEN quote from the hotel before he checked in. Otherwise, how the heck would you prove anything, even if an honest error had been made.
Second, whta is a hotel front desk manager doing ranking on a customer for “only having a masters in Mechanical Engineering”. How the heck does a customer education even begin to enter into a conversation at a hotel front desk.
Then, we have “While I did end up paying more than was agreed upon before at least I got it close.” WHAT???! You had a quote from the hotel and in the end you are ok because “they got it close”???
1. You should always have a written quote to prove the price and to use in a credit card dispute. 2. Manager Mohammed should be fired instantly for even beginning to have an exchange like this with a paying customer. 3. You should never have agreed to pay “close to” what you were quoted.
The manager here is horrid beyond words, but the poster didn’t seem to have all their facts together or in writing, which invites disasters like this.
I had a hard time reading this because Ryan’s writing is very difficult to read. Sentences that don’t quite make grammatical sense, spelling and punctuation errors, etc. It’s just too hard to follow.
paying more than you were originally quoted means you WERE bullied in the end.
Where’s the registration card that he signed at check-in? Hotels need to keep these and they should have the agreed upon rate and a signature from the guest. If the hotel can’t produce a registration card, how can they prove he even stayed there in the first place?
I work for Starwood, the company that owns the Westin hotel chain, whose picture you have cleverly used for this story. It should be noted that Starwood or Westin has absolutely no relationship to this crappy hotel chain that the story is about.
@ClaudeColgate: I knew I’ve seen that building somewhere. I drive by it all the time.