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The Premier Inn in Arroyo Grande, CA (sometimes referred to as Premier Inn Pismo Beach), is a decent motel, with reasonable rates, fridges in the rooms, and a lovely view of the valley below.
BUT DO NOT EVER STAY THERE!
My family's stay was completely ruined by front desk employee Terri, with the full support of her manager, Christopher. This goes beyond mere rudeness. Partway through our stay, they canceled our remaining reservations, told bold-faced lies, and treated us like scum for no apparent reason.
Here are the details of our nightmare stay.
It was the week of the Fourth of July, so we were going to have to move to a smaller room for a part of our stay, and there were no rooms available at all on the 4th . (Understandable). However, the gentleman who checked us in said to keep checking with the front desk in case there were cancellations so we wouldn't have to change rooms.
A few days into our stay, my mother went in to check on this. She spoke to Terri. Mom went into the office happy, and came out near tears.
Terri accused us of trying to stay in a “handicapped room” (the smaller room we were offered, which was never referred to as a “handicapped room”before this). “Handicapped rooms are for handicapped people!”Terri exclaimed indignantly. Terri then proceeded to verbally bash her co-worker (a much nicer person who had helped with our reservations) right in front of my mother.
The next day, when we went to switch rooms, Terri told my stepfather was told that there was a “do not rent” message under my name, which had never been mentioned before.
She accused us of doing something wrong on a previous stay two years ago, but would not say what. This made me recall that on the last night of our previous stay, we had been woken up twice around 1AM by phone calls from the front office. A female employee viciously informed us that there were “noise complaints” about our room, and wouldn't believe us when we said we had been asleep. (I deduced that this was probably also Terri, who mentioned she had worked there five years.) At the time, I had put it down to one grumpy employee having a bad night, but now it seemed to be a pattern...
So I called the front desk to find out why I suddenly had this blemish on my record. Terri said, “I can't discuss that” and claimed the manager wasn't there. Then she hung up on me. I called again, and asked if she had been there the day before. “I certainly was,” she said, “and I was not rude to your mother.” Finally, she put me through to the manager, Christopher. His voice was just as cold and smug as hers. After much pressing, he finally claimed we had damaged the room on our previous stay (completely false, and never mentioned before this), He would not specify what kind of damage we supposedly did, but he did say, in a threatening tone, “So, you never received a bill?” As I tried to work the situation out, all he would say is, “That's where we're at now” over and over. (I wish I would have thought to say, “So, how do we get from where we're at now to where your paying customer is satisfied?”) Then, he hung up on me too. A few minutes later, Terri called and threatened us to be “out as soon as possible,”although it wasn't check-out time yet.
I can see why my mother was near tears– after about two minutes of talking to Terri and Christopher, I almost felt like crying myself. With the way that she lied, I don't even trust that her name actually was Terri (The manager's name was on a business card). I work with the public myself, and I can't imagine treating paying customers this way – particularly ones who spent hundreds of dollars and did nothing wrong. I cannot imagine what was going through these people's minds. They treated us without the slightest shred of human decency.
I would not trust these people to honor your reservations. You may suddenly find yourself with no place to stay in the middle of a busy holiday week, and insulted and degraded to boot.
BUT DO NOT EVER STAY THERE!
My family's stay was completely ruined by front desk employee Terri, with the full support of her manager, Christopher. This goes beyond mere rudeness. Partway through our stay, they canceled our remaining reservations, told bold-faced lies, and treated us like scum for no apparent reason.
Here are the details of our nightmare stay.
It was the week of the Fourth of July, so we were going to have to move to a smaller room for a part of our stay, and there were no rooms available at all on the 4th . (Understandable). However, the gentleman who checked us in said to keep checking with the front desk in case there were cancellations so we wouldn't have to change rooms.
A few days into our stay, my mother went in to check on this. She spoke to Terri. Mom went into the office happy, and came out near tears.
Terri accused us of trying to stay in a “handicapped room” (the smaller room we were offered, which was never referred to as a “handicapped room”before this). “Handicapped rooms are for handicapped people!”Terri exclaimed indignantly. Terri then proceeded to verbally bash her co-worker (a much nicer person who had helped with our reservations) right in front of my mother.
The next day, when we went to switch rooms, Terri told my stepfather was told that there was a “do not rent” message under my name, which had never been mentioned before.
She accused us of doing something wrong on a previous stay two years ago, but would not say what. This made me recall that on the last night of our previous stay, we had been woken up twice around 1AM by phone calls from the front office. A female employee viciously informed us that there were “noise complaints” about our room, and wouldn't believe us when we said we had been asleep. (I deduced that this was probably also Terri, who mentioned she had worked there five years.) At the time, I had put it down to one grumpy employee having a bad night, but now it seemed to be a pattern...
So I called the front desk to find out why I suddenly had this blemish on my record. Terri said, “I can't discuss that” and claimed the manager wasn't there. Then she hung up on me. I called again, and asked if she had been there the day before. “I certainly was,” she said, “and I was not rude to your mother.” Finally, she put me through to the manager, Christopher. His voice was just as cold and smug as hers. After much pressing, he finally claimed we had damaged the room on our previous stay (completely false, and never mentioned before this), He would not specify what kind of damage we supposedly did, but he did say, in a threatening tone, “So, you never received a bill?” As I tried to work the situation out, all he would say is, “That's where we're at now” over and over. (I wish I would have thought to say, “So, how do we get from where we're at now to where your paying customer is satisfied?”) Then, he hung up on me too. A few minutes later, Terri called and threatened us to be “out as soon as possible,”although it wasn't check-out time yet.
I can see why my mother was near tears– after about two minutes of talking to Terri and Christopher, I almost felt like crying myself. With the way that she lied, I don't even trust that her name actually was Terri (The manager's name was on a business card). I work with the public myself, and I can't imagine treating paying customers this way – particularly ones who spent hundreds of dollars and did nothing wrong. I cannot imagine what was going through these people's minds. They treated us without the slightest shred of human decency.
I would not trust these people to honor your reservations. You may suddenly find yourself with no place to stay in the middle of a busy holiday week, and insulted and degraded to boot.
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