Sleep Inn, Statesville, NC - dirty room - poor stay experience

# 2 for June 28, 2003

Complaints.com received the following on June 27, 2003:

From: Dennis Gilmer [Email User]

RE: Sleep Inn, Statesville, NC - dirty room - poor stay experience

My husband, children and parents went to the Lowe's Motor Speedway Nascar race in May. We stayed @ the Sleep Inn in Statesville, NC May 24th & 25th. It was late on the 24th when we returned to our rooms to go to bed. When we started turning back the beds, we were disgusted at what we found. There was hair, dingy sheets, yellow urine and semen stains, and blood stains.

We had already found water bugs and sow bugs in the rooms. We had made the children get out of the indoor pool before going out to eat that evening because of the filth and scum there. After finding the beds in this condition, my husband went to the front desk for clean bedding.

The manager said she did not have any clean blankets or pillows to give us, but did give us sheets that looked as though they had never seen bleach. She would not come to see the rooms. I took one of the pillows up to the desk. She tried to convince me it was clean, only stained. The children had to sleep out in our vehicle with my husband while my mother and I went and bought new bedding, stripped the beds , sprayed them down with disinfectant and made them up.

There were cards in each room as well as a large poster beside the front desk, as well as a promise on their web site that promises 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. We did not get our money back. We were out the cost of new bedding, and after returning home our son had to be taken to the doctor about his ear from the swimming pool there. We contacted the Health Dept. there, who told us that the pool had been shut down on March 28th this year for no chlorine in the pool.

They went and inspected the hotel after my husband's phone call. They again shut down the pool. There was no chlorine as well as other problems. They also stripped some of the beds and found stains on sheets and pillowcases and embedded hairs.We have a copy of the inspection.We also have pictures of the bedding with very visible evidence. The general manager was a jerk on the telephone and sent a letter merely thanking us for bringing it to their attention.

We also received a letter from Choice Hotels stating that each property is independently owned and operated and must defer to the hotel's response as a final resolution.This matter is far from final. There are unsanitary health issues here. If small children had been in that pool water, we could be talking about contaminated E.coli bacteria instead of ear infections.

The body excretions on the beds were sickening. If it had not been a race weekend and we could have found other accomodations we would have. This is misrepresentatiopn and fraud to advertise a 100% satisfaction

guarantee and expect us to accept the treatment we have received.

- Dawn Gilmer