Complaint Review: Days Inn Orange City Fl - Orange City Florida

Dear Mr. Mayor

 I am addressing this issue to you and your staff, as I can't seem to get any attention on this matter.

To Whom It May Concern:

Incident at Day's Inn Orange City Florida

This letter is a follow-up to a telephone conversation with one of your customer service representatives and in response to your undated letter. As I explained in the telephone conversation, my wife and I, with our dog, recently stayed at the Days Inn, Orange City, Florida. During this stay, we had over a thousand dollars’ worth of personal items stolen. The following information provides the details. We were staying at a motel because contractors were working to restore our house to its original state. The restoration was needed as a result of a flood in our home. The flood was caused by a break in a pipe. All the furniture was damaged and removed for cleaning. The kitchen sink and cabinets were also removed because this was where the break occurred. We needed to vacate the house to allow for the construction to take place. Therefore, we had to find a motel that was relatively inexpensive and accepted pets. The Days Inn in Orange City fit this criteria.

During our stay at the motel, we were invited to stay with family for a couple of days, on May 27 and 28. We did not want to lose the room, and therefore, we did not check out because we planned to return. We returned to our room at the Days Inn on May 29 to find that our room key did not open the door, and eventually, after obtaining a new key, we entered the room and immediately noted that all our personal items were missing. I contacted the desk person. She indicated that hotel personnel removed all our items on instructions from the hotel manager who said the room had been abandoned. The desk person took me to an unsecured room where she indicated our items were in a green garbage bag. Upon arriving at the room, I found some of our personal items in the bag, 1 shorts, 2t-shirts and they were comingled with someone else's clothing. I stated to the desk person that everything was not present. She stated that she was not working when the items were collected and did have any more information regarding this matter. She proceeded to the office and called the manager. The manager indicated that she would address the situation the next day.

On the next day, I waited for the manager to contact me thinking she would show this common courtesy to a guest. This did not happen, and therefore, I went to the office and asked to see the manager. At that time, she sent a hotel employee to take me to the same room I had been in the previous evening. During our walk to this room, the employee proceeded to yell at me regarding the missing items and stated that all our things were placed in this room. I remained calm because I was not about to get in a confrontation with a rude and verbally abusive hotel employee. When we arrived at the room, I could not find anything more than was found the previous evening. At this time we walked to the office, and the disrespect continued.

Finally, the manager agreed to speak with me. I tried to explain the situation to the manager, and she immediately became defensive, rude, and started yelling. She continually kept yelling as she turned her back on me to walk away. She did not want to hear my explanation regarding the situation or anything about the missing items. There was no apology, offer to look into the matter or of some accommodation. I told her, as stated above, we did not vacate the room. Why would we leave expensive personal items in the room if we were planning on leaving? This included prescription drugs my wife forgot to take with her the day we left the room for a couple of days. Additionally, we left the Do Not Disturb sign on the door as we had during our entire stay so that no one would enter the during our absence. As the manager was going out the door, I asked to speak to the owner. She yelled back, I am the owner.

At this time, I contacted the police. An officer arrived and took statements from both parties. I told him what had happened and that we had receipts for many of the items taken. After speaking with the manager, the officer finally indicated that it was my word against her word. He suggested I contact the corporate office. After this incident, we decided to move to another motel. He also told us not to take this incident to court as he would testify that we couldn't prove it.

During the last night at this motel, someone keyed the side of our car (scratched the side of our car with a key). I cannot prove anything, but I find it awful suspicious that this incident happened after we decided to checkout. We called the Police Department to add this incident to the previous report and the dispatcher said she would notify the officer that came out on the previous call and have him call us back. We never received a call. The next morning, after not receiving any response, I called the Police Department once again. This time I asked the dispatcher for my complaint number and she told us the officer never filed a complaint form on the incident. Once again I requested a call from this officer so I could add the vandalized car. To this day we have never received a return call.

Upon checking out, I found the following additional charges on our bill: I was charged twice for the county and state taxes for the last day. Additionally, I was charged the pet fee of $70.00 (normally $10.00 per day for seven days) twice. I asked to speak with the manager regarding this new situation. Again, she was very defensive, and she indicated that the room required extra cleaning because of the dog. The dog is house trained and did not do anything requiring $140 worth of cleaning. She displayed total disregard for my problem and continued to yell at me as she walked away. I reported her to the county tax office about the double tax charges and they will be flagged. I did contact the corporate office and spoke with a sympathetic person who was very apologetic. Additionally, she indicated that someone in management would follow-up with a phone call. Instead, I received a letter apologizing for the manager’s handling of the whole situation and how this was not Days Inn's expectations on how to treat customers. However, the letter mentioned that Days Inns are francized, and therefore, I would have to settle the dispute with the owner. The same person who was rude and disrespectful to me previously.

I have to ask these questions based on this whole situation. Is this motel or some employee running a black market operation with guest's possessions, especially because two bottles of highly controlled and prescription drugs were taken? Are they thieves? I can guarantee you that this family will never stay at a Days Inn again and will advise friends and family to avoid the Days Inns. After traveling in the military and corporate I have never been treated so rudely and with any lack of understanding. Any other hotel in which I have stayed the employees have always been trustworthy and courteous, especially the management personnel. How demeaning to have your possessions stuffed into a garbage bag. This last item and others mentioned above give you a picture of the type of people that operate the Days Inn.

Sincerely,

P.S. I do not want to seem like I am pilling on, but the place was unclean, with mold and dirty carpets. Additionally, the water was yellow and did not taste good. I add this these remarks because I am sending this note over the internet to warn other people about this place. Update 6/19/2015 Today I finally received a report. I needed something to show our Doctor so he could give a prescription for the medications, as we will run out due to the theft.

Finally received a report on 6/21. Only a incident report no formal comlaint written up There is a serious omission in the officer’s report. I specifically stated that the medication Adderall was taken as part of the theft. I mentioned it for two reasons: the first reason I mentioned it was because it is a highly controlled medication and thought this situation should at least be of interest to law enforcement; the second reason is my wife has been on the medication for several years to provide relief for a serious illness. As a result of this theft she is about to run short of the medication, and her doctor needs something in the report at least mentioning the Adderall, in order to justify writing an early prescription. I request that the report be amended to include the Adderall so my wife can get her medication.

Follow up: I received a reply from the Mayor's office, that it was not appropriate for me to write this letter that I should call the officer. I guess my complaint was not read as it mention's I called the officer twice. Never have received a return call.