08 Jan 2009 10:24 AM

How Ironic- Another Hotel Forgot to Change the Sheets

Stayed in the Hilton Gardens Hotel in Roanoke Falls NC. We got up to the room at 8:30pm tired from our drive. We took a suite so my son could watch TV while my wife and I slept. This room was twice the price of a normal room at Holiday Inn Express or Hampton Inn     ( also a Hilton Hotel ). We had to make the pullout sofa as the Hilton does not do this. When we finished making my son's bed I turned my attention to the king size for my wife and I. The first thing I always do is pull back a corner of the bedding down to the mattress to check for bed bugs, all was fine so I proceeded to pull off the duvet and top sheet to put my Allersac travel sheet down. As soon as I got the duvet off I was hit with a strong perfume smell and as I continued to pull back the top sheet the smell got very strong and the sheet was wrinkled with obvious indentations where someone had slept. OMG, they didn't even change the bedding. the smell of perfume was so strong it actually bothered my wife's asthma. So I went down to the front desk where the polite desk clerk apologized and informed me that since no housekeeping staff were available, we would have to change rooms. Back in our room, we packed up whatever stuff we had already unpacked and moved everything over to the new room ( no bell hops either ). As soon as we got into the new room I checked both beds for cleanliness and bed bugs, all seemed okay, but when I went to make the sofa pullout, no linens were to be found. The desk clerk told me the linens were in the cupboard but they were not, so I went back to the first room, stripped the pullout and brought the linens over to the new room. By the time we were done it was about 11pm and I was as stressed out as if I had continued driving, even more so.

On returning home I emailed my experience to Hilton Hotels and received a prompt reply, first to confirm receipt of the complaint from Hilton Hotels. Second, from the actual Hilton Hotel in Roanoke offering me a complimentary stay the next time I visit Roanoke Falls. Seeing as I live a thousand miles away the next time might be a while, to say the least. It's not like Roanoke is a vacation destination and who knows when I will drive that way again. The hotel knows this and is just going through the PR motions. If they were so sorry they would either credit or refund some or all of the cost of the room. It's not really the money, it's the principle. If Hilton actually lost money, if they paid a price then maybe they would hire better people or supervise better. All I can say is I'm glad I always use an Allersac.

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