A reader stayed at the Holiday Inn Oklahoma City Airport. He has another prepaid, upcoming stay there as well. But he doesn’t want to return after seeing the condition of the property. He tells me he saw ‘mice poop’ by the vending machines. He shared an example:
The guest asked the hotel to cancel the upcoming reservation, but they refused because it’s prepaid and non-refundable. He asked for a manager to get in touch, but none did. So he reached out to IHG hotels (he’s a Diamond member). And they told him:
- It’s up to the hotel.
- The hotel says no.
- He agreed to the terms and conditions of the rate – non-refundable in the event of mouse poop.
I wasn’t there on property and I cannot tell with 100% certainty what’s seen in the photo. There are irregular dark crumbs of different sizes and shapes. I’m not sure if they’re consistently rice-shaped with pointed ends (what a quick search tells me that fresh mouse droppings usually look like).
Put another way, I can’t prove the hotel isn’t just dirty – which, frankly, ought to be enough reason to release a guest from a future stay commitment. Hotel management apparently won’t speak to the guest about the condition of the property, and that doesn’t make them look better here.
When a guest finds mouse droppings or even just dirt that the hotel won’t say isn’t mouse droppings, it seems to me they can’t really hold a guest to staying there? That’s not what the guest was buying when they made the reservation. It’s not what you see in the photos on the hotel website!
- It seems to me that a hotel chain – the one you’re trusting, and whose brand the property is using – ought to stand behind that.
- Simply saying ‘look it’s up to the property and they say this is good enough’ is not good enough.
I’ve long had the sense that IHG does less to hold their franchisees accountable than others, though Marriott has often seemed to be quickly headed in that same direction. The reader acknowledged agreeing to the hotel’s cancellation terms on the reasonable, good faith belief that the hotel would not “have mice poop” and asks whether such conditions are acceptable to IHG?
Getting nowhere with the hotel and customer service, they say they filed a complaint with the local health department, and that an investigator got in touch with them right away. They then got a call from the general manager.
[G}eneral manager called me up and profusely apologized, saying they’re refunding me the money. …[S]he conceeded that they have a rat problem at the hotel. Not a mice problem but a rat problem.
Holiday Inn Oklahoma City Airport, Credit: IHG
I’m not a fan of prepaid, non-refundable hotel reservations. Plans change! I booked one for the first time in awhile for a meeting last month. There was no way that the meeting was going to change. It got cancelled. I reached out to the hotel in case they were willing to shift the credit to a future stay to hopefully win me as a regular guest. They declined. And I was reminded why I don’t like booking these rates.
Often AAA rates are just as low and prepaid member rates, and fully cancellable. Though increasingly there are ‘no cancel’ AAA rates now, too.
But this guest points to another reason not to book non-cancellable hotel reservations. Something may happen to change your willingness to stay at that hotel. Maybe it’s cleanliness issues you uncover yourself, or reading more recent reviews before your trip. Maybe they close the pool for maintenance. The product being offered can change – and you’re left to fight for your money back if the property no longer works for you. And in the end the health department is probably more effective than IHG as your advocate.
More like, ‘okay-see’ rat poop.
Had a similar experience at a HIE in Pennsylvania. Room was filthy and there were several large (and hungry looking) spiders living on the ceiling. Hotel and IHG refused a refund. Hotels don’t care any more. They just want your money.
@Parker — Not just hotels… *cough* airlines *cough* …really should have air passenger rights legislation in the USA, so that passengers get paid when the airlines screw them over, too.
Guests at the Holiday Inn Oklahoma City Airport have expressed dissatisfaction after finding rat droppings in food from the vending machine. This issue has arisen despite recent renovations at the hotel. The general manager has acknowledged the rodent problem. Still, the hotel’s policy states that refunds for prepaid reservations will be issued only if guests report the issue to the health department.
To improve transparency and enhance guest satisfaction, this Holiday Inn should consider including photographs of the rat droppings on its website advertisements until their rodent infestation is resolved. This proactive approach would not only improve guest satisfaction but also demonstrate the Holiday Inn Oklahoma City Airport’s commitment to providing a clean, vermin-free environment for its guests, especially business travelers who place a high value on such information when planning their stays.