My wife and I had an athletic event that we were participating in about an hour away in Bryan. Upon check in, I asked for a late checkout - as we desperately wanted to shower after our event. That would have meant checking out at 1pm versus 11am. It was a very slow weekend at this Comfort Suites, so I figured either a "yes" or some negotiation to 12:30 or 12 noon. After all, if they sent housekeeping home they could always clean my room the next morning. Nope.
"The owner/manager" referred to in the previous review had a policy - for every hour you were late after checkout it was $10/hour. So to get a shower was going to cost us an extra $20! To make matters even worse, I called the Choice Hotels/Comfort Suites customer care line afterwards to complain. They didn't believe me, since it wasn't in their list of "special policies for specific hotels". So they called the hotel (and put me on a long hold) and were in fact told that I was wrong - The Comfort Suites in Jewett would charge a FULL DAY'S ROOM for checkout at 11:01am or later!!! Huh! One minute late checking out costs you another $100!!! When I asked who would get to resolve my complaint, I was told "The owner/manager, Paul" who set all these draconian policies. When I told the customer complaint line that I wanted escalation over the local owner, I was told "no". Choice Hotels really needs to change their policies if they expect to keep their customers.
So I called Paul back to find out why he was lying to either Choice Hotels corporate or me. His response was to call me "a liar". But I personally thought his favorite line, when I went to offer a future resolution was "I don't like customers, but I run a good hotel". That one sentence to me summarizes everything you need to know about The Comfort Suites Jewett.
Bottom line - rooms are new and nice. For the price you feel like you are getting a decent deal. But blame only yourself if you want anything, or require any assistance or flexibility. They won't give it to you.
One final example - we put very explicit details in our online reservation about room location. Upper floor, quiet room, away from elevators, end of hall, blah, blah, blah. So when we were assigned a first floor, facing the railroad and the road, and not far down the hall I complained. My response. "That is what the owner assigned you, so that is your room." There were all of about 5 or 6 rooms rented out that night. An entire hotel - and yet they gave me a room that was the furthest from what I wanted. The trains, the cars, etc., led to an awful night's sleep!
Despite all that, my wife won her age group in our event. I finished second in mine. We just wished we had gotten some fine Texas hospitality from the Comfort Suites - and not a losing attitude, that hopefully will lead to their demise. A terrible, terrible experience. read more
