My wife and I are retired and are what I would call average folks. Born in and live in Central Ohio. We have camped across the USA in our youth and are not fussy people. We can tolerate a lot of inconvenience and try to make the best of every situation. I hope I am getting my point across. So, I discovered the weather was going to be great 10-23, 24 and 25 of 2022 and decided to take my wife to Port Clinton and Marblehead to see the sights. We knew the season was winding down and being after the weekend, the place would be nearly empty of tourists. Nice and quiet and pleasant. I decided to book a motel in Marblehead instead of the Holiday Inn or Fairmont or stay at the Shores (all of these are on Route 163). So I looked at the reviews (which I can't believe now) for a place called Lake Point Motel. Got on Booking.com and booked 2 days. 242.50 was the price paid. Now, I knew the place was dated...probably built in the late 50's or 60's, but the reviews...well, the wow factor was there. Since we grew up in the 50's, we pretty much knew what to expect. (Architecturally, we were not disappointed.) We arrived at about 5 pm on Sunday. The office was closed with a small sign on the door telling us to call a number. Fortunately, we do own a flip-phone for emergencies and called. The lady, who shrugged off my statement about "What would we do if we didn't have a phone?" told me we were in Room D and the key was in the door. It was upstairs. Good enough. We schlepped our bags up the stairs and headed into the room. Ok, it was as we expected. We headed into the 1st bedroom (there are 2) and flipped on the light. Burnt out. But the ceiling fan whizzed around at full speed. After I got a table lamp on and slowed the fan down to a stop, we pulled down the bedspread and there in front of us was a Bic cigarette lighter, right in the middle of the sheets. At first, my dumb brain thought 'well, some places put a mint on the pillow, maybe these pioneers put a lighter in the bed' but I realized this was crazy. The sheets upon closer inspection did not look crisp and clean. And in fact, were not.
So, we headed to the 2nd bedroom and did the same thing, expecting a better result although in retrospect I don't know why I did, and when we pulled down the bedspread, there, on the sheets lay a pair of dirty white socks. Right where we were supposed to lay. This set of sheets were also not crisp and clean. I think the opposite is called "Dirty". I am thinking, and it may be just me, but isn't the first rule of even a 1 Star hotel to have clean sheets? This motel missed this on 2 beds. Oh, I did take photos of this mess and will present them if needed. My wife and I are not liars nor have an axe to grind. All we wanted was a clean room. Ok, the broken light is a slight ding as is the window which is STUCK OPEN and the crank to close it is broken. But those are tolerable items to us. So, we took our stuff back down to the car and I called the number on the office window. I explained that this was not acceptable, and the lady was polite but offered no remedy, So I told her in no uncertain terms that I wanted a full refund, hung up and headed to the Holiday Inn at the intersection of 53 and 163 on the road to Port Clinton. By the way, regardless of any review about the Holiday Inn, we found it Clean and comfortable and overall a thousand percent improvement over the mess called Lake Point Motel. I contacted Booking.com and told them about this experience and they said they would call the motel and get permission ???? to secure a refund. I explained that I would contest the Charge and never pay the 242.50 regardless of permission status. That is the benefit of a charge card, you can legally contest and not pay. I am thinking that maybe from now on, I will contact any hotel I want to stay at and arrange the room via the telephone to eliminate the middleman. I am sure I might pay a bit more, but for 6 or 8 motel stays in a year, who cares. If I can't get a AAA discount or a Senior discount or a Military discount, I am not being forceful enough. So, I give this Motel one-half of a star simply because it has a roof over a room, and you can stay in it. I will also state this is the first review I have ever done. My sister-in-law told me to "go to Yelp and leave a review." So, I got to Yelp, created an account and password and am leaving a review. It must have been a fairly disappointing experience for my wife and I for me to do this. I am of the old school of 'learning from your mistakes' and not blaming anyone else. After all, I knew it was an old motel, I just didn't believe in this day and age, owners could be so remiss in how they treat their customers. Even us 70+ year olds can learn a few lessons, huh!
Don't go to Lake Point Motel and Don't believe those reviews. Apparently, someone who is blind is leaving them.
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