I was very disappointed by the Navy Lodge at Corpus Christi. From other reviews, I thought it was going to be a great place to stay; a las, I was very wrong.
I traveled here with a group of 5 coworkers for a site visit to NAS Corpus. Checking in, the lobby looked nice enough, and the front desk clerk was friendly. I was handed the key to room 204 and proceeded on my way. Walking into the room, I was smacked in the face with a musty, humid smell. I checked to see if the AC was maybe left off, but that was not the case. Looking around, I could see black substance coming out of the electrical sockets, ceiling plugs where I am assuming old light fixtures used to be, vents, and even on the carpet. I sighed, as of course, we are forced to stay here when we visit anyways.
I got unpacked, ironed some clothes, and went off to dinner with my coworkers. When I returned, I showered, and discovered the wildly inaccurate and peeling temperature sticker under the handle. After moving the handle to cold to find a suitably warm temperature, I was able to bathe. I went to brush my teeth and discovered that the faucet had a constant leak at the base, that just kept dripping into the sink. Again, deep sigh with the bathroom situation.
I moved to the bed, started situating the pillows, and found a flippin' silverfish just hanging out! Of course, I can't blame the guy. The air in the room felt like even I was lying in a bath tub. Another defeated sigh, I crawled into bed and eventually fell asleep. Until 3 a.m., at least. I began hearing a repeated chirping noise: beep beep beep, pause, beep beep beep, pause. It wasn't deafeningly loud, but loud enough to wake me and keep me awake. I began searching through dresser drawers to see if somebody left behind an alarm clock watch. Nope. Looked at all of the appliances for any kind of a weird anomaly. Nothing. Checked my phone. Still no. Where the hell was this noise coming from? THE SMOKE DETECTOR.
Half-asleep and plenty annoyed at this point, I walked down to the front desk. Nobody to be found. I realized quickly that the front desk clerk was off to the side at a table intended for guests and instagramming or doing God knows whatever else on her phone. I approached and let her know that the smoke detector was going off. Her response was "Did you try removing the battery?" I was like "No, isn't that a maintenance thing?" The response "Oh, we don't have maintenance until 8 a.m., but I'll make sure they come right up!" Dumbfounded, I asked what I should do about the situation. "Oh, just try removing the battery or something!" Great.
I head back up to my room, and start trying to twist the detector out of the ceiling. Son of a bitch, they never even installed it right! THE ENTIRE FIXTURE ROTATED IN PLACE. I finally turned it enough that the noise stopped (probably not up to code, because that's pretty concerning), and just said to hell with it and went back to sleep. Luckily, no more noise. We left early the next morning to work.
Upon returning to the hotel that afternoon, I asked what maintenance had said about the smoke detector. "Oh, we don't have maintenance today." Dumbfounded again, I asked for clarification. "Oh, maintenance is in training this week." TRAINING FOR WHAT, you might ask? I was too mad to even ask. "Well, what do you recommend I do about the smoke detector?" "Oh, just like rip it out of the ceiling." Awesome answer, right? Pretty sure this "Navy Lodge" wouldn't make the DoD's Fire Protection Act approved property list, but I'm being forced to stay here anyway. So sure enough, I went back to my room and ripped the damn thing out of the ceiling, and discovered that the only thing holding it in place up there anyway was the wiring. I went to remove the battery, and it was in such poor shape that when I disconnected the smoke detector terminals, the battery terminal pulled apart. I stopped messing with it at that point.
Around this time, other coworkers started verbalizing the peculiarities within THEIR hotel rooms. One poor guy's AC was perpetually stuck to 66 and wouldn't shut off. Another coworker couldn't get half the TV channels, but the others worked fine. Yet another guy's room AC wouldn't operate without a loud, cyclic clunking noise. "Jesus, where the hell are we staying?" we start to wonder. It was also around this time that I realized my room as so humid that an envelop I was keeping in my suitcase had sealed itself shut!
I could write more, but those are the major points. I can't believe this woefully-maintained, unsafe, and probably mold-infested property is even open and operating, and that the DoD forces their employees to stay here. Pictures attached for non-believers/skepticists. read more