I grew up in Piedmont, where this is the only motel or hotel in the small town (population 2k). In small towns, everyone knows what everyone else does and little is secret.
I say this because one of my family members worked at this motel and now one of my family's neighbor works at the motel as well, so I definitely had a backstage pass to what is going on behind the scenes.
The current (new) manager is changing staff pay weekly and fired my family member with no notice or real cause. This wouldn't be a problem at all in a bigger city and the business would probably do well (although noone would enjoy working there). But in a small quaint town, you can get a bad reputation very quickly and when you do, it's very hard to change it back to good. Elisa, the manager is in for an interesting social experiment....if noone finds out that most of what she says is disorganized lies and that she doesn't treat staff or pay them appropriately, business will be fine. But, if word gets out, locals will not support this business and it could possibly be a failure.
This would be unfortunate since they are beginning a remodel of all the rooms. The rooms themselves are clean and tidy, nothing special but a solid night's sleep. I requested the largest room which has two full beds, a sofa and a full kitchen. I was hoping I could have family over while I was back home for a week. Once we settled in, I realized there was no bath mat, no bathroom trashcan, absolutely no toiletries and the kitchen (complete with a stove top and dishwasher) had not one pot or pan, plate, silverware or cup. I asked the housekeeper if any of that could be provided and was told that management didn't allow them to supply any of it. I hope that changes when they remodel! On a side note, our room was a corner room and had not one single window in it (which in my current state of residence would be a huge fire code violation). I brought all this up with Elisa, the manager (except for the lack if windows in the room) and requested that since I wasn't able to use the room as intended, I would prefer to move to a smaller room and reduce the rate. At this point, I should let you know that you have to prepay for the room to book it (I have never had to do that ever, and the rate for the room was a whopping $140/night, well over what I could find in any city, so I already felt like I was taking a huge gamble when I booked it). Elisa got back to me in the morning letting me know that I had prepaid and she would not accommodate any changes. This was totally her right to do, since I had agreed to the prepayment. I was just disappointed that she didn't care if it made our week-long stay less enjoyable or not. I wouldn't recommend this motel at all until management takes a different approach with the happiness of their clients and treats their own staff with better dignity. read more
