I am only 19 years old, at the time I was 18. I was on an extended road trip from Pennsylvania going down the east coast. I had been sleeping in my car with my dog for at least 2 weeks before we made it to North Carolina.
I get to NC around 10pm and for the first time in my road trip, my phone signal starts working minimally. I get enough signal to look up pet-friendly hotels in the area and stumble upon The Acorn Suites.
Like I said, it was somewhat later in the night but they were still open for a few hours and I wasn't far from the location. I call to make sure they're open, available, and triple check that my dog will be welcome. Everything goes fine aside from the girl on the phone being condescending and uninterested.
Their website says they are open until midnight, and this girl tells me she's leaving for the night and no one else will be at the front desk (she tells me all this AFTER I've already given her my credit card information to get a room) so she says she can hide my key for me so I can let myself in. Pretty strange considering I told her I was less than 10 minutes away, but I'm not one to argue with people doing their job, even if something seems odd to me.
I get there, wander around the entire building numerous times to find my room key due to a poor explanation of where it would be. Meanwhile I've been driving all day and haven't been in a bed or shower in at least 10 days. I started on my way towards the hotel around 10:10pm and didn't get settled into my room until almost midnight because of this lady on the phone sending me in a wild goose chase to find my key. On top of it being late and me being in a completely new and foreign area to myself, there were 3 people directly in front of the main entrance insisting on interacting with me. It didn't take close inspection to realize they were 110% absolutely on hard drugs. They looked like they were either crackheads or tweakers and I instantly did not feel safe, now knowing that I can't find my room key and there is no one at the front desk to help me.
I finally get away from the Tweakers and find my room key. I get into my room, nothing incredible but completely fine for what I needed so no complaints there. On account of being exhausted and stressed out from all the hassle I had just endured, me and my dog immediately went to sleep.
I had my phone alarm set to 6am so I could let my dog out and then get back on the road. I leave my room to get my dog's food bowl from the car and a bald man at the front desk immediately charges over to me. "Are you Sean?" I say yes and ask if there is an issue. He tells me "that dog can't be here" and I'm confused, I ask "I thought this was a pet friendly hotel, it says on the website and even verified with the girl on the phone. Im sorry if I'm mistaken." This guy did not have ANY sympathy or understanding. I wasn't arguing or giving him any trouble, I was just genuinely confused and wanted to understand what I did wrong. At this point he starts to explain "we have breed restrictions. No Rottweiler, no pitbulls, etc" and once again I'm even more confused because 1. No one on staff has SEEN my dog yet because we've only been there for 6 hours overnight, 2. My dog is none of the breeds he listed as "not allowed". I ask him to clarify what my dog did wrong and he replies with "you need to get that pitbull out of here right now" and I tell him my dog is not a pitbull. He is a Viszla mix and is 3 times as tall as a pitbull, and not nearly as muscular. I am not lying or exaggerating, after finding out my dog isn't a Pit, this guy has the audacity to say "I don't care. Get out" so I start to go back into my room so I can get my belongings and as I'm about to open the door this guy continues and says "oh, and that'll be a 300 dollar cleaning fee" and that's when I lost it. I still kept my cool and didnt raise my voice or anything crazy like that, but at this point I was just absolutely fed up. I say "I've been here for no more than 6 hours, the room is absolutely SPOTLESS my dog isn't a pitbull and no one informed me of ANY of this before I checked in." They still had my credit card on file so they easily could have overcharged me like they were threatening to. I informed my bank and told the bald man that i would take serious legal action if they tried to pull any $hit lile that. It took me 5 minites to pack up my stuff ans grab my poor dog and we spent the rest of that day getting the HELL OUT OF NORTH CAROLINA. The Acorn Suites were such incredibly difficult, rude, frustrating, scam artists that i will NEVER go back to that Godforbidden state ever again. I did not stop ONCE for the entire 3.5+ hour drive until i made it to South Carolina. On my way back home to pennsyvlania once my roadtrip was over, i literally took many many many extra hours to go AROUND North Carolina. I will never go back, and with all my heart i hope people recognize how terribly this Hotel treated me. read more