In December, 2007, my husband and I directly booked two rooms at this hotel for my daughter’s 13th birthday. She and a friend enjoyed the indoor pool, foosball, and mini-golf. My husband and I stayed in an adjoining room. We were treated well by the staff and we enjoyed our stay despite some issues with cleanliness -- don’t wear white socks on this hotel’s carpet!!

Just six months later, at my daughter’s 8th-grade graduation, I used the “name your own price” feature on priceline to purchase a room for visiting grandparents. What a shameful difference in customer service!

Several days before our most recent reservation, my husband called to see if we could arrange for a non-smoking room. Tamika (sp) at the front desk told him we had “reserved a smoking room” through priceline and, although my husband refuted her claim, she refused to find us a non-smoking room -- she even went so far as to say all non-smoking rooms had already been booked. My husband phoned priceline customer service, who called Tamika, and low-and-behold she found a non-smoking room.

Since graduation was at 4 PM, my husband went to the hotel early (around 1 PM) to see if any of the rooms had already been turned by housekeeping and could be available before the usual 3 PM check-in. One non-smoking room by the pool was available; we were grateful it was on the 1st floor as my parents are elderly and there is no elevator. My husband PAID for the room, got the keys, WENT INTO THE ROOM to make sure it would be acceptable for my parents, then he left the keys in an envelope along with my parents’ name at the front desk and requested the clerk give the keys to them upon arrival. However, when my parents arrived an hour later, the front desk clerk refused them entry to the room before the regular 3 PM check-in time -- they were forced to change in a small bathroom off the lobby!

By the time my parents got hold of us, around 2:30 PM, they’d already dressed for the graduation ceremony. My husband called the front desk and when my father went back to the desk, the clerk “shoved” (my father's description) the envelope at him without a word – no apology, nothing!

If we hadn’t stayed at the same hotel 6 months earlier, we might have chalked it up to overall bad customer service. But given the difference in our treatment, it seems clear we were being “punished” for getting a good hotel rate through priceline.