Quality Inn — Hotel in Kamloops

While the staff were very friendly, the room was very run down. This is not a place we would stay again.

The room was in rough for shape considering this is a hotel chain with "quality" in its name. The room had ripped wall paper, a large water stain on the ceiling, some sort of crystallized seepage coming through the wall above the door, moldy grout in the bathroom, multiple power outlets were so worn out that items plugged into them wouldn't stay plugged in, the powered/lit mirror didn't work, there were all kinds of substantial marks and scratches on the paint/baseboards/wallpaper throughout, a wheel fell off the desk chair as one of the people in our party sat on it, and the curtains wouldn't close all the way to keep the sun out in the morning, to name a few things.

But the worst was that the sheets clearly hadn't been changed since the previous occupant had been there. There was tomato sauce on one of the pillow cases and when I pulled the blankets back on one of the beds there were many hairs, belonging to more than one person judging from the length and texture of them, on the sheets. I went to the front desk to relay what we had discovered and the woman there was very apologetic and tried to be helpful when I asked for two full sets of clean sheets so that we could change out bedding for both beds. She came to the room and took a picture of the tomato sauce. Unfortunately my first instinct when I saw the hairs on the sheets was to brush them off, so she was unable to get a picture of that. She said she wished she could offer us a new room but the hotel was fully booked for the night. We had travelled all day and were very tired so we didn't really want to change rooms at that point anyhow so I said that was fine. But then when I got the clean linens from her and was changing the bedding for both beds, I also looked under the mattress protector and there was pieces of cereal, bits of other food, more hair, and the mattresses looked old and saggy. The mattress protectors also looked grungy and dirty. And later we noticed that the duvet that was on one of the beds had what appeared to be spots of blood on it while the new "clean" sheets had stains on them and were threadbare. At this point we became concerned about bedbugs given the lack of cleanliness of not only the linens but the actual mattresses themselves so we made sure to pack up all of our belongings and keep them as far away from the beds as possible for the the night.

To top it off, we had booked this hotel in part because it had a pool but when we went to have a swim after a long day of driving, the outdoor pool was full of dead bugs, feathers, bird poop, and other debris. I spent some time cleaning it out with the mesh pool cleaning tool that was there but then we realized that we didn't smell any chlorine in the water, when usually hotel pools smell strongly of chlorine. With all the bird poop I had scooped out of the pool, we didn't feel the pool was safe if the chemical content in the pool to keep it free from bacteria wasn't up to the right levels so we decided not to swim. I would have mentioned it to the staff but it seemed as though there was only one staff member on at that point in the evening and she seemed to be quite busy so I didn't want to bother her with it.

Had we not been so tired, we may have tried to find a different hotel for the night but this all happened as we were getting ready for bed and we couldn't fathom then moving to a different hotel. I had intended to bring it up with a manager in the morning but we needed to get on our way and decided we didn't have time to get into a discussion about it. As well, we figure the hotel management must know about the state of the linens, the pool, and the general state of the rooms. This can't be the only room like this. So it would come as no surprise to them.

As I say, the staff were all very friendly and the complimentary breakfast was decent, but it seemed like, at least in the afternoon/evening, the hotel was quite understaffed. And clearly at least the room we were in was not cleaned properly. I know this isn't a high-end hotel and that's not what we were expecting, but we had just been on a 10-day trip and had stayed at 2-star and 3-star hotels and motels the entire time, both chain and independent, and had not encountered any of these issues anywhere else. When I stay with a brand like Choice Hotels / Quality Inn, there's a certain basic level of cleanliness that I expect I'll find at the property and that certainly was not the case at this hotel. We did not sleep well as we were worried about bed bugs or other critters that might be in the mattresses and overall, as the last night of our trip, it wasn't a great way to end it.

I'll be sending this same message via email to the property management and to the head office for Quality Inn/...

Chose this hotel as hospital nearby that is able to provide my medical care.

Was greeted - no that isn’t true - was ignored by Jay at the front desk who was organizing something on his cell phone that required his full attention. We sat in the lobby waiting for him to complete this task, although another staff member was at the reception desk completely ignoring us. For five minutes. We were the only people trying to check in. First impressions are important, a lesson lost to staff this day.

I’ve travelled to 73 countries over the past 40 years, and I wish to say for the record that Jay is simply the worst fit for the position of welcoming customers that I have found in my days. Demeaning, condescending and simply rude, he thought it worthwhile to explain the hotel’s credit card policy which is “the same over all the world” implying that I was poorly travelled, poorly educated, or maybe both?

I am guessing he hasn’t been to much of it, but if he had he would have discovered that courtesy, tact and discretion are highly valued as representatives of a hospitality industry. And completely absent with this hotel representative.. Interestingly, his co-worker either ignored or approved of his behaviour. That ain’t great. A low bar was the rule on my check-in experience.

When I realized that the assigned room was directly beside the reception and breakfast service area, I asked Jay if there was a possibility that I could be moved to a quieter area as I am a light sleeper. He insisted I had been given the most quiet room by far despite its location. I was told that family groups were in the upper floor that would make my experience worse should I make a change. Defeated, I accepted what I was given and tried to make the best of it.

And then the fun part after we returned from dinner..

The families / people / animals upstairs start doing human things and the floors begin to crackle and squeak. And whoever is assigned above me can be heard coughing. And for some reason a lot of stuff is dropped on the floor, which this older hotel was not designed to hide very well. The room next to reception, across from the breakfast bar and below the vacationing families and their pets is really, really noisy. And insufferable for someone with a medical operation at 0715 tomorrow.

You’d think that’d be obvious, but the lead staff at the hotel don’t think that could be possible.

If you want to be mistreated by the welcoming staff, want to have a sleepless night the night before your surgery and want hotels explained by someone thirty years your junior…. this is the hotel for you. I know you can’t fix the floors at this stage, but you can fix the attitude of your staff.

Or simply replace them with someone with hospitality experience. Courtesy would be nice, too.

Updates since check-in:

Day #2, and although the cleaning sign was on the door at 7am the team hasn’t been able to take care of making the bed as of mid-afternoon. Tried to get towels at least, but the maid closest replied “no English”. Pantomime was used to find unfolded bag towels, with the comment to a staff member “are these clean?” They were taken unfolded back to the room - real classy, that.

The room in question is #110, and unless you’re deaf and completely oblivious to annoyance it is the not the room to choose. Room immediately above was occupied by preschoolers bouncing off the walls until midnight. When the breakfast bar opens in the morning you get a front row view and audible overload to all kinds of stupid traversing the hallway and preventing you from leaving the room. Granted, this review is written on a long weekend, YMMV

Day #2 after return from surgery, trying to sleep in early afternoon. It is impossible once again, as the impromptu day care on the floor above is in full operation and the thudding, squeaking and voices from above prevent conversation in my room, let alone sleep.

This is bad enough to experience, but this room was recommended by Jay as the very best. Bad attitude and bad advice...

Very happy with our stay here last night. The rooms were nice, white bedding, updated. We stayed in a double queen room. Sink is on the outside of the toilet and bath room which is quite convenient when traveling with multiple people. Fridge with small freezer section allowed us to put our ice packs and food inside to stay cool before repacking in our cooler. Nice flat screen tv. Did not allow casting, but we plugged in our laptop with the hdmi from the cablebox and that worked fine. Free wifi, worked well for streaming. Lots of convenient charging options, 2 outlets and 2 usb ports on both the desk and the nighstand between the beds, though the usb slots were only cranking out 350mA so use the outlets if you need a more powerful, faster charge. Our truck had a lot of stuff in the bed (covered with a tonneau cover) but the area appeared safe and nothing was disturbed. We parked at the back of the property which is away from any other roads or buildings. There aren't many options for parking if you are towing, as you would need to hope for a spot on the street in front. The continental breakfast looked good. Options included microwaveable premade breakfast sandwiches, yogourt, fruit, juice, coffee and tea, toast, pancakes, cereal and muffins. Good coffee. I filled my travel mug and took it to go. There is a little coffee machine in room but didn't use it. We also brought our small dog. No issues, an extra $20 fee. I appreciated that the entire hotel is pet friendly and didn't have to worry about booking a room then finding out that room didn't allow pets. We are travelling halfway across the country unexpectedly so we don't have the luxury of figuring out hotels in advance, we are just driving and booking hotels to stay for the night as we go. Will prioritize other Choice Hotels as we go because of this. Last thing to note, we had a black light with us and very impressed. The bathroom and beds were spotless. You have set a high bar for our first stop...