Candlewood Suites Abilene by IHG — Hotel in Abilene

At the beginning of June 2024, we traveled to Abilene to say goodbye to my brother-in-law, who passed away during our stay. We normally stay next door at the La Quinta, but their elevator was not working and my mother can no longer climb stairs easily. La Quinta recommended we try Candlewood, as they were right next door, and had a working elevator.||There was absolutely nothing wrong with our stay and the staff were all incredibly friendly. My issue comes after our departure. We live in South Texas and we were driving back home when we received a call asking if we’d left my Samsung Watch in the room. My watch had fallen off the charger the night before and in the rush to get out (it was pouring down rain and imminent flooding, so we were admittedly in a rush) I completely forgot about it. So when I received the call, I was so incredibly grateful for the staff and their honesty and helpfulness when they offered to ship it back to me, and asked if I’d like to receive tracking for the package. I replied yes and thanked them profusely. And felt like an idiot for forgetting anything - I have never left behind anything in a hotel room before.||There ends my great experience. I waited two weeks - some places have scheduled days for pick-up and drop-off for packages and then once it’s been picked up, it can take a bit. So I waited two weeks and then I called. I spoke to Sam, who apologized for not sending the tracking and that my watch was sent the same day that they called. I provided an email address (which they already had - tied to the room) and Sam assured me that I would be receiving an email for tracking. The next day, there was no email.||So I called again and spoke to Sam again. He apologized again and said that they didn’t have tracking for it, but were working to get it from FedEx. He assured me, yet again, that I would be receiving an email with tracking information.||I waited a few days. Nothing. Call again. Spoke to Sam again. Get the same story with more apologies.||Wait again, call again. Get mad this time. Tell Sam that I don’t understand - if they shipped it and it wasn’t here, it was lost and they needed to file a claim. He assured me that it did ship, and it was taken to FedEx by their maintenance manager, who was accompanied by their assistant manager, the same or very next day that I left it. He said he would go to FedEx that day, after 3 pm (the time he would be getting off of work) to file a claim since the package was obviously lost. I thanked him and now it is today.||I STILL don’t have tracking or a lost package claim, so I call again. Sam answers again. I tell him who I am and what I’m calling about and he transfers me to the assistant manager, Shelby. She asks what she can help me with and I explain it to her.||I’m ONLY THEN informed that my watch is STILL sitting in a drawer at the HOTEL because NONE OF THEM ARE GOING TO PAY TO SHIP IT BACK TO ME. I said, that’s fine - just charge it to the card tied to the room. She says they can’t do that. I ask WHY wasn’t I told this before and she says that she’s sorry that I misunderstood. NO.|I did not misunderstand. I WAS LIED TO. ||I have now purchased a UPS label and emailed it to the email address that she sent me. I’m expecting my watch to arrive Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Cool. I will be glad to have it back.||What I am not glad about is the fact that I could have been told I needed to set up a shipping label ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE FIRST CALL. When they called to tell us I’d left the watch, WHY WASN’T I TOLD THEN?!||AND WHY WAS I TOLD IT WAS SHIPPED WHEN IT WASN’T?!||I’m not going to come on here and post WHY I THINK I wasn’t informed of any of this - but I am going to come on here and blast them for the fact that they lied to me, repeatedly, and that is not okay.||I appreciate that I was FINALLY told the truth. After four phone calls of blatant lies.||YES, it was my fault that I left my watch. BUT, I’m not the first person to leave a valuable item in a hotel room by mistake. I should have been told the truth from get. Will not be returning to this...

Where to start? I rented a room August 1st and 2nd at a rate of 150 or so a night. I chose the pay at the property option and around 4 am my ohone goes off and its the hotel night auditor charging me for the room. Ok whatever no big deal. I get to property and am told i would have to pay a 20$ deposit for towles blankets etc. Never mentioned on website and thats fine but those are never returned to debit cards and i expressed my concern about that but was told its policy. 5 days later I see the room rate come off pending at 150$ to 161$ for each night. And no deposit returned to me. So not only did they keep my deposit they charged me more for the room than i should have been charged. I call the front desk for 5 days straight with no real reasoning why it happemed just couldnt figure it out. Eventually i said to them, i dont care about the money, i would like to stay there again this coming weekend and can you discount the room as a favor to me for the inconvenience? Front desk agreed to give me a room for friday and saturday at a rate of 85$ all in. No deposit no fees 85$ well friday rolls around again and at 2 am. The night auditor starts hitting my card for 97$ more than the agreed amount. So i call when i get up for work and speak to her, i tell her what i was told about the rate and she immediately tells me whoever told you this is incorrect and they werent going to honor it. I tell her i confirmed it with christine the front desk multiple times and the reasoning behind it due to the no return of deposit and thr night audit did not care one bit. She had zero interest in finding out why i never got my deposit back and she was not honoring the 85 dollar room rate. By the end of the converstion she had been so ugly and unhelpful to me that she told me they were going to go ahead and cancel my reservation and still didmt care about the missing deposit, basically it was screw me. I ended up calling corporate 2 times with no help from them, so apparemtly she lied and made it look like i was harassing her so they would side with her. And i call back to speak with management and she is just as rude well it being friday i knew if they cancelled my reservation i would end up paying more for a room due to the short notice. SO I ENDED UP HAVING TO BEG them to keep my reservation, and they agreed to the 97$ not the 85 and by the time it was all said and done with taxes and fees total cost of each night 150$ same price i paid before. I work in customer service and i know for a fact if i spole to customers they way i was spoken to by the night audit girl and her newly appointed manager i would not have a job, and my company would definitely be less a customer. I was told shes rude to everyone and she will have to be caught red handed to get fired. But she deserves it. My buddy heard the entire converstaion and can back me on all of this being true. She was terrrible to me. Also part of that 150 was another 20$ deposit im certain ill never see come back to me. Stay far away from this place. They will lie cheat and steal from you. Also 150 plus a night with a green pool, no breakfast and rude staff. Definitely not worth it. Stay at the holiday inn right next door. Just do not saty here. Youll never get that deposit back. Also my dog is a service dog and i was still charged for him being with me. Even after i told them he was a servcie dog. This place is not ok. Fire the night audit. She is...

This place is horrible and does not meet the IHG standards. Hotel smells, is dirty and the workers seem to go from this hotel to its sister hotel - La Quinta (next door). Very outdated. Hotel employees were improperly dressed for that type of establishment.|| I had a confirmed reservation for three nights (6/24-27) with 2 queen beds. When I arrived to check in on 6/24 at 3:00 p.m., I was informed that they did not have my room, the were overbooked and were going to have to call other potential guests to tell them they had no availability, even those everyone of these people had confirmed reservations. In our situation, a current guest requested to extend their stay on the morning of June 24, so the manager determined it was okay to give up my room to them. We were never informed of that decision until we arrived for our reservation. ||The majority of the hotels in Abilene were sold out. They refused to transfer me to another IHG hotel, instead gave me the option of staying at the La Quinta, but would would stay on the Candlewood books. Went to La Quinta and was given a room. Same condition as Candlewood-hotel smelled, was dirty, etc. Our room was dirty, had cleaning equipment still in it, had an opened drink can and some dirty clothing. I immediately went down and told them I would be back and the room should be spotless. When I returned, it still had some dirty clothing but they said maintenance was working on it so I guess the dirty clothing belonged to maintenance?? We left to check on other hotels in the area because my daughter and I did not feel safe in this hotel. The entrance door to our room would not close all the way and we could not lock it. We were finally able to get it to close and engage the locking system by slamming the door really hard (you could hear it down the other end of the hall), but then the bathroom door would not close. ||We talked to another IHG hotel across town and they said they had 3 rooms available but the price was quite a bit higher because of supply/demand. They said Candlewood could transfer our reservation but Candlewood needed to call them. We went back to Candlewood and they said they called them and was told there were no rooms available. Finally gave up and talked to IGH. They said they could make reservations for the Holiday Inn Express close to Candlewood Suites for about $70 more than what I was paying and they could request that Candlewood make up that difference. So we decided to stay the next 2 nights at that Holiday Inn Express. IHG had said they would provide a discount on our final bill at Holiday Inn Express, but when I received my final invoice, they charged me the complete amount with no discount. That matter is still being researched. ||Never received any further apology/credit, etc. from Candlewood. We will be traveling to Abilene quite a bit in the future, but never stay at the Candlewood nor La Quinta. If we cannot get the IHG matter resolved with Holiday Inn Express, we will probably be looking at another...