Clarion Pointe Galveston Beachfront — Hotel in Galveston

We checked in and our room was smelly and dirty. We had paid extra for this room to "face the pool". There were bugs on the walls, mold in the bathroom, and stains and hair in the beds. We went and informed the front desk that we needed the linens changed at the very least. We went to the beach for a couple of hours and came back to new linens sitting on our bed. They didn't even change the bedding but left it for us to do ourselves. We went and spoke with Becca at the front desk, who was amazing, and she moved us to a much cleaner room, room 413.

7/29: We spent the day out at the beach, came back to a room that had not had the linens changed or fresh towels and trash was still full. We had to use our beach towels we brought from home to shower with. I was finally able to locate a housekeeping staff member that understood I needed towels. We had asked two others, and they didn't understand what we were asking for. We had asked for the room to be cleaned and left for a couple of more hours and came back to our room that was never cleaned. At that point it was evening time and we were ready for bed.

7/30: Our room HAD to be cleaned because trash was full, and we were out of towels again, and linens had still not been changed since the first day and at this point, we had been to the beach several times, and in spite of our best efforts had sand throughout the hotel room. We made sure to inform the front desk before leaving for the beach that morning that we needed housekeeping and explain the situation. She assured us that she had it written down. We left for a couple hours and came back and the room had not been touched.

We spoke to housekeeping and asked them to please clean our room when we left for the second time, which was about 30 minutes after coming back. We also stopped by the front desk again and requested that it be cleaned and informed them that it still had not been done. We were assured it would be done.

We came back and it was still not done. We stopped two other housekeepers, as they were cleaning other rooms, and asked for the room to be cleaned. We also stopped by the front desk again before we left and thought it would be done by the time we came back a couple of hours later. It was not done.

We needed showers and we wanted to rest, but couldn't even sit down because the linens needed to be changed and we had nowhere to put trash. My husband at this point called the manager at the desk. The manager was very nice and understood why we were upset.

He came up and retrieved all the dirty linens and towels and dirty trash. He brought us clean linens and we had to make our own beds. He also brought us new towels and trash bags, and then had to sweep the room himself. It is also worth mentioning that at one of these times that we came back to our room, our keys were no longer working and we had to go to the front desk and get them re-keyed.

The manager called us back later to inform us that they were going to credit us $25 plus tax back to our account for the inconveniences, which is really nothing in the grand scheme of all of the issues we had, but he did the best he could. It was out of his hands and was up to the manager above him.

7/31: When we came home this evening, I went to our bank account and noticed that instead of being credited the low fee of $25 plus tax, we were instead charged $25 plus tax by the hotel.

We did a lot of research before we booked this hotel and it was Disheartening to have had this experience and have had it affect so many parts of our day throughout our vacation. We don't expect a lot and we aren't hard to please. However, when we go on vacation and we pay for things, we do expect a certain level of cleanliness at the very minimum. We have never been on a vacation where our kids were begging to leave and go home because of how bad the hotel was. To have to spend a chunk of your vacation cleaning and chasing down people to help you just so you can shower and have someone take the trash so it isn’t overflowing in your room is not much...

This hotel is old and is not very well kept up. The bed was comfortable but the pillows were not; they were very broken down. Upon entering the room, there was a musty smell - like a closed up room. We figured it was just because it was an older hotel and it needed to air out a little. I noticed that the large window over looking the pool was VERY dirty. I used paper towels to wipe it down so we could see out of it. There was no suitcase stand to put the bag on so we used the small table. In the bathroom, I found hairs (long dark hair as well as smaller curly hair) in the bathtub and on the floor. Then, I noticed hair and dirt on the back of the toilet. There were no wash rags or face towels in the room; only 2 bath towels. We went back to the desk and got the needed towels and rags and I used one to clean the tub, toilet, sink area and wipe the surfaces of the furniture in the room. It was dirty after that. We had family staying in a different room so we decided that we would stay here and "just deal with it" since the room seemed to be okay otherwise. Then...I found the dead roach. To their credit, I didn't find any live roaches, but... We were going to go get a bite to eat and I was going to put some things in the safe in the room but it appeared to be broken/locked. I asked my husband to call the front desk and we discovered the phone didn't work. Ugh! Okay, whatever - let's just make the best of it. We left to go to dinner and the door wouldn't lock - what the heck?? - then we discovered that the handle "stuck" in the open position and you had to "jiggle and wiggle" it to get it to close properly so the lock would catch. Okay...just one more "thing". Let's keep going. The rest of the trip was uneventful and we had a good time with our family. When we checked out, I gave a list of the "issues" to the manager and talked through the list with her. I was polite and told her "You can't fix it if you don't know what's broken"; we had a nice conversation. Fast forward to a few days later at home. I was balancing my checkbook and I had a charge for $4.60 from the hotel. What's this for??? I called to hotel to find out what it was because nothing should have been "out of sorts". I was informed that this was a "Safe Charge" - a fee charged for use of the safe in the room. Yes, a locked safe in the room - one that I COULD NOT use. I was told it was on the paperwork that I signed (my bad - I should have read ALL the print) and that, since I did not use the safe the money would be refunded in 5-10 business days. How did they know I didn't use the safe you ask? Oh...because if I had used the safe, I would have had to call the front desk and they would send someone to unlock it. But wait! I can't call the front desk - the phone doesn't work!!! So now, I have to check the bank for the next 5-10 days to see if the money is refunded and if it isn't, I have to call them back. NEVER AGAIN!!! I WILL NEVER STAY HERE AGAIN!!! THIS IS AN AWFUL EXCUSE FOR A HOTEL!! Do your research - there are better, cleaner, more comfortable hotels all across the island and they don't...

Where do I start. In summary, I left after the first night. This was one of the worst experiences I've ever had. The staff is absolutely horrendous. For starters....the elevator. The elevator is archaic and takes forever. They stuck me on the fourth floor so after waiting 20 minutes for the elevator I decided to carry my luggage up four flights of stairs. So after stepping over the dead cockroaches in the stairwell. I made it to my musty room. After using a pack of lysol wipes and cleaning the room for a half hour, I though I was good to go. Until I pulled back the cover on the bed to find stains all over the blanket. There was another bed and that one was cleanish...??? So I put the blanket I brought on top of the bed and slept in that one on top of my blanket. 6am the alarm clock starts going off. That was a great way to wake up on my first day of vacation. I unplugged the alarm clock and struggle to go back to sleep only to be woken up at 8am by loud banging coming from construction. I went down to the front desk, after waiting 10 minutes for the elevator, I dated jumping over the dead cockroaches that were still in the stairwell. I made my way to the front desk to tell them about the banging. The lady said that there was nothing they could do. I played them a video I took and her response was, "wow that's loud" then she made me show it to her coworkers. I told them this was not how I wanted to spend my vacation and I was leaving. I told them I was not paying for the first night. They agreed and told me they couldn't process the refund because I booked the Expedia and to call them. Great! More unnecessary aggravation on my already ruined vacation. I contact Expedia and they call the hotel. The hotel now refuses to refund me for the first night. So not only was my entire vacation ruined and abruptly ended but now they 1. Expect me to pay for the terrible experience. 2. Went back on their word about a refund. I would stay away from this trash place. I had to call my bank and dispute the charges. When they viewed the video I sent them they immediately refunded the charges. Avoid this dirty dump. It was not only disgusting but the incompetent staff is not willing to resolve problems. There are so many nice places to stay on the island. Avoid this dump or risk having a...