The Driftwood Lodge — Hotel in Juneau

I am attaching a copy of the email I sent to them, as they appear to have trouble responding to emails and calls from customers.

“ Two nights ago I made an online reservation through booking.com to stay at your hotel. I am a Juneau resident who needed a place to stay with my wife for the night, as we had moved out of our house that morning and were moving into our new house the day after. We had originally tried camping, but as i’m sure you know, the weather was not very cooperative that night.

We made the reservation at around 9:30 PM and immediately went to check in. Once we were told about the 500$ deposit, we respectfully told the front desk employee that we would stay somewhere else for the night. We are Juneau residents, not tourists with pockets full of cash. We were told that though our reservation was considered “non-cancellable,” the employee would speak to a manager to make sure we wouldn’t get charged.

The next morning, my card was charged for 102$ for a stay at your hotel. Forgetting what the employee told me, I find this to be a bit sketchy of your hotel. I work in the tourism industry, specifically in booking. The reason people are charged after they cancel is to recoup for losses made if someone cancels last minute, since it’s not fair to have a room booked until the day of and then be expected to give the money back without a chance of booking someone else. However, in my scenario, the hotel was literally booked for 10 minutes and then immediately canceled by your employee. It was also made at 9:30 at night- definitely not prime booking hours. Nothing was lost from your company by me making a reservation and then having it immediately canceled, therefore, there is no reason for you to keep my money.

Furthermore, your employee told me that the 500$ deposit was listed on booking.com under your accommodation policies. To begin, i’d like to say that this should be moved upwards to the description as booking.com hides this information at the bottom of the page, below the booking and payment section. This information is hard to access until after you pay.

Besides that, I went and looked at the accommodation policies listed for your hotel and it was not on the list. I have attached a screenshot for you to view. Only after looking through all of the little information tabs did I find one mention of the 500$ deposit- one that states that the 500$ is to be collected by credit card. Your employee and your signage around the property all said that this fee is for debit and cash. I had paid for the booking with debit card, so according to booking.com, this deposit did not apply to me. I have again attached a screenshot for you to view this.

Because of all of this, I am expecting a refund to be processed to my card. Like I said earlier, I am a Juneau resident who was trying to support a local business, not deal with confusing policies and scammy charges. I hope that you will be able to assist me with this...

Worst experience ever. We arrived and they tried giving us rooms that we didn’t request. We took our elderly parents to Alaska, and they had tried to place us in rooms we didn’t request. One worker admitted he realized what we paid for but our requested rooms that we paid for in advance were unavailable, but as soon as he said that, someone else, who looked like he was higher up, took over and that’s where everything went downhill. He started arguing that we booked rooms that we were responsible for paying for regardless, even though he admitted to declining the rooms we paid for. We found another hotel for that night and they never gave our deposit back. It’s been almost a year. That’s just me being nice. Our experience was a nightmare in comparison to what I wrote here. We spent 4 hours arguing what we had confirmation for.. they admitted to that they were wrong, and would immediately take it back and try to blame us for their mistake. Most of the conversations had them, someone I’m assuming was the owner, verbally and publicly cussing my husband out because my husband was demanding to get the rooms we paid for and stating that we’ll find another hotel if we don’t get the rooms we paid for. We did immediately find another hotel, Baranof, that we booked for the same nights and we LOVED everything about our experience in Juneau. AVOID THIS HOTEL!! Btw they still charged us and wouldn’t refund. But seriously, bad hotel, bad trip. Go...

We did not have an enjoyable time at this motel. The rooms are dingy & run down & our room had a very strange configuration. The kitchen area is a passage through to bed one. The bathroom is off bed one. The second bedroom is also off that bedroom so it is necessary to go through the first bedroom to access the bathroom or the kitchen! We organised a shuttle for 3a.m. the following morning at the desk. A couple of hours later that evening it was checked with Jeremy that it was all correct & organised, only to be told that it would now leave at 3.30am. which was cutting it very fine for us. After querying the change he made reassurances that the time was correct & all would be well. We all arrived at 3.20am to be told it had left at 3am! The receptionist was not particularly concerned telling us that there was only that one shuttle that night & the only taxi available had just left (with another couple who had also been misinformed.) She eventually organised the day shuttle driver to come in & we just made it to the ferry terminal on time. Staff do not seem particularly interested in the customers or their job. There is a high degree of incompetence & a distinct lack of customer service. At no point did any one apologise. This hotel needs a big upgrade. It is in quite a good position in the town & was inexpensive but fell well below expectations. The only bright spot was the cleaning lady who was lovely &...