Best Western Plus Lytle Inn & Suites — Hotel in Lytle

We have a group of life long friends that make annual trip SW of San Antonio, TX every Labor Day weekend. It has been challenging to find convenient and well maintained hotels in this area. We were excited to have found the Best Western in Lytle, TX. In early August 2024, I reserved a block of 10 rooms for 2 nights on Labor Day weekend. When I asked about the timing of releasing any unbooked rooms, the BW rep asked for at least 1 weeks advance notice.

On Friday, August 16, 2024, I called the BW to adjust the reservations from 2 nights to only 1. I also inquired about the remaining available rooms. The BW rep indicated 4 rooms had been reserved and 6 remained. I asked that she release the 6 remaining rooms in the block.

Labor Day came and our group enjoyed our stay at the BW. When I checked in and out, none of the BW staff made any reference to an issue with the block reservation and I paid for my 1 room for the night. When I return home, I received billing receipts for the 4 rooms that were utilized and called the BW to insure the other 3 rooms had been billed to those guests.

During the call, the BW rep confirmed the rooms had been billed to and paid for by the others, but BW had billed my credit card for 8 rooms that went unused.

"What? You billed me for rooms that I released on August 16?" I asked.

"Sorry...We don't have any record that you released these 8 rooms", she replied.

"But you agree there were 10 rooms reserved and 4 we occupied by our group? Correct?", I responded.

"That's correct.", she answered.

"So even if I did not release the rooms, which I did, why are you billing me $1,275 for 8 rooms?", I asked.

Stumbling for an answer, she said, "You'll have to speak to the manager, Joann."

And so the saga began. I have left numerous messages for Joann over the following week and received only 1 call back. During the call, Joann informed me she spoke with her employee who remembers I called to adjust the reservation, but conveniently has no memory of me releasing the unused rooms. We discussed the discrepancy between the 8 unused rooms vs a 10 room block where 4 were occupied, which is a clear data point of inaccuracy by BW. Joann indicated she would need to discuss the matter with her management, but asked that I not dispute the charge with my credit card company.

Enough is enough so the charge has been disputed.

This whole matter is even more disappointing because the hotel is relatively new and well maintained, the staff was professional and warm (other than Joann), and the compilatory breakfast was pretty good. It would have been so simple to correct their mistake and they would have secured our business for years to come. Now, my family will never use Best...

If I could leave this place 0 stars I would and I’m not one to leave negative reviews. We arrived and most of the front was blocked off and didn’t even look like the place was open. Got to our room and after getting our 3 month to sleep we found a roach, the rooms were dated with basically nothing in them. We didn’t want to wake the baby so I reported it to the front desk and the lady was nice said they would move us and I could speak to the manager about charge removal or discount. Came back at 8am as told and new lady said the manager should be there by 10 and could further help us. Didn’t change our room. Came back at 10:15 and manager still was not there, she said they could offer me a 10% discount on the one night stay and said I could check out since there are other hotels, I quoted what she stated to me. My wife and I were baffled and for $600 3 nights this is absolutely unacceptable. Manager name is Hasy and you could do better than that as a manager. We left and are now staying at the embassy suites near San Antonio, much better.

Follow up to owner response: That is not the case, I was told I would be moved to a different suite the following day upon the guest checking out and room being cleaned. I was also told by overnight staff at the reception area that I would be “taken well care of for the issues as seen in pictures” and yet upon coming down at 8am as I was told I was told by new staff the manager would arrive “around 10am”. The 4 adults were family members that actually came and helped us check out as we were in town for a birthday party (we live in Houston). Oh and as for the “discount” we were offered it was 10% for the room stay that we feel is not enough for sharing our room with a cockroach and mold with our 3month old baby at a $200 night rate. Long story short, I post many reviews and mostly good reviews, pictures do not lie. I advised to your staff that I would post a review if no real compensation would be done for us and I was told “do what you would like, you’re not getting the night free and there are other hotels we could stay at” we ended up staying at the embassy suites on the northwest side and there staff were very accommodating. Allowed us an early check in so that our formula would not be ruined, waived the check in fee, gave us complementary breakfast and drinks along with an oversized suite for our issues at this place. Best Western pool area looked like an abandoned unused area, I should have taken more pictures. And a dispute was filed with my bank as I had advised you guys of too. Your customer service truly needs work....

Worst experience I’ve ever had at a hotel. Staff charged my card 3x the said amount without me authorizing it. I had mentioned it and she simply said she didn’t know why it was “probably” a holding fee. Ended up using two different cards to cover our total of 8 nights stay. The other card was charged another amount that was not pulling up in the hotel system which they could not explain either. Finally figured out the amount charged on the 2nd card was the amount of the entire anticipated stay (again- without authorization only agreed to 2 nights being charged on this card and the other 6 on another card) charged as a pending transaction. Mind you I don’t have access to this amount and when you have bills due that really puts you in a bind. Another staff member the next night printed out a statement and said we owed even more money (after I explained to her this was clearly a credit amount due to being in parenthesis since we paid for all 8 nights apparently on our card that was not authorized) she was clueless. They literally don’t care or understand the important of financials when it’s not their money. If this happened on the first or second night we absolutely would not have stayed the total of 8 nights here. A family member had to LOAN us money to cover bills until that pending transaction (what we were told would clear in 48 hours from the front desk that the manager later clarified as 5-7 business days) was cleared 3 days later. That family member called the hotel manager to complain and they did absolutely nothing to seem the least bit apologetic or in consideration to do something from a customer service stand point (free night? Discount? A sincere apology??? ANYTHING). So I called corporate that night and spoke with the customer service department. I filed a complaint, and all they could say was anything regards to billing or compensation is directly through the hotel manager and they were “so sorry for the inconvenience”. I can assure you, I will never stay at a Best Western regardless of location and I will inform any and everyone I know that this entire company fails at customer service. Consider this a favor. Also— expect a letter written...