La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Madison American Center — Hotel in Madison

As problems arose during this stay, I kept telling myself that there must be a reasonable explanation. However, as they continued to accumulate, I was forced to conclude that when you skimp on the minor issues, the major ones will often be treated similarly. Unfortunately, I was not found to be in error.

To summarize our experience: it felt like we were dealing with a 1- to 2-Star operation attempting to masquerade as a 3-Star facility. While this La Quinta may have the amenities of a 3-Star, a "facade" was being applied to our rooms & service. One does not have to be in Oz to realize that something suspicious is behind the curtain.

FIRST- THE GOOD: Safe & attractive location. Very nice-looking building & main lobby public area. Adequate parking. Nice views from rooms. Good blackout shades. Well adorned & professional looking staff.

Unfortunately, the good ends here.

ARRIVAL: Booked a 1-night stay (visiting a relative in the area with cancer; traveling w/my wife who had total knee replacement surgery 1 month earlier). Chose here as I believed a 3-Star would provide my wife a better possibility of a good quality King bed; vs. the many other local well-priced 2.5-Star hotels we have used. Check-In was efficient, but the Font Desk person was impersonally business-like.

1st ROOM: The click-in-place flooring felt & appeared unprofessionally installed; not properly fitted to the room length. Walking caused clicks & hollow sounds in places. Planks weren’t properly edged, w/empty spaces collecting dirt/debris along the walls. Corners & wall edges had accumulated debris. Bathtub had old, worn & unpleasant-looking caulk. Plaster repairs were inadequately & cheaply done. Room lighting was rather dark. The back-lit bathroom mirror was too dark for the room. The toilet sat very low to the floor. I had to assist my wife to stand – which has never happened before.

1st BED: Badly worn mattress w/obviously sunken middle. We had trouble not rolling to the middle. I needed a push to get over the edge when I first tried to roll out. After an hour it was causing my wife great knee pain.

LIED TO BY STAFF: I called the Front Desk, saying the bed wasn't in acceptable condition & asked to be moved to another "King Bed Room." I was told that the Hotel was "completely booked" with "no other rooms available" - and that one "over-booked" reservation had already been cancelled. I acknowledged this & paused a few seconds to ponder my next statement. I was hung up on w/o comment or notice.

Knowing I would likely lose my payment here, I looked online for another hotel. Many online sites showed our Hotel had 2-4 King rooms available. La Quinta's Website showed 2 King rooms available for booking. A call to La Quinta's Booking Service confirmed this.

I again called to the Front Desk. I now spoke to a man with a Midwest accent (my prior person spoke with a distinct ESL-type accent). I explained my first call, my online findings & those from La Quinta's corporate. I was told to come to the front desk & our room would be switched. I was done so but in a very impersonal manner.

2nd ROOM: We were moved & settled back in around midnight. This delay led to our missing breakfast. Room was an upgrade to a suite-level. The floor was better cleaned but had the same before-mentioned signs of improper installation. Bath lighting was better, but the rest of rooms were still rather dark.

2nd BED: It slept much better. In the morning we stripped the bed & pillow sheets (we've worked in hotels & do this as a time-saving courtesy for Housekeeping). We were shocked to find: a pinkish stain on a pillowcase; multiple black curly short hairs & a round stain on the mattress pad; mattress date/info tags removed (why?!), a large discoloration on one mattress corner & a large & gross-looking discolored & torn section atop the mattress near the center.

Clearly - we will NEVER trust, use, nor recommend...

As problems arose during this stay, I kept telling myself that there must be a reasonable explanation. However, as they continued to accumulate, I was forced to conclude that when you skimp on the minor issues, the major ones will often be treated similarly. Unfortunately, I was not found to be in error.||To summarize our experience: it felt like we were dealing with a 1- to 2-Star operation attempting to masquerade as a 3-Star facility. While this La Quinta may have the amenities of a 3-Star, a "facade" was being applied to our rooms & service. One does not have to be in Oz to realize that something suspicious is behind the curtain.||FIRST- THE GOOD: Safe & attractive location. Very nice-looking building & main lobby public area. Adequate parking. Nice views from rooms. Good blackout shades. Well adorned & professional looking staff.||Unfortunately, the good ends here.||ARRIVAL: Booked a 1-night stay (visiting a relative in the area with cancer; traveling w/my wife who had total knee replacement surgery 1 month earlier). Chose here as I believed a 3-Star would provide my wife a better possibility of a good quality King bed; vs. the many other local well-priced 2.5-Star hotels we have used. Check-In was efficient, but the Font Desk person was impersonally business-like.||1st ROOM: The click-in-place flooring felt & appeared unprofessionally installed; not properly fitted to the room length. Walking caused clicks & hollow sounds in places. Planks weren’t properly edged, w/empty spaces collecting dirt/debris along the walls. Corners & wall edges had accumulated debris. Bathtub had old, worn & unpleasant-looking caulk. Plaster repairs were inadequately & cheaply done. Room lighting was rather dark. The back-lit bathroom mirror was too dark for the room. The toilet sat very low to the floor. I had to assist my wife to stand – which has never happened before.||1st BED: Badly worn mattress w/obviously sunken middle. We had trouble not rolling to the middle. I needed a push to get over the edge when I first tried to roll out. After an hour it was causing my wife great knee pain.||LIED TO BY STAFF: I called the Front Desk, saying the bed wasn't in acceptable condition & asked to be moved to another "King Bed Room." I was told that the Hotel was "completely booked" with "no other rooms available" - and that one "over-booked" reservation had already been cancelled. I acknowledged this & paused a few seconds to ponder my next statement. I was hung up on w/o comment or notice.||Knowing I would likely lose my payment here, I looked online for another hotel. Many online sites showed our Hotel had 2-4 King rooms available. La Quinta's Website showed 2 King rooms available for booking. A call to La Quinta's Booking Service confirmed this.||I again called to the Front Desk. I now spoke to a man with a Midwest accent (my prior person spoke with a distinct ESL-type accent). I explained my first call, my online findings & those from La Quinta's corporate. I was told to come to the front desk & our room would be switched. I was done so but in a very impersonal manner.||2nd ROOM: We were moved & settled back in around midnight. This delay lead to our missing breakfast. Room was an upgrade to a suite-level. The floor was better cleaned but had the same before-mentioned signs of improper installation. Bath lighting was better, but the rest of rooms were still rather dark.||2nd BED: It slept much better. In the morning we stripped the bed & pillow sheets (we've worked in hotels & do this as a time-saving courtesy for Housekeeping). We were shocked to find: a pinkish stain on a pillowcase; multiple black curly short hairs & a round stain on the mattress pad; mattress tags removed, a large discoloration on one mattress corner & a large (and gross-looking) discolored & torn section atop the mattress near the center.||Clearly - we will NEVER trust, use, nor recommend...

I have come to expect a certain level of quality standards when I stay at LaQuinta. That’s why I try to return as often as I can.  Usually your hotels are quite trendy, clean, and fresh. I hate to report that your hotel has grossly failed to achieve those standards.

Whether this is due to corporate, or the previous owners who may have kept the property in disarray, matters not. When corporate took over the property, they should have closed the hotel until the proper renovations, repairs, and upgrades could be completed before opening it up to the public; at the very least they should have brought the rooms up to LaQuinta’s standards before reopening. If they did do this, then it is your housekeeping staff who is not maintaining the standards, and your management for not ensuring the staff is not keeping up those standards. Either way corporate needs to be aware that their standards are not being met.

I apologize if I seemed a bit irritated when we spoke, but I was actually frightened to get in the bed, or shower, or to walk around with bare feet. I was completely disgusted with the mold in the bathroom, the scum in and around the toilet,  the hairs left by former guests, and whatever is all over the picture hanging over the sofa made me apprehensive about laying anything down on any surface in fear that it would become contaminated in some way.  Lastly, what the photos do not show, is that Rm427 smelled like cigarette smoke.

I do not believe Rm 427 is an outlier, as you contend. The new room you put me in,116, is much-much cleaner, but I did still find a stray hair on top of the comforter on the bed. I feel that Rm 116 is probably a seldom used suite that is kept at higher-level of quality for VIP’s; and not necessarily an average accommodation. I also noticed several discrepancies in common areas. For example I provided a picture from within the elevator. I hope you can share my concerns with hotel management, corporate, and staff so that they can address these issues. I will do my part to let people know as well, because this not only is disgusting; it’s dangerous!

Thank you again for all your help, and for allowing me to move to a new room. I travel often and I have plenty of choices to stay at other properties. I choose yours because of the comfort level I get at LaQuinta. In my view this experience has seriously damaged “this” hotel’s reputation. And the argument that this hotel being owned, now by corporate, is somehow to blame, lessens the LaQuinta Corporation’s reputation as a whole too. I hope to someday return to your hotel, but that will not happen until I can feel assured that the issues I laid out have been addressed &...