Originally I gave this hotel a one star review due to the incompetent front desk staff. Today, I give a one star due to the fact that despite we gave our contact information to the front desk manager and left messages for literally weeks requesting a response she never even bothered calling back to speak with us.
A little background. We had a reservation for a night due to a family event in ridgecrest. We ended up leaving late due to the unexpected death of a friend. We called letting them know we would be late. We later called again to give our estimated time of arrival, from the road. The woman at the front assured us it was not a problem. We arrived, after midnight, and there was a male employee at the counter named Johnathan.
Our paperwork and a room key was on the counter, and we were ready to go to sleep. He told my husband that he'd already closed out the rooms for the night and he could not give us a room. He then slid the paperwork off the counter and held the key to the room in his hand like we were going to try to take it.
It is now approaching 1am. We are tired, and still freshly grieving. My husband says fine, we'll just pay for a second night. Rent us the room for another day. Problem solved.
To which the front desk clerk advised he could not do that, check in time isn't until 3 pm tomorrow. My husband polietly asks to speak to the manager, and he's told the manager only works during the day Monday through Friday. We asked if there was anything we could do to get a room because we were tired and he told us to come back after 3pm.
Mind you, my husband's family lives in Ridgecrest. We stay in this particular hotel multiple times per year when visiting family. We're rewards members. He still refuses to contact a manager. He suggests we sleep in our vehicle. In the desert. In the summer. My husband never once raises his voice or acts upset even though he's incredibly frustrated.
I was already sad given the events of the day and now I just breakdown sobbing. I told him my friend just died and that's why we're late. It's late, we know we got here late and we did everything right by calling ahead not once but twice, and he clearly still had our paperwork put out with a key on the counter ready for our arrival. Why can't he just please give us a room? And he tells us only the manager can do that and he doesn't feel like calling her.
We promptly left and went directly across the street to the Marriott where they immediately gave us a room at now darn near 2am. When advised of what just happened across the way the staff was visibily appalled and offered us late check out so we could get rest.
The next day we returned to the clarion to speak to the manager during business hours. We were advised she was in a meeting. We left our name number for contact without any other information about it being a contact about a potential complaint. She never called. My husband left several more messages over the course of the next week or two and never received a call back or any attempt to make this right. The hotel literally could have taken the money for two nights knowing we were only going to be there a few hours, and instead of having a bit of compassion Johnathan chose to add to our burden. The complete lack of response from those in charge show us that the customers here do not matter to any of the staff.
We will never stay at this chain again and we have advised our family who lives in town of what happened and they are also horrified and will not recommend this place to any out of town visitors from here on. It's a shame because we had several happy holiday memories associated with this place but their customer service is so terrible it ruined any chance of me wanting to step foot in this...
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