Econo Lodge Inn & Suites Downtown San Antonio — Hotel in San Antonio

This hotel penalizes customers if booking through third party, including booking online with Choice directly, encouraging me to pay cash directly to front desk instead of online. False advertising from day one since there was no breakfast as advertised, pool was not accessible, and despite third party reservations explicitly and clearly stating “fully covered, no additional room charges or fees”, I was told I’d have to pay $20 a day because I booked online for a significantly lower rate than what they charge. Then I was told I’d need to bring $100 cash as a deposit that I’d get back. So reluctantly, I bring $100 as a deposit and front desk owner lady switches the arrangement up and says $50 will go to parking and $50 deposit. At first it seemed like same thing until I realized that means for sure I’m not getting at least $50 but lo and behold, just as many other past patrons have mentioned, I didn’t get my other $50 back either because the comforter had WASHABLE marker on it and towels were dirty from doing our own room cleaning. We spent considerable time cleaning the room including sweeping and mopping and not once did housekeeping stop by to ask if we needed anything. More than halfway through the stay we told owner we would do our own housekeeping but that we needed linen. Needless to say, she didn’t even attempt to wash the linen or towels and just made the decision that they weren’t washable because we weren’t supposed to use those to clean up the room with??? So since we spilled cool aid on the comforter and there were washable marker marks from artwork on it and the towels were dirty from doing our own housekeeping, she’s keeping our $50!!! It’s a complete money grab here. Our sink in our room was literally falling out so we had to move rooms but as soon as I said we were going to check out instead, that’s when she proceeded to find an excuse to not refund the other $50 she conned me out of. There should have been no parking fee unless expressed in reservation notes as I’ve seen in the past at other locations, and at a minimum waved considering there was no breakfast or pool available. But instead it’s, charge charge charge, but when the faults are on their end, no budging and zero...

I see so many 5 star reviews. I wonder perhaps if I am so negative because I am accustomed to staying at nicer places - but truly.... this place really was not great at all.

The manager is behind glass, and you have to slide things under it ... kind of like you see in rougher parts of town to keep people from robbing him I would suppose. That was the first sign this was not going to be a winning hotel. We checked in late - 9:30. We were the only ones there but it took forever. There is also a $100 deposit you have to pay on top of the room rate. This is not unheard of, but man I hate that.

When we first walked into our room, I thought - ok this isn't TOO bad. It looked neat and orderly on the first glance.

But then you start settling in and you see all the negatives. First, when we turned on the air the room became musty smelling. My bed smelled like urine. The toilet was dirty. The coffee maker was missing a part so it was non functional. The outlet to the one side of the bed was not useable because the bed had been glued to the wall too close to where the outlet was preventing plugs from going in. The shower leaked. You only get one wash cloth that was very yellowed, and two large bath towels. Many light bulbs were out. The fan in the bathroom did not work. The bathroom counter was sticky with something, there were weird stains and residue on a lot of surfaces. This place felt very dingy.

The next day we were told breakfast started at 7. I knew it was to be a continental breakfast with no hot foods but we showed up a little after 7 and the door was locked, others were waiting too. Manager finally unlocked. We went in and I started to get a table and he said "No, you can only eat in your rooms" even though there were tables and chairs. It didn't matter because there was nothing to eat. Apple Juice and orange juice. and two kinds of dry cereal... but no milk. Coffee was not made. This was just awful.

I thought I was getting a deal on a hotel but I should have spent the extra money and just got somewhere decent. ...

Check in went quite smoothly. The person at the front desk was very kind and patient. However, that night, we did not have hot water for our shower. It wasn't cold, so we weren't too concerned. The next night, we did not have any water at all. We waited a few minutes to see if it would come back on. When it didn't we called the front desk. We were told that they knew of the problem and were working on it. A few hours later, we still did not have water. We contacted the front desk again. They told us they were still working on it and that it would be fixed the next day. We asked if we could check out early and get a partial discount. They said no and that the best they could do was give us an extra two hours to check out the next day. Next day, we still did not have any water. When we went to check out, we were told the water was working and that we could take a shower (it was not. The water was coming down in a small trickle and cold). We were also told that if we opted to leave the night before, we would have been given a refund for the night. I explained to the person at the front desk what was said the night before. Only excuses were made. We opted to leave. Hotel still refused partial refund and told us to contact the third party we booked with claiming they did not have the ability to give us a refund since we did not book with them directly. Third party told us they contacted the hotel, and the hotel refused to approve of any refund. There was never any communication from hotel staff about the water outage. They claimed they called every single room, but my room was never called. There were no notices posted. No letters given to customers about the situation. No options were presented. Never booking...