Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, San Carlos, CA — Hotel in San Carlos

We stayed here Sep 6th - Sep 10th 2023 and had the worst experience. Confirmation #YGSQXQ.||We arrived around 8PM to check in and we needed to immediately go and meet our family for dinner. We have a fully certified service dog with us. The front desk lady Sasha mentioned that dogs were not allowed and we told her it was a service animal. She then proceeded to ask what my disability is. I told her that is not a question she can ask. She said again she needed to know what the medical condition is. I told her it is my right to be private about my medical condition and it was against the ADA laws. I proceeded to show her my service dog certification that has a link to our Us Service Dog registry website and to the ada laws. I told her the only question she could ask was 1. If it is a service animal? and 2. What task does my service animal provide? I started getting a look as if she was skeptical about what she could ask and whether my medical condition was legit or not. After she allowed us to get checked in, our plans for dinner were ruined and we did not end up making it. She then called our hotel room to apologize and clarified the questions she was able to ask. Everything was clear and she told us to have a blessed night. The General Manager was not on site, so someone from the hotel must have called him. After my partner walked out of the hotel, she stopped him to speak to the manager on the phone. The manager (I was told his name was Perry) claimed that my dog was not a service animal but an Emotional Support Animal. My partner proceeded to tell him regarding the task provided for my disability and all he did was talk over my partner and said it was not a service animal and it's an ESA. He said we had to leave our DO NOT DISTURB sign off so they can check the room everyday to ensure my dog isn't doing any damage or causing disruption, which is completely illegal unless they believe we were doing any illegal activities. Keep in mind, my dog is highly public access trained and passed her public access test for her service animal certification years ago. Unfortunately with ESAs nowadays they are giving service animals a bad name. I came out to talk to the manager and the front desk could clearly see, my service animal was completely focused on me, not reactive to anything, highly trained, either lying down or sitting next to me as I was speaking to the manager on the phone. All the manager did was yell on the phone, talk over me, told me the fact that I showed my certification was a red flag. I proceeded to tell him he needs to look up the laws as he is wrong about his information and his staff was not educated properly. He continued to yell over me and said "I DON'T CARE, I KNOW THE LAWS, YOU CAN SUE ME IF YOU WANT". This is very unprofessional, even if he felt confident with the laws, his job is customer service. All he had to do was say give me a moment to look up and confirm this information. But he didn't want to, so I handed the phone to my partner so I could show the front desk lady the laws and everything they needed to know. But of course he was yelling at my partner saying my dog is not a service animal but an ESA, when you can clearly see her listed as an active duty service animal on the website with her picture, my picture, name and address. The only reason why I showed my certification was to make the process easier, which I am allowed to do. Initially they said they can refund us and for us to get a new hotel. Sasha did not want to continue the conversation and she said she will not discuss this matter any longer and all communication must go through the manager. This is absolutely ridiculous, a big inconvenience, a disruption to our night and plans, in addition it is a misdemeanor what they are doing and the could get in big trouble with the US Department of Justice. We went back to our room once again and called corporate at 18003008800 because they are run and owned by Choice Hotels. We talked to AJ and she was completely supportive and understood the laws. She created a Case escalation #11632703 and was on our side 100%. Now it was a matter of the message getting to the manager. We of course felt hesitant to leave our hotel because we didn't want them going into our hotel room without knowledge. Why? Because my partner is an official federal government employee and has sensitive government property that cannot be tampered with. The day after we called escalation again as advised by AJ to ensure they will not enter our room when we leave in the morning. We spoke to Mary who was again in agreement with the laws and assisted us in calling the front desk multiple times to ensure no one would enter the hotel room and escalating our case to a supervisor. The front desk of course did not answer, so this caused a delay in our plans again. We waited til the afternoon and called Corporate escalation again, to give us reassurance and peace of mind that they would not enter our room. We spoke to Lief and finally got through and confirmed our room would not be entered into. We were finally able to leave the hotel and enjoy our vacation. Every single associate from, corporate was great and knew the laws. They showed care and sympathy like real customer service agents should. This is sad we had to go through all of this just to stay at our hotel when we did nothing wrong. Keep in mind this is probably over our 12th hotel visit this year and we have had zero problems till we came here. I can see why there are multiple bad reviews regarding the manager. He did not once show face at the hotel or see our animal. Nor did he do anything to take accountability to apologize for being completely wrong. He just disappeared and stayed quiet. Why would a hotel allow someone to be a general manager in the hospitality and customer service industry when he clearly does not have the capable skills? Why did we have to go through all of that stress and trouble? He needs to be eliminated from the company or put on some type of action plan. Also needs to be properly trained and educated along with the staff. We could absolutely take it further if we wanted to but calling corporate and getting the service we did is making us hesitant but still considering it. It's sad that Perry is clearly incompetent and does not know how to take accountability for his actions. My partner wanted to go somewhere else and pay an extra $200 for another hotel, but I was not going to allow a manager that doesn't know how to do his job cost us extra money. Of course after all of this we still get charged which is fine. The experience was the worst hotel experience we've ever had and we are big travelers and have been to numerous hotels over the years. Please fix this so you guys don't see a big lawsuit in your hands in the future. Owner also replied and said the task we provided is not a real task. All he has to do is look up the task of service animals licking their owner to medically alert them, but he refuses to be and continues to be a...

We stayed here Sep 6th - Sep 10th 2023 and had the worst experience. Confirmation #YGSQXQ.||We arrived around 8PM to check in and we needed to immediately go and meet our family for dinner. We have a fully certified service dog with us. The front desk lady Sasha mentioned that dogs were not allowed and we told her it was a service animal. She then proceeded to ask what my disability is. I told her that is not a question she can ask. She said again she needed to know what the medical condition is. I told her it is my right to be private about my medical condition and it was against the ADA laws. I proceeded to show her my service dog certification that has a link to our Us Service Dog registry website and to the ada laws. I told her the only question she could ask was 1. If it is a service animal? and 2. What task does my service animal provide? I started getting a look as if she was skeptical about what she could ask and whether my medical condition was legit or not. After she allowed us to get checked in, our plans for dinner were ruined and we did not end up making it. She then called our hotel room to apologize and clarified the questions she was able to ask. Everything was clear and she told us to have a blessed night. The General Manager was not on site, so someone from the hotel must have called him. After my partner walked out of the hotel, she stopped him to speak to the manager on the phone. The manager (I was told his name was Perry) claimed that my dog was not a service animal but an Emotional Support Animal. My partner proceeded to tell him regarding the task provided for my disability and all he did was talk over my partner and said it was not a service animal and it's an ESA. He said we had to leave our DO NOT DISTURB sign off so they can check the room everyday to ensure my dog isn't doing any damage or causing disruption, which is completely illegal unless they believe we were doing any illegal activities. Keep in mind, my dog is highly public access trained and passed her public access test for her service animal certification years ago. Unfortunately with ESAs nowadays they are giving service animals a bad name. I came out to talk to the manager and the front desk could clearly see, my service animal was completely focused on me, not reactive to anything, highly trained, either lying down or sitting next to me as I was speaking to the manager on the phone. All the manager did was yell on the phone, talk over me, told me the fact that I showed my certification was a red flag. I proceeded to tell him he needs to look up the laws as he is wrong about his information and his staff was not educated properly. He continued to yell over me and said "I DON'T CARE, I KNOW THE LAWS, YOU CAN SUE ME IF YOU WANT". This is very unprofessional, even if he felt confident with the laws, his job is customer service. All he had to do was say give me a moment to look up and confirm this information. But he didn't want to, so I handed the phone to my partner so I could show the front desk lady the laws and everything they needed to know. But of course he was yelling at my partner saying my dog is not a service animal but an ESA, when you can clearly see her listed as an active duty service animal on the website with her picture, my picture, name and address. The only reason why I showed my certification was to make the process easier, which I am allowed to do. Initially they said they can refund us and for us to get a new hotel. Sasha did not want to continue the conversation and she said she will not discuss this matter any longer and all communication must go through the manager. This is absolutely ridiculous, a big inconvenience, a disruption to our night and plans, in addition it is a misdemeanor what they are doing and the could get in big trouble with the US Department of Justice. We went back to our room once again and called corporate at 18003008800 because they are run and owned by Choice Hotels. We talked to AJ and she was completely supportive and understood the laws. She created a Case escalation #11632703 and was on our side 100%. Now it was a matter of the message getting to the manager. We of course felt hesitant to leave our hotel because we didn't want them going into our hotel room without knowledge. Why? Because my partner is an official federal government employee and has sensitive government property that cannot be tampered with. The day after we called escalation again as advised by AJ to ensure they will not enter our room when we leave in the morning. We spoke to Mary who was again in agreement with the laws and assisted us in calling the front desk multiple times to ensure no one would enter the hotel room and escalating our case to a supervisor. The front desk of course did not answer, so this caused a delay in our plans again. We waited til the afternoon and called Corporate escalation again, to give us reassurance and peace of mind that they would not enter our room. We spoke to Lief and finally got through and confirmed our room would not be entered into. We were finally able to leave the hotel and enjoy our vacation. Every single associate from, corporate was great and knew the laws. They showed care and sympathy like real customer service agents should. This is sad we had to go through all of this just to stay at our hotel when we did nothing wrong. Keep in mind this is probably over our 12th hotel visit this year and we have had zero problems till we came here. I can see why there are multiple bad reviews regarding the manager. He did not once show face at the hotel or see our animal. Nor did he do anything to take accountability to apologize for being completely wrong. He just disappeared and stayed quiet. Why would a hotel allow someone to be a general manager in the hospitality and customer service industry when he clearly does not have the capable skills? Why did we have to go through all of that stress and trouble? He needs to be eliminated from the company or put on some type of action plan. Also needs to be properly trained and educated along with the staff. We could absolutely take it further if we wanted to but calling corporate and getting the service we did is making us hesitant but still considering it. It's sad that Perry is clearly incompetent and does not know how to take accountability for his actions. My partner wanted to go somewhere else and pay an extra $200 for another hotel, but I was not going to allow a manager that doesn't know how to do his job cost us extra money. Of course after all of this we still get charged which is fine. The experience was the worst hotel experience we've ever had and we are big travelers and have been to numerous hotels over the years. Please fix this so you guys don't see a big lawsuit in your hands in the future. Owner also replied and said the task we provided is not a real task. All he has to do is look up the task of service animals licking their owner to medically alert them, but he refuses to be and continues to be a...

I checked out 20 minutes past their check out time & experienced a series of events within those 20 minutes that should’ve never happened.

Please see timeline below:

At about 12:05pm: I hear Loud Pounding on the room door while finishing up my shower, which was the first red flag (no reason why any employee should be pounding on a door just a few minutes after check out time) I get out the shower glance at the room clock to check the time & I see it says 10:55am, then check my phone which is when I realize the clock in the room was more than an hour behind being that the real time was 12:10p. So I continue getting ready and just as I’m wrapping things up I get a phone call at 12:15pm from the front desk.

12:15p: Jasmine, front desk employee, calls me and I advised her that I was just grabbing my bags and heading out. Keep in mind it’s only 15 minutes past check out time at the time of the call. She proceeds to tell me “we don’t have late check out, Sir!” At which point I again advised her that I was just grabbing my things and heading out. First piece of advice, instead of harassing, give a friendly reminder 30 minutes before check out.

12:20pm: During check out I was met by Jasmine and Perry, the hotel GM. At this point I was already upset with the service and how they chose to handle this situation. I advised Perry that the clock was off by more than an hour which he then rudely asked if I had a cell phone, which is honestly irrelevant.

Don’t run a business based on assumptions, whether I have a phone or even a clock in the room or not should not be part of the conversation. He needs to assume that the front desk is the only clock in the entire hotel. If clocks are going to be in the room then clocks should be added to the checklist for when rooms are turned over, housekeeping should be verifying room clocks, as well as the housekeeping supervisor while conducting audits. Being that these employees are willing to pound on doors, give harassing phone calls, and provide horrible service at the front desk just 20 minutes past check out, maybe this small step would help prevent that, being that the clock was the reason I was thrown off with the time, again me being off on time is irrelevant, I’m not running the business here.

I’m a guest staying at a hotel. It doesn’t matter how this sounds but it’s not my job to manage my time down to the minute while staying at a hotel. People stay in hotels for many reasons, business, vacation, etc. and as guests we can easily manage to lose track of time, again not our problem. I’m not the first nor the last person to check out late. This is part of the business and which is why hotels usually give a courtesy call 30 minutes before check out time, or have a late check out policy in place if a late check out is not an option. Which was another thing this hotel did not have.

I checked out 20 minutes late and things escalated way too fast and was absolutely unnecessary. A simple root cause analysis would’ve fixed this situation on the spot and would’ve prevented this from even happening in the first place but Perry, the General Manager, doesn’t even qualify to be an hourly employee at any hotel, not even a motel 6. This was a series of very poor judgment calls by the front desk employee Jasmine and the hotel General Manager Perry. Here’s some free advice, the next time someone checks out late, instead of pounding on the door, harassing guests over the phone, making irrelevant assumptions, and losing business, simply complete a Root Cause Analysis. Learn how to manage late check outs and coach employees on how to find the root cause instead of making a small situation bad. If a guest having a cell phone or not is your root cause, then you should not be in this industry!

Ps: Perry threatened to call the police on me because I told him he had horrible customer service skills! Lol Please read the other negative reviews, they’re alarming! Calling the police seems to be common practice here, hmm!

I think I know who the root cause is...