Econo Lodge San Marcos University Area — Hotel in San Marcos

If I could give this place negative 100 stars, I would. Absolutely deplorable conditions . Where to start? When we arrived at the hotel, the front desk employee was sitting on the lobby couch with his pants unzipped, and his shirt all disheveled in front of his laptop. The door to the lobby was locked, he would only speak to us through the walk up window. He checked us in, provided us with keys and we went up to the room. Upon entering the room, we were met with an utterly vile stench and no air conditioning. We then noticed the dead bugs on the floor, a live cockroach, a substance splattered on the wall, hair not only on the bed cover but the pillows, counter and sink as well. The toilet was dirty, there was a nearly empty toilet paper roll on the holder, and the toilet proceeded to make a high pitched noise for 1-2 minutes after flushing it. But, it doesn’t end there. The 1 body towel, and 3 hand towels provided, were stained and dirty. Upon further examination of the hotel room, we noticed the bed did not even have a mattress pad OR sheets on it but instead had blankets just laid on top of the mattress. Within 10 minutes of being in the room, we decided it was too disgusting to stay in such conditions. The online photos do NOT accurately depict the conditions of the rooms or motel grounds. On our walk back down to the office, we noticed a homeless person sleeping in the hallway. After expressing our concerns to the front desk employee, he offered a different room, to which we declined. He then attempted to justify the homeless person sleeping in the hall, explaining that he has no where else to go so where do I expect him to sleep? Anywhere but the hotel that I PAID to stay at. During our conversation, he proceeded to mark us in the system as a no show instead of issuing a refund. He talked in circles and was everything but helpful in the situation. He said he was unable to process a refund, that his manager needed to do that but was unavailable at the time. He told me he thinks I’ll just get refunded because he marked it as a no show. When asked for a number to reach the manager, he provided his personal phone number. It was at this time, that I contacted the original customer service representative that I had called to book this reservation. She was able to escalate my call to someone that explained, because the hotel employee marked it as a no show, but we say we were there, that they now need to conduct an investigation before issuing a refund. This is unacceptable customer service. I have emailed multiple times, with no response. Called the motel, to only be told that no one was available who could assist with the matter and that I would have to wait until 9:30pm. This should not be the case. Extremely disappointed in the way this situation is being handled. I would NEVER recommend this place to anyone, unless you would like to stay in crack den conditions.

UPDATE 11/26 Still have yet to receive any sort of a refund from this place. No responses to any emails, and every time I call I get passed to a different person or told to call back when the manager is in who apparently is only ever reachable certain nights, but then is never there any of the times I call. This is...

ABSOLUTLY DO NOT STAY HERE!!! When we arrived at 4pm and our room was not ready (check in is at 3pm) and we were told that the cleaning lady is working on it and i stated we had somewhere to be at 5pm so he said that we could put our bags in the room.. when i approached the room, the door was wide open, no one in the room, beds were not made up, all the bedding was on the floor and there were 1/2 cups of McDonald cups everywhere! the bathroom was a mess! i went down and asked for a different room and he didn't want to give me one at first stating the cleaning lady is on the way, after he just said the cleaning lady was cleaning the room. i requested that he give us another room and he did but the key cards did not work, i went back down to talk wit him and he came back up with us and opened the door manually with a key. he took my key cards and said ill be back.. he never returned and we had somewhere to be at 5pm so i went back down stairs and he said that the maintenance man would fix our door buy the time we returned. we retuned to the room after out event at 11:30pm and the cards still didn't work. i went back down and told him and he said that he would come up and manually open my door with his key. at this point i didn't have a good feeling for safety for my family, so after he let us in the room, it told him we would be back down to request a refund and we would not be staying. all together we spent 20 mins in that room and as i requested a refund, he told me he would note it and he would get with his supervisor as he couldn't approve the transaction. he didn't write anything down so i told him that he needed to get on his computer and make a note in there. if that helped I'm not sure.. he didn't offer any solution or anything to the situation and all this is done through window we were not allowed in the lobby area. Even during the day the lobby isn't open. Every time i went down to speak to him.. he was laying on the sofa with a laptop. the lobby was dirty from what i could see and it was just not a good place at all. i called the Choice privilege number that night after i checked out at midnight as i am a active member ad they opened an investigation on the situation at hand to see about getting me a full refund on my stay. I'm not sure who runs that place but maybe the people that are in charge of the Choice Chain should come down there and have a look.. i strongly believe they would probably clean house of that staff and possibly close that place down! i wish i had taken photos but i was just so upset and wanted to get me and my family...

THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT IS BEING NOTIFIED OF THESE CONCERNING CONDITIONS

Attempt to resolve - Motel Staff: I called the front desk, but the phone did not work. I had to obtain towels as none were provided. The lobby was locked. I could not get in. There was no coffee and no continental breakfast as described. It appeared as no guests were allowed in the lobby, ever. The photos are misleading overall, but especially where the lobby and bedding is concerned. I spoke to the staff who was also the man who checked me in the night before. He said he can not do refunds that I would have to wait until the Manager came at 11AM. (It was 7:45AM). He offered to move my room but considering all that I had already experienced, I did not feel safe moving rooms and was concerned for my health and exposure to toxins.

My experience: Safety concerns - The smoke detector was all taped up. I can not figure out the smell, but it began making it difficult to breathe properly. The A/C did not circulate properly, but I wasn't trying to touch it or figure it out. The room had not been cleaned- I could tell, because the other guest room key had been left behind. There was not even a toilet paper roll, it was the cardboard roll. There was a half empty shampoo bottle. no bath towels. I ended up with some kind of bug bite on my toe and scratches on my arm. I wasn't trying to dig through the bedding to see what it was. After leaving this room I honestly felt like I needed every type of vaccine that existed ever in the world, including tetanus. Floors, furniture, everything was rather filthy. The comforter was not the one pictured, it looked older than me. I'm almost 40. I had a small blanket that I slept with in addition to my hoodie over my head. It was very late for checkin, so I did not leave. Everything looked even more dire and worse in the morning. (photos attached)

Priceline attempt to resolve: I was able to contact Priceline through the online chat. I had to send them pictures via email, but no resolution was received.

This experience, really is a cautionary tale. Only after my stay did I discover the experiences of others, inlucing: "this hotel is for panhandlers," "the linens were threadbare," "I've stayed in better places in warzones," - Army Veteran There are numerous concerns over health conditions and notifying the health department found in the Priceline reviews and even the Choice Hotels...