Ramada by Wyndham Whitehall/Allentown — Hotel in Whitehall

This is a review of 2 hotels (explanation soon).

RAMADA: I booked a two bed single room via the Wyndham Rewards website with my rewards points while traveling with my family (wife, son, grandmother - with mobility issues). I arrived after 8 pm and was given a room upstairs and there was no elevator - not a tremendous issue but my grandmother does have difficulty walking up stairs so, inconvenient. I mentioned this but was not offered a room on the lower floor; however, I did not ask so that is partially my fault.

When she and I walked upstairs with my son (8 months) we found the door to the room ajar. Inside, the beds were made but there was trash and food left on the tables and floor. I called the desk and was given an apology and offered another room. At this point I requested first floor and was told to come to the desk for the keys. I asked and was given a room number so we could take our things that direction.

After getting to the room, I went to the desk, carrying my son) to get keys while my grandmother waited. New keys, walk back, keys do not function. Repeat, new keys, walk back, keys do not function.

While I was doing this; my grandmother was talking to another family in the hallway. They had been given keys to a room where a man was lying in bed enjoying his room.

Once you start to be upset and angry you start to look around and let other things you may have overlooked sink in. The paint was in poor condition; the carpet was dingy and filthy, the lighting was sub-par and the building smelled musty. Compiled with the lack of organization and the uncleanliness, I refused to let my son stay here, let alone my adult family

I returned to the desk; informed the attendant that I no longer wished to stay at this location and I would like his help transferring my Wyndham reservation points to another location.

He apologized for the issues and stated he had just come on duty and was not sure what the previous shift had done in terms of the cleaning/vacancy notations. He called a nearby Howard Johnson and asked if they had a room, explained I wanted to transfer my reservation and was told they were holding my room. I heard the Ramada attendant mention that he would have his manager call to explain how to transfer the reservation points over - so at least that worked out.

We left and made our way to the Howard Johnson nearby.

HOWARD JOHNSON I arrived at the howard johnson sometime after 9 and spoke to the front desk. He stated our single bed-room was ready and that he did not know how to transfer my points. I then had to explain that my reservation was for 2 beds as I have 4 people traveling and I was told I could use my points (via transfer). He explained he informed the Ramada attendant that they only had a single bed-room available, but no one told me.

I was then offered a 2 bed-room with additional pull-out couch suite but I would have to pay cash. He did offer a slight discount. I was agitated and unwilling to look for another hotel as I needed to get my son bathed and to bed, so I paid. He offered me 1st or 2nd floor options; I picked first as I did not want my grandmother walking upstairs again (found out after that they have an elevator at this location). He then said that is good the 2nd floor room is no good - at which point I wonder why its offered if it's no good.

I went to check out the room first this time (as I should have and always do, but we were rushed and I made mistakes at the Ramada myself). The hallway smelled like sulfer (from the pool area) but seemed in better condition.

I checked the room quickly and it seemed MUCH better so we took it. However, after my wife and grandmother came in they quickly noted issues. Tub Mold, Dirty walls (came off with lysol wipe), tile mold, A/C Vents broken, lamp broken. We were so tired and angry we slept in our clothes, washed my son with only a washcloth on the bed and left as soon as we woke up.

Ramada = 0 Howard Johnson =...

I had to travel from New York to PA for my little sister's wedding & she selected this hotel for the wedding party. Since i haven't stayed anywhere else, i blindly trusted her selection. Ramada is blacklisted from any future business with me and my sister is now on my naughty list.

Not only was it impossible to get someone to actually answer the phone for a week, then to book the actual room ("you have to speak to sales"; i don't have access to that info - yet when i visited was told there is no sales department). Luckily, the day i checked in I witnessed which employee lies to callers (she made a joke about it, implying she isn't being managed -- which was a huge foreshadowing to the rest of my tale).

It gets better. The same employee couldn't properly program room cards - forcing me to run back and forth from 2nd floor to 1st floor front desk (took 4 tries and an insult from handyman about front desk not knowing what she's doing), just to be assigned a 'non smoking' room that smelled like a 100 year old cigar hall.

That or my room doubles as a room for smoke breaks because this 1970s styled room was permeated with old stale smoke scent to the point where my gown and wardrobe also became rancid. Plus, the carpeting was... sticky? When i walked barefoot, i got grossed out by the sensation of the carpetings viscosity. My socks have some weird residue that i don't recognize (dafuq).

Went to the local Walmart to purchase febreze and scented candle bc i no longer wanted to deal with staff at this point.

Oh.. and there was someone living in the hallway on my floor. Literally had their appliances plugged into the hallway outlets with belongings lined up out in the hallway - when I arrived and when i checked out. No clue if staff live on site? Who is managing and/or allowing this?

Right, so the raging party across the hall kept me up till about 4am, which was perfect for my alarm set to wake me up 3 hours later.

The only saving grace was the free breakfast. Left starving, after a blissful night of rest & bug bites (patterns of 2 screams bed bugs), i received my grand finale.. they authorized my credit card ... 4 times.

Prior to checking out, i thought i saw 2 open authorizations and inquired, to which I was told that one was voided.

After checking out, i looked at my account again and saw otherwise.

Now I only had 1 room for 2 nights.. So why are there 2 authorizations in the aggregate amount of the 2 night stays = $318.00. The remaining 2 are for 1 night stays = $158.00. Maybe their "Sales Department" had a miscommunication...?

Still waiting to see what they finally end up charging. You know I won't be calling to speak with management, as we can assume it doesn't exist, so a charge back will be my next action.

If i could create a deficit of stars, I'd rank this place a negative 5. Given the low prices, i guess you get what you pay for however my $476 bank account authorization looks like i stayed at some resort in Bali.

It's like this hotel's management intentionally neglected the upkeep and hired bottom of the barrel staff to run the place out of business. If you need to go somewhere dismal to overdose i'd strongly...

I rented #148 "king suite" just to try to avoid unnecessary noise from the livin's. What can I say about this hotel except it's very obvious that it's owned by foreigners, whose biggest concern is to maximize profit. There's very little regard for the actual customer here. Let's start with entry to the room... It's 25 degrees outside so naturally I looked for the heater first and foremost. It was a newer built-in wall unit, but as it turned on the window shades blew completely forward. This exposed my room completely to anyone outside looking through the window or just passing by. So I had to use an ice bucket and my deodorant can to keep the shade closed. Then I went to sit on the couch, and the entire cushion sank inside to allow a thin padding between you and the sofa bed. Next I went to plug in my essentials, cell phone, tablet ect. Only to find out there are no plugs readily available except one in the bedroom away from any hard surface, and one in the bathroom. So I decided that it couldn't be all bad and I needed a shower upon looking at the vent in the bathroom and the vent above the jacuzzi, I decided I did not want a dust bath after all. Then I noticed the walls were just covered with filth. So I made my way to the "restaurant" called Shooters. I attempted to order the house signature Cuban sandwich, only to find out they were out. I struck out about 3 times before I actually found something on the menu that they had in stock. I received a cup of chicken noodle soup, which looked like it was scraped up from the bottom of everyone else's finished bowls. I decided to skip that and just enjoy some crackers that were pre-packaged so I knew they were safe. I received a meatball sandwich, which two out of the four meatballs tasted completely off. There was also a shriveled up very dry pickle as well on my plate that I passed on. Then I was very excited to see they had pierogies, which were clearly freezer burned. I had a Mountain Dew which tasted about 75% water. Just disgusting food and drink all around. As I was walking back to my room, I noticed how many ceiling tiles were just missing or broken. Also how much jerry-rigged repairs had been done to the walls and such. So I decided to enjoy a nice hot cup of tea before bed. Well as innocent as that sounds I took a look inside of the coffee maker and saw some weird bacteria along with dirt lodged in the corners of the water tank. Just an awful experience from anyone used to a traditional American hotel. Only come here if you can't find a Hilton, like I did. I think Wyndham is off the maps...