Days Inn by Wyndham Winona — Hotel in Winona

I take no pleasure in writing this review as I have historically had good luck with Wyndham properties, especially for the price point. Our experience at this particular Days Inn, however, was terrible and continues to be a problem due to a very unhelpful and short-sighted Manager named Brian. At this point I have initiated a credit card charge dispute and opened a case with Wyndham corporate regarding our experience. Bottom line - I'd stay anywhere else in Winona, or stay in an adjacent city, rather than book a room here again. I'll update if I get a refund from Wyndham corporate. Details follow if interested.

Arriving at our room (134), we found the window open even though it was 56 degrees outside. We soon discovered why - the baseboard heat was stuck on even though the thermostat on an inside wall showed that it was set as low as it would go. Meanwhile, the actual room temperature was 80 degrees. Somebody's solution to the heat being stuck in the on mode was to leave a window open on a cold day. Adjusting the thermostat had no effect on the heat - it remained on. Fired up the wall AC and set it to 70. Left for an event at WSU homecoming for several hours. Returning to the hotel for the night, even with the AC running, the room was still at 76 degrees. While not comfortable, we thought it was manageable. My wife and I are both CPAP users - a medical device for sleep apnea. We set up our machines and upon plugging them in to the only visible outlets near the beds, neither of them would power up. Neither of the AC outlets worked. I went to the front desk to ask for an extension cord as we were willing to run cord across the room for the night, but the front desk employee could not find one anywhere on the property. While he was searching for an extension cord, I happened to notice that the refrigerator in the breakfast area adjacent to the front desk was above a safe temperature for the dairy products it contained. This is after being locked up all day, so not due to a recent door opening. Photo attached.

By this time, it was approaching 11:00 PM. No other rooms were available as it was homecoming weekend for WSU. I told the front desk employee that given the condition of the room (excessive heat and no bedside AC outlets for our medical devices) we would be leaving the hotel for a late night 3-hour drive home. He was very understanding and apologetic and said that it was a refundable event but that the manager would have to take care of that. I wrote our reason for leaving on the face of a receipt he printed out and he signed it as evidence of our departure and reason for leaving. The next day I called to confirm a refund would be issued and spoke with a second front desk employee. He was unaware of the situation, but upon hearing the details confirmed that a refund would be issued by the manager, Brian.

I reached Brian 3 days after our early departure to confirm our refund had been processed. He told me that he might consider a partial refund and that if we had moved the nightstand from between the two beds we could have found working outlets. He kept insisting that he had told the front desk employee on duty to tell us to move furniture to access a working outlet, and that was his basis for not offering a full refund. I said that it's not reasonable to ask guests to move furniture to access working outlets, but he didn't agree. I informed him that I either wanted a full refund for the night we did not stay, or I would contact Wyndham corporate. He said, "go ahead and call corporate."

This is why am going to such lengths to write a long review. First, the front desk employee on duty that evening did not make any such recommendation about moving hotel furniture to access working outlets. Second, guests should not be expected to move furniture to access working AC outlets. Third, that the manager, Brian, is so unhelpful and short-sighted that he is no doubt costing this Days Inn location to suffer a loss of future business and tarnish the brand with his lack of...

1 star because I can't give 0 stars! At first appearance the room seemed fine, appeared clean, until we moved the mattress (will get that) and found trash under them. The room felt damp the whole time. We had called ahead and asked if they had crib available, we were told yes...if we were told no we would have brought our own. When we had been told to call back the day before our stay to remind them we would need a crib, no big deal..they then told us to remind them at check in okay. When reminded them we would need a crib when we checked in, the yound man at the desk said that he remembered talking to my husband the day before and seemed a bit annoyed. We checked it sometime between 6pm and 7pm, my husband had to go back to the front desk even later to request the crib again. It was a playpen that had never been used, no big deal...so my husband goes about setting it up and it had a hole it it straight out of the box and was flimsy as heck, didn't use it. We all go to sleep, my husband, myself, and the baby in on bed and our six year old in the other. The AC ran all night but it still felt gross and humid, but not that big of an issue. The real issue happened when I woke up in the morning and was covered in red dots...so I decide to remove the blankets and sheets and found a bug....yes, THE BUG! A bed bug. So my husband starts moving the mattress, this is how the trash under the mattress was found along with a swarm of bed bugs, and the swarm was worse on the bed our six year old had been on. My husband scooped some into a disposable coffee cup and went to the front desk. He told the young lady their that there were bed bugs in the room to which she asked for proof and he gave her the cup. She looked inside and said they would have to deep clean the room now. She told us that we could check out and we would receive a full refund if that's what we wanted, we did choose to do this. When we checked out the phone rang and you could hear the other end ask if they had rooms available and the girl said that one just opened up... this was Labor Day weekend, it has been almost two weeks since then and I have not received a refund at all. I did wait about a week before trying to contact them because I know stuff like that takes time and there was also the holiday. Once we started trying to reach out to them to resolve the matter we would get put on hold until someone on their end eventually hung up the phone, this has happened multiple times. We drove six hours to vacation in Winona for the weekend just to turn around the next morning.

TL;DR They have bed bugs, and...

DO NOT BOOK HERE ESPECIALLY IF ITS THROUGH 3RD PARTY! Booked and prepaid through Orbitz. When we arrived at 3:30pm the guy working started checking me in and informed me there were no rooms ready. He checked with the housekeepers and came back telling me and I quote “they had some rooms vandalized and damaged beyond repair”. He said he was in contact with the guy who runs the place. The people behind me were worried because they booked the same type of room. However they had a room for them. As I’m waiting, it’s been 25 minutes, i was told they were fully booked for the weekend so I asked if a refund is possible. He said yes and supposedly cancelled the room. He also said that the manager Brian was the only one who can issue the refund and that he was on his way in. Well I called the next day and no one knew anything and said I checked in and checked out the next day. The worker was a total jerk. He actually hung up on me the first time I called. I emailed Orbitz and Brian. He called me and acted like he knew nothing and had to get to the bottom of this before he issues a refund. Orbitz had no luck getting ahold of Brian, he wouldn’t return their calls. This went back and forth for a week. It seems to me this guy is a scammer. If you read reviews I’m not the only one this happens too. Thankfully in one email he mentioned he would refund me personally and that never showed up on my credit card and when I asked for the info that Orbitz needed to issue the refund he never sent it. So I sent a screenshot of the vague response that he said he would refund me to Orbitz and they refunded me. I did file a complaint with the FTC and if you have been scammed by this guy I would...