Comfort Suites - Ocean City, MD Review

My husband and I were looking for a place to stay near Ocean City, MD in order to spend time with our son and his family as well as my brother and his family, who were all camping for a long weekend at Assateague Island National Seashore, nearby. I am not a camping type, and this proved to be an ideal set-up for us all last year when we did this. I went online through the various travel sites to search for a hotel that was as close as possible to Assateague Island, and provided the comforts we wanted. I found the Comfort Inn was ideally located, and we are Choice Privileges members, so I went to their website and booked us a room for a great deal. We originally booked for only 2 nights, as we didn't realize that our son had decided to take an additional days vacation to extend the stay. When I found out, I went back online and changed the reservation to 3 nights, and was pleased that we had found such a bargain. Now, I should add that this was for a Friday and Saturday night originally, and we had added on  the Sunday night. It was also in September, so not in the Summer rates.

What a surprise when we received an email informing us that our total bill was twice what we had been told it would be! I was very angry, and sent an email to the Corporate Website saying I felt defrauded. They said they were very sorry, but the billing was in the hands of the location's manager, their hands were tied. I sent an email to the manager, and received no reply. After waiting for a couple of days for a response, I called him on the phone to ask what was going on. The manager was "unavailable" at the time I called, so I spoke with a desk clerk who was very rude. He informed me that they never had rates as low as the one I had originally signed up for. I said I had printed it out, and furthermore had it still in my email box in my email. I offered to sent it to him. He said forget it, there was no way we would be paying that rate. I was quite frustrated. I had been trying to be reasonable, as I find that these misunderstandings are usually cleared up quickly when I remain calm and polite. This was not to be. My husband finally took the phone and tried to explain that we were paying a daily room rate that was twice what we had originally be promised. This communication we received from them by email would be considered an agreement on this price. The clerk started yelling at him and then hung up. We called back the next morning to speak to the manager, and were finally able to talk with him. He also said that the rate would be as stated in the last email. My husband said that we would have to cancel and stay elsewhere. The manager said that at that point, if we canceled, we would have to pay a penalty that was almost as much as our bill would be. We were furious, but there was nothing more to do.

When we returned from the trip, we contacted the Corporate Headquarters once more, and we were told that this matter was strictly in the hands of the manager on site, and there was nothing they could do. We told them we would be quitting our membership with Choice Privileges. They evidently found no problem with this. I cannot believe that, with the competition there is in the hospitality industry, their corporate people were so nonchalant about this.

We will never stay at a Choice hotel again.