Some
travelers say the Howard Johnson Hotel (at 7600 Merriman Road in
Romulus, Mich.) is dirty and in need of renovations, according to
reviews on TripAdvisor.com.
ROMULUS,
Mich. -- When
you come to a hotel, you expect it to be clean, in reasonable condition
and to have a friendly staff. At the Howard Johnson Hotel located
on Merriman Road, it is anything but, according to travelers on
TripAdvisor.com. AmericaJR.com has received dozens of e-mails and
complaints from people who have stayed there.
Guests
report having dirty rooms that were never cleaned, peeling wallpaper,
mold on the walls, sheets that aren't changed, televisions that
are green and leaky toilets.
“I
went to set the alarm clock and the clock did not work," said
TripAdvisor.com member rntripster. "It looked like a murder
scene with bloody hand prints on the wall and wet floors and a door
that still did not seal properly. This hotel looks like it rents
by the hour.”
Another
TripAdvisor.com member, CanadianEh013, explained his experience
at the hotel: “Opening the door, we saw that the room had
obviously never been cleaned-unmade beds, dirty Kleenex and a filthy
bathroom. This was supposed to be non-smoking, but reeked of cigarettes
and the carpet was damp.”
AmericaJR.com
put in a request at the front desk to see one of the hotel rooms.
The assistant manager of the hotel, who refused to give us his name,
gave us a tour of a room.
When asked
if there have been any updates to the property, he said: "It's
been a couple of years probably since we've done anything. We've
been under receivership since September. Basically, we can't spend
any money to do anything. We can only spend like, purchase supplies
for the rooms: soaps, shampoos, towels. As far as any repairs, we
have to do it pretty much ourselves."
“Room
was a dump," said TripAdvisor.com member warnerte7. "It
was dirty, the heating unit was loud and did not heat well, the
shower was pathetic. Customer service was poor. Waited forever to
check out as no one was at the desk. Wake-up call never came.”
Another
TripAdvisor.com member, RickMcGee, explained his experience at the
Howard Johnson: “The hotel looked like it was closed. Later
I learned the hotel was in foreclosure and it was only a matter
of time before the hotel closed. The bathroom was moldy and gross,
the sheets were so thin I could see the mattress through them. The
girl told me housekeeping wasn’t there everyday because the
hotel didn’t have enough business and that they were trying
to save money by only having housekeeping there every few days.”
We asked
the assistant manager about the allegations that housekeeping wasn't
there every day. "That may have been one room. A lot of times
guests don't tell us. They just post something without notifying
us about it."
Howard
Johnson-Romulus photos courtesy of TripAdvisor.com
The Howard
Johnson Hotel in Romulus has an "F" rating from the Better
Business Bureau. In addition, it is not an accredited member of
the BBB.
"Currently,
they are showing an 'F' rating due to two unanswered complaints
from 2008," said Patrick Bennett, Director of Community Relations
at the Better Business Bureau-Eastern Michigan division.
TripAdvisor.com
member KaitlynSmykowski said: “I wasn’t expecting a
5-star room but this was pathetic. The wallpaper was pealing in
huge chunks around the shower head and in other places. There were
purple markings on the walls. The beds looked a little sloppy and
the bathtub was filthy. The toilet seat was unusable and even the
shower curtain looked dusty.”
Nicole Hockin
is a spokesperson for Hotels.com and a travel expert whose been
featured on E! and The Rachael Ray Show.
"Don't
put your luggage on the bed," said Hockin, when asked about
advice for travelers. "If there's going to be an issue with
the bed, in terms of cleanliness or the comforters, then put your
luggage on the luggage rack. Generally, the comforters on your bed
are not cleaned with every stay."
Another
TripAdvisor.com member, GLCM87, explained her experience at the
hotel: “I stayed in one of the 'nicer' rooms that had a Jacuzzi
bath. The room was disgusting, the wall paper was peeling off the
walls, the bath was cracked and dirty, the carpet felt filthy. The
location is great, right next to the airport, but to be honest you
would be better just spending the night in the airport itself.”
We asked
the assistant manager about the amount of complaints from guests.
"A lot of stuff is just out of our control," he said.
"A lot of it needs work, furniture, scraped up and chipped
up. It's things we cant replace or anything."
AmericaJR.com
was shown one of the clean rooms so where are the dirty rooms? "Probably,
if there's any that are still a little bit bad, the worst ones are
in the 400 building," the assistant manager said. "Those
ones seem to take the most wear and tear."
What should
a traveler do if he or she receives a dirty hotel room?
"If
you ever go into a hotel room and you're not comfortable with the
level of cleanliness, a hotel will generally move you or recommendable
you to another room," Hockin said. "I need to say, first
and foremost, how the request is made, even though the customer
is always right, how you make that request will really impact the
way your request is received. In essence, you always catch more
flies with honey. Even though you may be really irritated, try and
make the request nicely. In many cases, most people will get an
upgrade because the hotel is so appalled that their customers aren't
happy."
Bennett
added: "If they're not satisfied with the resolution from the
people in charge at the hotel, the hotel management, they can seek
other avenues such as calling the Better Business Bureau and filing
a complaint via our automated voice system or they can file a complaint
online at www.bbb.org."
Another
TripAdvisor.com member, cstar002, explained her experience at the
Howard Johnson: “The hotel room was disgusting. Pealing wall
paper, mold on the walls, the air condition barely worked. The shower
was disgusting and there was an entire bucket of cleaning supplies
and dirty rags in the tub. The sheets on the bed were damp and looked
like they hadn’t been changed. Looking back, we should have
just stayed at the airport.”
“I
was afraid to sleep for fear of contacting bedbugs," said TripAdvisor.com
member salleng56. "The room was smelly when I stepped in. The
end table and coffee tables both had fingerprints and grease. The
showers had dirt, which I could easily wipe with a finger. The toilet
had a leak because it would flush to refill the tank every 10 minutes
or so until I finally turned the water supply off. The blanket had
two burn holes and ash on it.”
Travel Expert
Nicole Hockin offered more advice for travelers: "The other
thing is, don't use the glasses in the hotel rooms. Always look
for the plastic cups. Plastic cups in a bathroom are a great option.
If you don't have plastic cups, then thoroughly rinse out the glass
cups. You typically don't see the housekeeping crews walking around
with big carts full of glasses. So those aren't always cleaned as
well as you would hope."
Most people
on TripAdvisor.com say the Howard Johnson Hotel in Romulus is the
dirtiest hotel in metro Detroit. However, we were able to find a
positive review from TripAdvisor.com member BobbyZBurke.
"We
chose this hotel because we were able to leave our car at the hotel
instead of taking it to another parking lot," he said. "The
hotel was clean, the people working at the hotel were very nice.
My personal experience at the hotel was great and I am very glad
that I did not have a problem at the hotel where I would need to
speak with management."
Hockin added:
"My caveat in warning with guest reviews, because I do think
they are invaluable, but you want to look for consistency in reviews.
One extreme review in either direction that's a break from the norm
is probably not what would be typical of that experience. But if
you find a consistent kind of tone, positive or negative running
through the reviews about a particular hotel, then you might want
to give that some weight as you make your decision."
This is
not the only dirty hotel near Detroit Metro Airport. TripAdvisor.com
members have also given low ratings to the Baymont Inn, Comfort
Inn, Ramada, Extended Stay America, Red Roof Inn, Quality Inn, LaQuinta
Inn, Best Western, Rodeway Inn and the Super 8 motel. All of these
hotels are in need of updating their rooms and doing more to stay
clean. These hotels all received scores of two stars or less.
These hotels
have also had their fair share of crime, according to police reports
obtained by AmericaJR.com. There have been 22 incidents of theft
or damage to property over the last six months at hotels near the
airport.
Police
Reports
Metro
Inn Hotel 8230 Merriman Rd. Romulus, MI
4/13/10
- 1:00 a.m.: 2009 Chevy Malibu stolen at a value of $15,000;
later recovered by police
Extended
Stay America Hotel 30325 Flynn Dr. Romulus, MI
2/10/10
- 11:15 p.m.: Radio, GPS and $30 stolen from a 2008 Chrysler
300
4/28/10
- 7:00 a.m.: Ford F-350 truck stolen at a value of $15,000
5/1/10
- 9:30 a.m.: 2002 Dodge Intrepid stolen at a value of $5,000
5/21/10
- 12:30 p.m. Magellan GPS device stolen out of a 2005 Toyota
Corolla
Days
Inn Hotel 9501 Middlebelt Rd. Romulus, MI
12/1/09
- 9:05 a.m.: Windows were shattered on a 2009 Chevrolet
vehicle
12/1/09
- 11:30 a.m.: Three laptops, a wireless card and a GPS were
stolen out of a vehicle in the lot
2/17/10
- 5:30 a.m.: 2000 Ford F-350 truck, tools, a welder and
an air compressor stolen at a value of $17,000
Best
Western Hotel 9191 Wickham Rd. Romulus, MI
12/6/09
- 4:56 a.m.: Dodge Intrepid, two Acer computers, one Gateway
computer, a breathing machine and clothes reported stolen
at a value of $6,000
Source:
Romulus Police Department
Police
Reports
Clarion
Inn Hotel 8600 Merriman Rd. Romulus, MI
12/2/09
- 4:15 a.m.: Radio and GPS stolen out of a vehicle
12/27/09
- 10:30 p.m.: 2004 Ford truck, four custom wheels, one bed
kit and a lift kit stolen
1/9/10
- 11:32 a.m.: Two flat tires reported on a 1997 Dodge Durango
1/18/10
- 2:30 a.m.: GPS stolen and driver's window smashed
Comfort
Inn Hotel 31800 Wick Rd. Romulus, MI
12/2/09
- 11:30 a.m.: Driver's window smashed, a Garmin GPS, car
stereo and a pair of Nike shoes reported stolen
12/2/09
- 1:56 p.m.: Car stereo and GPS stolen out of a vehicle
in the parking lot
12/17/09
- 7:59 a.m.: GPS stolen out of a vehicle in the lot
1/14/10
- 3:52 a.m.: Car stereo and GPS stolen out of a Chrysler
300 in the lot
1/17/10
- 7:32 a.m.: Car stereo and GPS stolen out of another Chrysler
vehicle in the lot
3/19/10
- 4:08 p.m.: Turn signal lever broken off a vehicle in the
parking lot
3/20/10
- 4:15 a.m.: Radio and GPS stolen from another Chrysler
vehicle
3/26/10
- 12:00 a.m.: Vehicle reported with damage to its ignition
system
Source:
Romulus Police Department
The best
advice is to read reviews of several hotels in the place that you're
going before booking one. Some good websites for reviews include
TripAdvisor.com,
Hotels.com, TravelPost.com
and AAA.com.
Many of
these hotels have surveillance cameras. However, only one was able
to turn video tapes to police. Maybe next time, the other hotels
will remember to hit the "record" button.
To file
a complaint about a hotel or another business with the Better Business
Bureau, call (248) 223-9400 or visit www.bbb.org.
A
Dodge Intrepid, two Acer computers, one Gateway computer, a breathing
machine and clothes were reported stolen
at the Best Western Hotel (at 9191 Wickham Rd. in Romulus, Mich.)
on Dec. 6, 2009.
