This warning is to all those who are considering staying at the Value Place extended stay motel.
A month before leaving on a planned trip, I made a reservation for a room with my credit card. The property manager Paul Benke was the one who made the reservation and when I asked for a reservation number he responded by saying "your information is stored in our computer system" "just come on in and we will have your room ready for you".
Upon arrival at the Value Place it was late in the evening. After giving my information to the lady who was at the front desk, we asked for our room keys. She began to look nervous as she fumbled around to try and find our reservation. After a few minutes of no results, the woman asked me if the room could be under someone else's name because she wasn't finding it under my name. I responed by saying "No", that I remember speaking to the property manager when I initially made the reservation and could she please call him.
She seemed reluctant to oblige my request and again began acting nervous as the phone call was made. As minutes passed as she was on the phone with Paul (the property manager) and no progress was made, I asked to speak to him. Once I identified myself and asked what was preventing us from getting our room, Paul responded by saying that apparently our reservation was lost. He even went so far as to suggest that perhaps we made the reservation at "another place"! I fired back, "No, I am positive that I made the reservation here and that I am quite certain made the reservation with you." He said, "Well I'm sorry, but we don't have your reservation and we are out of rooms."
At this point my blood was beginning to boil, we had just been on the road driving for over 4 1/2 hrs and it was now approaching 11:15 at night. We were tired and ready to relax, but now we were being told that "Sorry, we can't do anything other than to recommend you to somewhere else." I once again expressed my displeasure with the whole situation, but was just ready to get somewhere so that I could rest and relax.
Little did we know that the recommendation that was given by the property manager was disgusting at best.in fact, the new motel even told us that there were three other families that were having to stay there because the Value Place lost their reservations as well. We decided to find another room somewhere else and happened to get lucky and find a place where someone cancelled their reservation.
This place was much nicer and while checking into this place (Mariott Springhill Suites&Highly Recommended!) we were again told about other families displaced by the Value Place due to their inept management and company policies.
Once home, I called the Value Place corporate office and spoke with the director who did apologize (which the property manager Paul Benke did not) that we were inconvenienced. He continued to explain that our reservations were not actually lost as we were told previously, but that in fact the company rents their rooms out by the week (which we knew) and that their locations will continue to take reservations eventhough the rooms may be occupied (we were not told of this).in other words, they will take your reservation and depending on whether the person stays the full week or not will determine the availability of your room. Sometimes someone will stay for a few nights, other times they will stay the full week.
The obvious problem with this policy is that you the customer do not know about this until you arrive for your booking/reservation. They do not provide this disclaimer, as they should upfront, that you should call in advance to find out if their truly is availability or not.in fact, according to the way this company operates, your reservation is absolutely worthless. The Value Place misrepresents to their potential customers that they will have a room and many times they don't.
As a relatively new extended stay motel/hotel, the Value Place has ill trained management and offer no sympathy to their customers when displaced by the lack of a good reservation/booking system. No compensation was offered to us when we explained that we had to pay more for the room that we were basically forced to get. The director operations for the Value Place even confided in me that their reservation system is faulty and should be corrected. He did not say if they would or are going to fix this extremely big problem.
If I were to guess, this place will not be in business for much longer. If it does, it is going to appeal to those who stop in on a whim and happen to get lucky. After seeing the inside of the place, I am glad that we didn't stay there. It was very cheap looking, it sort of reminded me of a college dorm room&very basic and plain looking. I was also agreed with by others who new of this place.
The short and thick of all of this report is&do not stay at the value place, if you do you will be severly disappointed and left at the last minute trying to find other places to stay. If anyone comes accross paul benke, the property manager, give him a middle finger wave for me!!!
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