My wife and I are coming off what should have been a fine, New Years weekend ski vacation in the Adirondacks. We are not rich by any means so to take a two day ski vacation is a real luxury. Trying to save a few dollars we booked a room at "The historic hotel Saranac" in Saranac Lake NY.
It was the absolute worst hotel experience we have ever had, to the point that I don't believe I can ever stay at another hotel again. The following is my side of the story, the manager (who is a mean, condescending (expletive) will of course tell you different.
We walked in to a musty cold lobby to check in on a friday afternoon. The girl at the desk was nice enough, gave us our room keys and we went to open the door. The room was freezing! The bed and floor were dirty and looked like they have never been cleaned after a bunch of kids chain smoked cigarettes during an all night beer party in there, then shut the door. We went down to complain and of course they had given us the "wrong" room. This was the "right" room, but that key didn't work in the door they told us.
So I went back down. This time the manager escorted us up to yet another room on another floor and opened the door for us, all the while muttering that we were "too picky" and complained that some people are so hard to please. He treated us like he was doing us a huge favor for letting us stay there. The room he showed us was small, cold, musty and only marginally better.
We ran the rust out of the sink and tub lines for about 5 minutes before it got luke-warm and clear. The plug in electric heater was a major fire hazard because the room was so small we couldn't put it anywhere that wasn't within three feet of something that would catch fire. It dawned upon us that their website was almost a complete fabrication. There was no bar, no restaurant, nothing was clean or well maintained. It was as if no one there gave a damn and we were staying in a slowly dying building. Even the centerpiece "grand hall" aint so grand anymore. All the paint was falling off the ceiling and layed there on the floor. None of the bathrooms worked, no water. Everything smelled like mold.
That night we didn't sleep at all. The cold and the noise kept us awake until some partiers (who we later found out were relatives of the owner) went to bed. It sounded like they were having a dog fight or something. We heard people breaking bottles and yelling, a lot of cursing, dogs barking and growling. We were genuinely scared for our safety.
In the morning it was obvious we could not stay another night and told the manager his hotel sucks and we want a full refund. He told us, when we made the reservations we entered into a legal contract to pay for 2 nights and we would be charged accordingly. I told him I would file with the BBB and fight this in court.
We went out to put our luggage in the car and go skiing but our car was missing. We told the front desk and were told our car had been towed sometime during the night. We were beyond angry. The manager said we had parked in the "employee" lot which was not marked in any way and we could not park there. The lot was largely empty and there was no way for a mistake like this to happen. When confronted the manager said the "employee" lot was for employee parking only and we had to pay the tow company (it was well over a hundred dollars).
We had to take a cab to the impound lot to get our car and we were so disgusted with how we were treated we drove home to Saratoga. My lawyer (who I get to pay for too) said we could take this to small claims court, maybe civil court if he wont pay up. After 3 weeks he still won't admit he was wrong and wont give us even a partial refund.
This place will haunt my wife and I for the rest of our lives. It is a modern day miracle it stays in business with such a sorry, spiteful man running the shoddy downtrodden place.
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