Smoke Tree Lodge, Banner Elk

We were not to keen on the idea of giving more business to a person that displayed such terrible customer relations to begin with and we did not plan on paying for 2 rooms so we declined. We opted to resolve this conflict by canceling the reservation. She quickly informed us that would not be possible and that she was going to bill us anyway. We showed up at about 5:00 pm which is early enough to cancel at almost every other reputable hotel company. Again, we are well traveled and are very familiar with most travel policies. We were forced to take the room anyway and as we were leaving the foyer the lady at the front desk threatened that if we all even entered the room she would have security come. Again, this is not a way to treat a customer even if we are upset. When we got to the room it smelled like mildew and cigarette smoke. As I said before, we have babies, and that is not a good environment for them, so we had to go back down and confront the very same people that we very combative with us. When we went down to the desk we asked for another room and she said that she did not have one for us. This perplexed us because at the very beginning of our encounter she told us that we would have to purchase another room. Now, they did not have another room. While we were there another manager came by and finally let us cancel our reservation. We were perplexed as to why we could not cancel. I would think from Smoketree’s perspective, you would not want a pissed customer staying in your room. I hear stories all the time of customers destroying hotel rooms. We of course, would not do that, but it is a poor business decision to force someone to take the reservation anyway. Another thing that is funny to us is that all we have to do is call our credit card and put a hold on it anyway. Why cause all this distress when it was 5:00 pm and there is plenty of time to take rent the room? We were there to celebrate my son’s 2 year old birthday and this was a terrible way to start it. We were forced to leave and find another place to stay.