Terrible check in experience
When you book a hotel online and arrive with a printed confirmation, do you have confidence that the hotel will honor that? Don't be so sure if you make your reservations via Choice Hotels!
I chose this hotel carefully after reading many reviews. It was a special occasion coming to NYC to celebrate my wife's birthday. We arrived at 11 PM exited and even planned a late dinner after check-in in a nice nearby restaurant.
However the reception person printed a registration form with rates about $50 higher per night. When I showed him my printed confirmation letter which showed the original rates, he said there's nothing he can do and "either sign the form withe higher rates or you cannot check in". We asked him to first get the room and then sort this out but he refused and even suggested that if we don't like those rates maybe look for another hotel, which I thought was outrageous! He then tried to call Choice Hotels. It took some 20 minutes of waiting to talk to them, and amazingly they declined my rates too! After finally talking with Choice Hotels supervisor, it turned out that my rates were raised "because I called them to ask for a room facing the back-side" to avoid street noise. Needless to say - they never mentioned it would change the rate, and the hotel does not charge any extra for that anyway.
It was after midnight when we finally checked in after giving up and agreeing to sign the registration form. We were nervous and frustrated and had to dine in a fast food place since the restaurant already closed. The matter was settled only the following day, when Choice hotels customer service called me, admitted their mistake, reset the rates and said they'll even discount one of the nights to compensate me. It was unbelievable that when we finally checked out, that additional discount was forgotten! (we did not bother to fix that)
The hotel management claimed it was all Choice Hotel's fault. I thought that the guy at the reception should have honored our letter, check us in and then sort this out instead of offering us to look elsewhere.
Last - the hotel and room was very nice. Too bad it was overshadowed by the Check in experience.