2024 Worst Hotel In The Nation

La Quinta by Windham

Woodlettesville Tennessee

Update: 08/12/2024. This should be at the end of this report. This information came to light a week after writing the following report.

BEDBUGS.

We had to discard a $2500 sofa sectional into the front yard at 3 am upon realizing it was infested with bedbugs. Why the sofa? Why not the beds? Or anywhere else? Because when we returned from our trip to Tennessee, we placed the luggage on the sofa. By the end of the day, we emptied that luggage into the washing machine before putting the BRAND NEW luggage in storage. Disgusting. I can’t remember a time when I was more appalled! My wife was hanging out on the chase playing games on her phone, in the dark, waiting to get tired and I went ahead and went to bed. Around 3 am, she turned the light on on her phone to find her glasses she had dropped and was startled by something moving in the back of the couch. Upon pulling back the Velcro backing, we revealed an absolute infestation. We would have had no idea how this could have happened if the professional we called had not asked, “Have you been out of town lately? Yes? Can I see the luggage you carried with you?” and then determined from larva sacks within the wheels that THIS was ground zero. $1000 for professional attention to the house, $800 to board the dogs for a week, $600 worth of luggage in the trash, and a $2500 sectional in the dump later, we are still afraid to refurnish our house and get on with life as normal.

We have not received any communication from Wyndham Corporate, nor from the management or ownership of La Quinta in Goodlettsville, TX, so we are planning to file reports with the Better Business Bureau and the Goodlettsville TX Chamber of Commerce. I am not sure how long this process takes, but you should be able to view the results of this report at https://shorturl.at/hh97R.

Another Prologue: One of the guests within our business party contacted Wyndham Corporate with one of the aforementioned issues. It came as a huge surprise to me that Wyndham Corporate could care less what goes on in their franchised-owned hotels. So apparently you just buy the name, and from there you can trash it any way you want to. I thought the name Wyndham actually meant something. Apparently not. I say this because the guests’ complaint resulted in the following correspondence: “This property is independently owned and operated under a franchise, and its management is responsible for meeting La Quinta standards…..”
“After a review of your concerns, the best resolution would be achieved by direct communication between the property management and yourself”

Yeah. We tried that Wyndham, and for our troubles we were told to take our complaints elsewhere, which we did – to you – corporate – Unnotige Zeit. 

A summary of her complaint to Wyndham corporate: “Once we got into our room and took a shower, I noticed the water wasn’t draining. I checked and double checked that the drain was open. I tried to shower a bit quicker as to avoid the tub from filling up too much. The front desk informed me that they were aware of the plumbing issue and that they are going to have it looked at. We started to notice some water from under the AC. We put a towel down. By Sunday morning, we noticed all the water on the floor from the AC was to the desk and night table approaching the bed. Our luggage was under the desk. The luggage was soaked. Upon speaking to front desk, I was informed that it was raining and that the wind blew the water in through the AC. It was at that point we decided just to check out. We had no more dry clothes and as polite as the young man was, that excuse did not make much sense.“

I would like to offer my opinion that (Wyndham? La Quinta? Who knows.) made a business-crippling decision in regards to promoting Ms. Patty H to General Manager. I can only offer my observation that has determined that this individual has either no managerial education, or has just chosen to ignore those lessons. I offer this insight because I DO have a CPRM and an ITIL as well as extensive reading in the art of management. I am pretty sure that “If your group has any more complaints about the cleanliness or anything else, they should go ahead and check out and stay somewhere else” is nowhere at all in any of the management manuals.

As another entry of evidence to this statement, I offer the conversation with one of our consultants (Friday, July 26th) who very nicely stated: “I did not want to complain again when I got into my second room, so I went to Walgreens and bought a plethora of cleaning supplies and spent about 2 hours cleaning my room”. To which Ms. H answered (I can not remember exactly, but basically), “Our maid staff is excellent, in fact, I used to manage the maid service and they are very good at what they do. Missing some hair in the sink is normal”, followed by “So your room is clean now then, right? We good!”

Translation – this statement called the customer a flat out liar (and justified the fact that someone elses hair was adorning the sink!?)

These are not to mention the comment “I have a sick child at home, can we wrap this up!?”

I mean, I need to get home to a sick child, but…..

We were basically told to deal with the issues quietly, or get out and go somewhere else.

Ok. That said, let’s outline the events of the weekend.

Last year, in September 2023, we began planning our corporate convention at a hotel where, at the time, Clint was the manager. The arrangements were that we had a room block of 20 rooms that had to be booked and with that we got 2 conference rooms to hold the convention at no charge. Ultimately, 37 guests booked rooms at the hotel, fulfilling the requirement for the complimentary conference rooms. When the hotel changed management, they agreed to honor our initial arrangement. However, during a remodel, the smaller conference room was converted into a laundry room. To make up for the lost space, the new management provided us with suite room 146 to use for our convention.

On Thursday, July 25th, 2024, we started our travel to the hotel. Upon our 7:00 AM arrival, the staff on duty at that time were unaware of any arrangements, so we had to wait for a couple of hours for the “manager” to arrive and handle the weekend and our consultant who helped with the convention process with the hotel.  

The first consultant to arrive at the hotel and acquire her room on Wednesday, July 24th, found no toilet seat attached to the toilet. Upon arriving at her second room, she found mold surrounding the tub and unknown objects in the seams of the ceiling. Disgusted with her third room, she ended up going to a store, purchasing cleaning supplies, and spending a couple of hours cleaning it herself.

Following that, the next couple arrived to find their room flooded and had to be relocated to a different room. 

Subsequently, upon setting up the conference room for our event,  we found tablecloths, which were intended for the convention room, covered with yellow stains. We were left with no choice but to use them, as we couldn’t find any clean tablecloths. (Pictures Below)

Another guest with our party let us know: “There was hair and dirt on the ac unit, TV, and bathroom. I had to wiped down the whole room and took the wipes down and showed the front desk clerk how nasty wipes were.”

Next issue. So gross. The pull-out couch mattress looks like maybe a dog pee’d on it? Smelled like that anyway. (Pictures Below). At this point, we did not even go to a representative. Instead, we checked pull-out couch mattresses in other rooms (From our consultant rooms, not just random rooms) and finally found one that looked new (still in plastic). We moved this mattress to the needed room and returned it to the room it was taken from just before checkout.

Handicapped room 144: ”I slid into grab bar and bruised my right hip first time i used the shower because floor was very oily and slick . First thing manager said was did you use lube in the shower . Bathroom floor very slick like baby oil on it , bathroom floor dirty , showery grab bar not fully attached. Hair on bed . Trash can by entry way not emptied. Movable end table tray covered in sticky substance . House keeper did not knock upon entry to room , husband was lounging on bed . She did not ask him to leave the room. She just went in and cleaned the bathroom never asked to enter room or asked him to leave the room . Issues with booking 2 different managers with 2 different story’s . Manager was very rude and verbally aggressive. Ac was dirty and so was filter we could only use the bedroom one . Front desk didn’t have time to deal with it . Hair in the drain and 2 pins in the couch.” 

Next account. From another of our consultants attending the convention: “As I was sitting in the lobby on Friday night (July 26th) I noticed a family of 5… a man, a woman and 3 little children…the youngest being an arm baby. They approached the front counter with luggage and teddy bears in hand.  The time is now 11pm so I am curious as to what’s happening as it is unusual that check out is so late.  The man and clerk exchange words. I wasn’t able to make out what was said but I thought I overheard “bed bugs and something about a”refund.” I followed the family outside. The man went to secure the vehicle and the woman and kids stood off to the side.  I politely asked her if she didn’t mind,  “Why are you and your family leaving…I thought I heard the word “bed bugs?” She was holding her baby and said “yes,  we saw one on the pillow and were leaving.” With shock and at a loss of words I simply apologized.”

I should also mention that one of our consultants got a better price deal from Priceline than the one the hotel offered us. So that was a waste of time and energy!

As a final entry, the aforementioned manager offered a threatening comment, promising blowback if any of our group wrote any 1 star reviews. Professional right!?