Reach Staybridge Suites Corporate Office 

Subject: Subject: Customer Betrayal: Staybridge Suites’ Disgraceful Exploitation of Loyalty

Dear Staybridge Suites Customer Service,

I pen this missive under duress, overwhelmed by the sheer audacity and repugnance of the treatment I have endured concerning my recent reservation at your Niagara-On-The-Lake establishment (Reservation Number: 24407676]). A long-time IHG member, my faith in your brand is shattered, replaced by a visceral disgust at the betrayal of customer loyalty.

My reservation, initially set for January 13, 2024, to January 14, 2024, required modification due to unforeseen work commitments. In seeking a reasonable solution, I was informed, with a sickening lack of remorse, that I could shift the reservation to February 10, 2024, only to be saddled with an outrageous, utterly unjustifiable fee of $54.00.

This demand for additional payment is nothing short of a corporate shakedown, an insidious exploitation of a patron’s commitment to your brand. The fact that Staybridge Suites, under the IHG banner, deigns to penalize its loyal clientele for the simple act of rescheduling is not just bad business; it is an affront to common decency.

Make no mistake: I am not requesting a mere reconsideration. I demand the immediate annulment of this extortionate $54.00 fee. The expectation for you to rectify this blatant act of customer abuse is not a negotiation point; it is a directive.

I insist that you promptly reverse this odious charge. The disdainful treatment of a devoted IHG member demands swifter action than your corporate bureaucracy likely comprehends. Failure to address this matter with the urgency it deserves will result in the swift and deliberate erosion of any residual loyalty I harbored for Staybridge Suites, tarnishing the entire IHG brand in the process.

I anticipate a swift and unequivocal resolution to this matter. Your tarnished reputation now rests precariously in your hands.

Not what I expected from Staybridge, I have enjoyed many stays with Staybridge in different locations. The location in Augusta GA was not a good one. The property did not appear to be cleaned daily, the stairways were kept dirt, and the room had an odor and did not feel clean from day one, I had to do some cleaning of my own. My stay was from 12/20 – 12/2/23. On 12/23/23 at 03:00 am a maintenance person tried to enter my room without knocking, nothing, luckily I had the door jammer on and he could not enter, when I yelled out to him, what the $#$@# are you doing, he said he was there to change the filter…Is the filter at 3 am? I reported it to management at the front desk, but never got any response back. I will be contacting Corporate, definitely not what anyone would expect from StayBridge.

I can’t say enough good things about this facility. The staff is super helpful, friendly, and just plain nice. I’ve been here for 2 weeks and every single encounter that I’ve had with the staff has been amazing. The kitchen folks, housekeeping folks, front desk staff to the manager are an absolute joy to interact with. The rating only goes to 5 stars but this facility certainly deserves 10 stars! There will be no doubt that when I return for another work trip here, this is where I’ll be staying. Please pass this on to the staff at this facility. They should be aware that they make this place amazing!

Overall, great motel. Nice rooms, clean property. Loved the hot tub. Nice breakfast. BUT I would suggest that the staff could use some hospitality classes!! If it hadn’t been for the rudeness of several staff, & their kids/extended family, it would have been perfect. When my husband & I were checking in on a Thursday evening Carmen took forever to get us checked in. We were meeting other members of our family & she took a long time trying to put our rooms near each other. Also, Carmen talked & complained the entire time. As a customer, I don’t care what it takes to accomplish this feat, but I certainly don’t need to hear about the “difficulty” of this task. We stayed at this property for 3 nights. They have a meeting room near the front desk that we were told we could use to play games, which we did & it was great! But on our last night there, there was a bag & jacket in the room, but nobody inside. We moved the bag from the couch to another area in the room & a guy came in to get the bag. My husband said “We moved your stuff, hope we aren’t imposing” & the guy said, “Yeah, you kinda are”, quite snottily. Then, come to find out, he was an employee!! We found it quite disgusting that an employee would talk to us like that, over a room that is not an employee lounge!!! We were paying guests!! Saturday a boy was playing PlayStation in that room ALL day, which was fine, but we discovered later that he was an employee’s kid!!! Same day we were playing a card game in the breakfast area which is located next to the lounge area, and that same kid double-flipped us off! My sister’s boyfriend went over to talk to him about that!! Also, it seems like every employee & their children/extended family eat breakfast there every day! An employee& her grandkids were in the swimming pool earlier on Saturday- seems like the motel is a daycare for the employee’s kids/grandkids!! The kids were kind of rude, playing with the handicapped seat, pushing the buttons & using the lifesaving rings as pool toys. There had been a chair upside down on the hot tub stairs on Saturday morning, around 9ish. The lady there with 4 kids told us that she was told that the hot tub could be used after about 15 minutes, but that had been 45 minutes ago, so we didn’t feel bad moving the chair & entering the hot tub. Carmen came in about a half hour after that, being snotty (lots of attitudes) about the chair being moved, the hot tub being used & throwing the pool towel basket around, making a lot of noise. I ended up talking to another lady who had been in the hot tub when that happened. She said she was an IGH employee elsewhere & she said that the hot tub chemicals should have been put in earlier in the morning before the 7 am opening of the pool! We are paying guests & should not be treated with such disrespect! I would also be very open to staying at other motels with similar facilities since this property could do better.

I work for the federal government at Small Business Administration and I travel a lot for work. Rick Doorman the general manager never provided the video footage that was requested and I was never told who it was that tried to open my door. They said that they were going to check which key card opened my door at that time and never did. When I spoke to one of the workers upfront, they told me that they were lying and he kept saying they’re lying and he said he couldn’t talk to me because the general manager was walking around. Also, I have 2 voice recordings for my safety and time stamp of me and Derek’s conversation. And I have a recording of me speaking to another front desk person the next day on 11/07/2023 stating Derek only reported the incident to the general manager Rick Doorman and not to the entire staff and he didn’t know that an incident occurred the night before and that he was suppose to be informed by Derek. Someone opened my door and tried to get into my hotel room approximately around 9:00PM EST on Monday, November 6, 2023 at Staybridge Hotel at St. Petersburg, FL. Fortunately I secured my hotel room door with a door stopper that I brought myself for my safety. First, I heard tapping outside or next door while I was laying on the bed. I kept hearing taps for couple of minutes, light tapping and I thought it was the neighboring hotel guests. A few moments later, I heard my door open but the latch and the door stopper stopped the door from completely opening and stopped the person from coming into my room. I asked who is this, they said it was room maintenance and I screamed said no, go away I didn’t request maintenance don’t play with me and I work for the federal government. They left immediately. I immediately called downstairs to ask them if they sent someone for maintenance and Derek the front desk guy said no and that no one should be able to open my door besides myself, housekeeping and the master key and he is concerned because there was only 2 people working that night including him and the other guy that was downstairs the entire with him mopping the lobby and he said maintenance isn’t on-site at that time as well. Derek mentioned if I wanted to come downstairs and get new sets of keys from him and I told him no because I don’t feel safe. We hang up. He then called me back again and said there is police on site and asked me if I called the police and I told him no and I was surprised that the police get there so fast. He brought me new keys and deactivated the old keys and he told me he reported it to his manager Christi. I asked Derek again why is it that someone opened my door and he said he didn’t know who it was and mentioned to me that he doesn’t have an answer for me and he apologizes. Derek looked very suspect. My supervisor called the hotel and asked for the camera footage of the hotel near my room to figure who opened my door. Derek told him that he doesn’t know how to work the camera system and we would have to wait for his manager to come in the next morning to get that for us. When I spoke to my manager he stated that he didn’t trust the staff and Derek sounded suspicious when he spoke to him.

The next morning I spoke with the general manager Rick Doorman and he mentioned that he was working on getting the camera footage and said he doesn’t know if it’s possible. Rich kept giving me the run-around talking about he doesn’t know how this happened and he doesn’t have an answer to give me and he apologizes. I mentioned to Rick if he could see who scanned the key at the time they opened my door that night and he said that he would work on that as well. We still haven’t received any information about who opened my door that night until this day.

After reporting the incident to the hotel and following all the safety protocols, I was still very concerned about my safety and my manager decided to take quick action and moved me to another hotel. Rick was uncertain about obtaining camera footage. Rick’s lack of answers and apologies left me feeling uneasy. Rick assisted with my bags, asking invasive questions and attempting to persuade me to stay.

The hotel’s staff, particularly the general manager, appeared unresponsive and evasive. I’m left traumatized, experiencing anxiety and jitters whenever I hear noise outside or a door opening. My privacy was violated, causing emotional distress and sleep disturbances. Rick kept defending Derek and what happened and he never gave me an answer to any of my questions. Rick mentioned he replaced another manager at that location for embezzlement and it didn’t make sense to me because he kept dismissing the entire incident like it wasn’t serious.

This traumatic experience has messed with my mental health and has given me major PTSD. My job requires me to travel a lot and right now I’m at a new hotel and every noise I hear startles me. Whenever I’m sleeping now and I hear a noise it scares me and I can’t go back to sleep. My mental health is really affected by this incident and my family is really worried. To see how the hotel staff was very nonchalant about something very serious is concerning to me.