As a professional commercial photographer, I rely on high-speed internet to upload media in the evenings while traveling for business. That’s why I booked a stay at Baymont Inn in Sturgis, South Dakota, through Hotels.com—specifically because they advertised free high-speed internet. Unfortunately, what I got was anything but.
The first room I was assigned had such a weak signal that my device wouldn’t even connect. I went to the front desk and explained the situation: I need reliable internet to work. They moved me to what was supposedly the best room for WiFi—yet the connection was still so bad I couldn’t complete a single upload.
Frustrated, I contacted Hotels.com customer support, where I was met with a third-world, third-party call center. The representative was:
1. Completely indifferent to the issue.
2. Powerless to do anything to fix it.
3. Sporting an attitude worse than any customer service agent I’ve dealt with in the last five years.
At this point, the night desk clerk at the hotel let me in on a little secret: Baymont Inn in Sturgis consistently ranks among the worst in the entire Baymont system for internet—well below 150th place. And guess what? They’ve known about it for years.
That’s the part that gets me.
When you have a known problem, and you refuse to fix it, that tells me you simply don’t care.
I wasted my time and money on a room that couldn’t meet the most basic advertised amenity I needed. A refund would be appropriate.