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Review content:
Do not stay at any of the 900 Extended Stay Hotels, including their following brands: Extended Stay America, Deluxe, Crossland, Homestead, and StudioPLUS.
They unlawfully evict tenants who politely complain about bad service, and such evictions are backed up by Corporate Headquarters in Spartanburg, SC and by local cops who rely upon Extended Stay to help them apprehend the criminals who set up shop at Extended Stay. Such a symbiotic relationship works against you, never mind the criminal co-tenants.
When I e-mailed a local manager, Bruce Weber, about some of the problems I had, and about the good work his maintenance person had done, he responded by disconnecting my phone by computer. Apparently, he fears a paper trail and tenants who might report the wrong perpetrators (his friends?) to the cops. So why does he put his e-mail address on his biz card? When I asked about my phone to two front desk clerks, I got double talk and contradictory statements, including the fact that the manager, who lives at the hotel, doesn't like to be bothered on Sundays (my phone went dead Friday at 6:30 PM). But the manager didn't mind evicting me on a Sunday! One of those clerks complained to the manager that I was rude to him.
So the manager came up to my room about 2 PM Sunday, and began banging on my door and yelling ""You were rude to my clerk. I wanna talk to you."" You would think he would reconnect my phone temporarily just to make that social call! Apparently, he didn't mind disturbing neighbors. When I opened my door, he continued yelling at me, and pushed the door open wider. I resisted his push, and I shut the door. About two minutes later, I called the police (from the restaurant next door), who were typically nasty. The manager told them he wanted me to move out the next day, and the cops said I had to move out then. I didn't demand a court eviction order because the hotel doors used computerized key cards, which I thought could lock me out. Also, I feared the manager would throw my computer into a moving bin and damage it while I was gone. I had set up shop there, including my desktop PC, TV, business records, and I had my U.S. Mail and newspaper delivered there. I had 20 days left on my 30-day reservation, and I had planned to stay longer. After all, this is an ""Extended Stay Hotel."" Not!
The next morning, Monday, I called Corporate Headquarters. Pam Graybeal, Customer Service Manager, told me that she would do nothing to stop my eviction, and she was nasty about it. She said ""I'll bet you think all people from South Carolina are stupid."" I then called the regional manager, and I got the same routine, but in a NY Italian accent. I called the cops again. They came out and asked the manager to give me a few more hours. I could not make reservations at another place because I had no phone or computer (I used a dial-up connection). It took me two car trips to my storage unit to move out. Then, I just cruised around to find another place.
When I threatened a lawsuit, Corporate HQ offered me $1,000 compensation in response to my demand for $5,000. I rejected their offer. A year later, when I found out they had fired Bruce Weber (what took them so long? I had called several times in the interim), I accepted their $1,000 offer, which their outside counsel had withdrawn (talk about negotiating in bad faith, Scott Johnson). Corp. HQ then ignored me. So here I am! Hi! See my reviews of the Hyde Park Hotel, American Motel and the Weekly Inn.
This is a lesson in doing business with a company owned by a private equity group, Lightstone, which bought it from Blackstone, another group of NY Jews, in 2007. Such people are mere bean counters who buy low and sell high, and know nothing about the hotel business, nor care about their long-term reputation. Extended Stay filed for bankruptcy on June 15, 2009. No wonder.
Pros: Cheap
Cons: Everything else
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