17 April 2004

Complaints Department
Days Inn of America Inc
339 Jefferson Road
Parsippany, NJ
07054
USA

Dear Sirs

Re. Days Inn, 9359 US Highway 19 North, Pinellas Park, FL, 33782 US

I have stayed at many of your establishments over the last 20 years. In general, I have been very pleased with the quality of service and accommodation I have received.

Last week (13 April 2004) I had the misfortune to stay at the dirtiest and most poorly maintained hotel I've seen in my travels in America. I'm sure there are worse to be found in America, it's just that I haven't seen one.

It's such a shame, too, because the hotel above looked so great in the photos you publish on your Days Inn website! Really nothing like the reality. Perhaps you'd like to add some photos of ours to the ones you currently display, so that other prospective guests will have the proper information they need in order to reach an informed decision about reserving a room there? Let me know and I'll send you the originals to publish.

For now, though, to assist you in the quest for honest promotion I am attaching some copies showing:

• The previous occupants' hair in the stained bath (Big Pic - Close-ups One Two)
• The disgustingly stained bed (Big Pic - Close-up One)
• The stained walls (Big Pic)
• The filthy, stained and un-vacuumed carpets (Big Pic One, Two)
• The inspiring and attractive view of the hallway outside our room (Big Pic - Close-up One)
• The dangerous electrical fittings that were hanging from walls (Big Pic)
• The peeling, battered and damaged furniture (Big Pic - Close-up One)
• The even worse condition of the room next to ours (Big Pic)

In addition, I am sending you some real close-ups showing:

• The unidentified matter (possibly vomit) coagulated onto carpets (Big Pic - Close-up One)
• The unidentified food stuff coagulated onto furniture (Big Pic - Close-up One)
• The ant colony in one corner (Big Pic - Close-up One)
• The dissected insect parts in another corner (Close-Up One)

I don't know what dissected and ate the insects … possibly it was the cockroach under the standard lamp! And I am not joking! We trapped a large cockroach under the standard lamp and left it there so it wouldn't bother us in the night.

I'm sure the above conditions contravene numerous state and federal hygiene, and health and safety regulations.

Without doubt, this was the most dilapidated, run down, and poorly-maintained of your hotels that I've had the misfortune to encounter. I never bothered to photograph the towel rail that collapsed, depositing our towels on the floor, nor the thin film of rust covering most metal surfaces after years of exposure to a damp atmosphere. Sadly, it was not possible to photograph the musty and unpleasant smell in the room, nor the leaking lavatory cistern that allowed water to leak into the toilet bowl throughout the night.

The Days Inn at Pinellas Park, St Petersburg is a franchised hotel. If you cannot maintain control of your franchisees, ensuring that their operations conform to a common standard stated (and heavily promoted) by the Days Inn group, then you shouldn't be franchising. One of the implicit tenets of franchising is a specific promise to the consumer that standards and quality will be consistent wherever your service is used. In fact your promotional literature and web site make that promise explicit by stating: 'Days Inns is reaffirming Mr. Day's commitment to ensure you receive … a clean comfortable room, where everything is in working order'. To advertise one thing and provide another is not only highly unethical but also illegal.

You may ask why we didn't leave. It was because we arrived late in the evening (although we had made our reservation the day before through 1-800-DAYSINN) and had nowhere else to go. And we didn't change rooms (although by the desk clerk's own admission there were plenty available because 'the place is almost empty') because those that we saw on the way to our own room inspired no confidence that we could change to something better; indeed, many looked even worse! Even the lobby was grubby, with the PCs and printers covered by years of grime.

So, as it was just for one night, we kept our shoes on whilst walking on the carpet, kept away from the end of the room with the most insect life, and enjoyed what sleep was possible considering the broken thermostat on the air conditioner and the frequent nocturnal trips that other guests made to collect ice from the machine right outside our window! Have you ever been awakened at 03:00, 03:45 and 04:15 by the crash of ice into a bucket and the raucous, good-natured chat of your fellow Americans? Perhaps you'd like to come with me and we'll share the experience together next time?

I think you should be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves, in particular for perpetrating a public confidence trick by promising one thing and delivering another. I am so incensed that I am considering publishing these photos on the Internet, together with a detailed explanation of exactly what guests can expect if they choose DAYS INN for their accommodation - indeed, if I do not receive a satisfactory explanation from you as to why you are charging money to put guests in such revolting conditions, then that is exactly what I shall do!

I await your advices regarding this matter.

Yours very sincerely

A dissatisfied Customer
(Name and Address Supplied)

PS Please don't bother telling me this was either an isolated instance occurring in only one room, or a momentary oversight by a manager or cleaner. I saw other rooms too, including the one my sons stayed in, as well as the general condition of the whole establishment. It takes a long period of (un)committed neglect to achieve that degree of slovenliness. Any owner, manager or cleaner, no matter how lethargic or lacking in zeal they may be, simply could not accomplish such a significant decline 'overnight'.