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A grandmother and her 6-year-old granddaughter were kicked out of their room in their pyjamas and had to look for somewhere else to stay after she gave a hotel a poor online review.
Susan Leger, 63, and her granddaughter were ready for bed on the first night of what was supposed to be a three-night stay at the Baymont Inn & Suites in the resort town of Helen, in the US state of Georgia.
But at 8.40pm, Susan got a call from hotel manager Danny Vyas, who told her he’d called the police and they had to leave the room immediately, reports WXIA.
Recounting her experience, Susan said: "The man is screaming at me. He was saying, 'You get out now. I call the police'. My granddaughter’s like clinging to my leg and crying so hard. This was scary. This was just horrifying."
The manager had called 911 after Susan responded to an email from Hotels.com, with who she’d booked the hotel, asking her how she was enjoying her room. She gave the hotel three stars out of five, adding: "Rundown. Pool’s not open. Toilet doesn’t flush well."
Susan wondered if it was a prank call, but there was soon a knock on the door from a police officer, who told Susan that the pair had to leave.
She asked the officer if they could be thrown out just for leaving the review, and the officer replied: "Yes, ma’am. It’s within the law."
He helped Susan and her granddaughter find a room at the nearby Fairfield Hotel, but only after they’d had to walk down the street in their PJs.
The police report gave the reason for the eviction, which happened in September, simply as: "Leger had given the motel a bad review."
Vyas denies that was his reason, although his explanation has changed since the incident.
At the time, he said the problem was that Susan never reported her complaints to him or his staff, but now he says the problem was that she called to complain multiple times.
"We let her know lots of times to stop calling us. If you’re not happy, change the room or leave the place,” WXIA reports him as saying.
"They called me at least 10, 11 times in maybe one hour… Everything is not right."
Despite Vyas telling police that Susan would be refunded, Hotels.com told her refunds were not allowed. But when WXIA contacted Hotels.com, it sent Susan a full refund.
Susan says her experience should be a warning to people who use Hotels.com, as the site prompts guests to rate their room after checking in and then sends the review to the hotel while the guests are staying there.
"The only way to keep the room in my mind is not to have answered Hotels.com’s request," she said.
"If you don’t want to be walking in your pyjamas with your 6-year-old granddaughter, don’t leave a review if you’re currently still at the place."
- Family
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