InHouse Hotel Culiacán

The hotel looks beautiful, which makes the front desk staff and the rest of the stay such a letdown. I paid for eight nights, but on night seven they were trying to make me leave. The receptionist insisted I owed for an extra night until I showed her all the transactions. Staff were really rude, and the pool was closed for the whole day every other day. There are better places to stay, like Airbnb. I won't be coming back on future visits.

We spent three nights at Inhouse while waiting for our van's transmission to be repaired after it broke down during our trip from Canada. We felt safe there, and two employees who spoke English welcomed us. Joey was especially helpful with making us comfortable and even helped track down a phone we'd left in an Uber. He also understood when we needed extra time at checkout, which we really appreciated. Our room opened straight onto the pool, a great choice in the summer heat. The staff worked hard and brought extra towels when we needed them. There were a few families staying too, and we liked the community feel. We ordered room service from the on-site “El Sauce” one night, and it was terrific.

The restaurant added to an already awful stay. It took half an hour to bring a fruit plate with just thin slices from one strawberry, a quarter of an apple, pineapple, and melon. There was lipstick on the coffee cups, staff chatted in the kitchen while breakfast sat getting cold, and one day all our dishes were salty after we'd already raised other problems. There were serious issues with the rooms, too. Some lacked hairdryers or other amenities, and none had hand towels despite our asking throughout our three nights. The shower had dried foam and shaved hair in it. Water drained back onto the bathroom floor and flooded it, and the coffee maker was never cleaned or its carafe rinsed. Noise carried clearly from the floors above and below, including trash being taken out, and we could hear other rooms' plumbing and showers. We arrived on Sunday afternoon or evening for three nights, my coworkers and I, with reservations made almost a month earlier. Two of our four rooms had been oversold. The hotel first claimed the rooms weren't ready, then, after we went to dinner and returned a couple of hours later, said it would upgrade them to better rooms. The “Do Not Disturb” signs were ignored in two rooms while we were on conference calls. Staff repeatedly knocked anyway. Their communication and policies were unclear, requests weren't followed up, and we witnessed unprofessional arguments about the amount to charge. The worst incident happened at 10:40 pm, when a new guest walked into my room. Management mostly responded with nervous laughter, then offered to “invite us to dinner” and discount the stay, then the night, then half of it. A week after checkout, no money had been refunded. They kept asking for different bank details, despite the refund form requesting a card number, with a day between each absurd request. After I gave them what they wanted, they said the accountant was busy. Seven days later, still no result. Staff made us list every problem as it came up. Eventually they asked for a written report, so I sent six pages describing the incidents. Nothing came of it, and they took no responsibility. The invoice was another mess. After they'd lied about refunding me, I requested a tax invoice for the full amount. They promised it within 20 minutes, but two hours later it still hadn't arrived. On the phone, they claimed it had been sent and said they'd resend it. When I said I'd stay on the line, they put me on hold and eventually hung up. On another call they said it would be made and sent as soon as possible, which showed it hadn't been done already as they'd claimed. I kept calling and staying on the line after they hung up. I finally got it 33 minutes after my first follow-up call. I've never stayed at a worse hotel. I lost my peace because strangers could get into my room, my sleep because of constant noise, and my rest because they assigned me the “homework” of analyzing their “areas for improvement.”

The cleaning crew came by every day and did a great job replacing the sheets and towels. They provided shampoo, soap, and lotion, but no conditioner. Beds were very hard, and the internet kept cutting out with a weak signal, making work difficult. At night it disappeared completely. There aren't many nearby places to eat consistently, either. We arrived very early on the first day because of our flight. Check-in was at 3 pm, but they let us in at noon after we'd waited in the lobby for four hours, then charged us a half-day rate for those three hours. For a business trip, the stay was just okay.