WoodSpring Suites Prattville - Montgomery North

The room was clean and the bed comfortable, but this place needs a serious hospitality upgrade. I asked for another towel and face rag and was told to go wash the ones I already had. I’m a Platinum Member of Choice Hotels and travel a lot for work, and I’ll definitely share my opinion of this property with Choice. That’s ridiculous. The WiFi is also supposedly available, but forget using it. It sucks, maybe 1.2 to 3.3 bpms at best. I’m here now, but I’m checking out tomorrow and won’t be adding the couple of days I had planned.

The room and bathroom were clean, and the wall heater did get the room above 70°. But the lobby is in rough shape, the kitchenette has no utensils, and both the WiFi and TV are worse than terrible. There’s no ice machine either, just ice cube trays in the room freezer that couldn’t make ice overnight. The walls are so thin you can hear absolutely everything. Even at a low price, I didn’t get my money’s worth.

The front desk clerk was respectful, kind, and genuinely apologetic through a difficult evening. Even with several hot-tempered guests, the clerk stayed composed, and I appreciated that. The rest of the situation was a mess. We booked because we had to be in town and other places cost more than twice as much, so our expectations were low. We arrived around 5:30pm, well after the 3pm check-in time, but were told no room was ready and to come back in 45 minutes to an hour. When we returned at 800pm, the lobby was full of people trying to get rooms, and we were told cleaned rooms were being handed out first come, first served. Luckily, we’d stopped by earlier and secured one of the last two rooms available that night. Not having rooms cleaned by 5:30pm points to too few staff or staff who can’t keep up. Giving away reserved rooms might be acceptable with a clear policy, but there was no late check-in deadline, so this wasn’t acceptable. There was no hot water in our room, perhaps because of inadequate infrastructure or the boiler. The room had no frills, but the bed was firm and comfortable. The pillows were too flat and insufficient for an adult’s head. Blinds only, no curtains or shades, meant lots of light from the street and parking lot. The washcloths were a dirty white compared with the towels, and I found a long curly hair in one. I’m bald, and there’s no way I’d use a washcloth like that.

We never got to stay, even though we’d paid for a room. My wife booked it through a travel site, and when we arrived an hour later the doors were locked. No one answered either of the two numbers on the door. Eventually, after letting one ring for a few minutes, someone picked up and came to let us in. He said there were no rooms available, which surprised me because we passed many vacancies and saw linens open on almost every ground-floor room. At first I thought it was because a lot of guests hadn’t arrived by 2 in the morning. That seemed less likely when he called the manager at home, gave my wife’s name, and said she was the one they weren’t giving a room to. The manager didn’t care and kept telling us to contact the website for a refund, even though the booking was non-refundable. I can only guess we’d gotten the wrong price, just $65, and they didn’t want to honor it. They had open rooms and paying customers, then sent us away. I’m really not surprised anymore, but this was another level of bad service. If the manager had even been a little apologetic, I’d feel differently. He absolutely did not give a rats behind. Worst service I’ve ever experienced. Whoever hired him needs to have their head examined.