Super 8 Motel credit card scam

and have no specific knowledge one way or the other as to whether or not the Super 8 in question was attempting a scam, however as a veteran of 20+ yrs motel management (including resort properties in Scottsdale, AZ as well as Virginia) the response of the Super 8 appears IMO to have come about in the normal course of their business and doesn't indicate a scam.

As such I'm offering the following to help travelers understand how motels deal with instances such as this so that folks reading this can protect themselves.

We start with the reality that guest theift is a serious issue facing all motels. It MAY be a bigger issue at economy tier properties such as Super 8 b/c a decent number of their guests may actually 'need' bedspreads, towels and the like. But it is also an issue with higher tier properties where removal of motel property seems to be a cheap thrill for the guests involved.

Against that backdrop, when a maid enters a room after ck-out and finds a piece of motel property, be it a blanket, pillow, bedspread, coffee maker, hair dryer, whatever missing she informs her supervisor. The superviser confirms the missing item, and the front desk mgr is then informed. At that point the motel's standard method for dealing with such is put into action. In order to have documentation of a theift of a larger item such as a bedspread or lamp there will be pictures taken of the room as the maid found it, such that the absence of the removed item can be established.

The key point in the above paragraph is what was NOT written. Maids do not look about the room in unusual places for the missing item. They don't look under the bed for a missing coffee maker, and the don't look in drawers for missing bedspreads. About the most you can be assured of happening is an instance where a front desk person inform the housekeeping supervisor that 3 rms were shared by the same family, and as such amissing chair from rm 219 may have been carried to 221 when several relatives gathered there. Beyond that, housekeepers assume that if something isn't in semi-plain sight in the room, that it is barreling down the highway in a gsts car (98% of the time that is correct).

Perhaps you're surprised to read this and realize that drawers and such aren't checked in the normal course of cleaning a room. They SHOULD be but the reality is that they often are not. Proof of this comes when you open a drawer in a motel room and find stuff left behind by a previous gst (Many yrs ago when I was with Holiday Inn I once had a gst open the desk drawer in her room and find a loaded .22 revolver). I'm not proud of this departures from standards, but cleaning motel rooms is hard, unpleasant, and under stimulating work. It is a constant challenge to find, motivate, and retain those workers who can do it well. That is not the guest's problem, but I feel that gsts can reduce their risks of being caught in a situation like the one the origional poster was. Don't assume something hidden by you in a drawer will be found.

Now, each motel has its own way of dealing with missing items. Depending on the dollar value of what was taken I either call it a purchase that wasn't reported to the desk and bill the gst's credit card for the item they liked so much that they took it with them, or I call it theift and notify the state police (giving the liscense number and such) so that they can hopefully arrest the person. At that point we press charges, none of this 'oh I'm sure you didn't mean to remove the 27'TV/DVD player combo from the room. . .it was an oversight, just give it back and all is forgiven' silliness.

So, one thing leads to another. It may take 3-4 wks before the gst gets his/her credit card statement and sees the extra charge. (Our practice is to mail an updated receipt to the guest explaining "This is the charge for the towels you enjoyed so much you took them home") But not all motels do that, so the gst may get first word of the charge a month after the fact. Now lets say the item wasn't removed, but simply put in a drawer where it wasn't found by the maid that day. The gst calls the motel and explains that. An employee checks the room and finds the drawer empty.

Why might it be empty? B/c a week after the fact a more on the ball maid cleaned the room, checked the drawers and found it. Problem is that depending on how effecently the motel is organized there may not be a linkage made between that spread and the one 'missing' from a wk prior. The maid may simply toss the extra one into a store room w/o anything being said about it. NOT how we want it to happen, but something that DOES happen. Main problem is that the motel mgt has no way to verify the gst's story.

IF the guest makes enough noise with their cc copany and with corporate s/he can probably get the charge removed after some degree of agrivation. I suspect it would have been far simpler to have not left the spread in the drawer in the first place.

So . .. PROTECT YOURSELF. Act on the assumption that the maid cleaning your room has less ability to actually THINK than you do, don't assume she's gonna find something that you put in some odd place. Save yourself a lot of trouble by leaving motel property where a second rate employee can find it.

Also, if you check into a room and sense something is missing, even if you don't need the object, call the front desk and ask if there should be such and such in the room. Reason for this is that not all maids notice stuff that is missing. . .lets say the Monday night guest removes the iron from the room. The maid who cleans the room Tuesday morning fails to notice its absence. You stay in the room Tues night. The Weds morning maid has her stuff together and notes the lack of an iron. The assumption is gonna be that you took it. You can pretty much bet that if the girl who cleaned the room Tues is asked "any chance you failed to notice it missing?" she will cover her tail and insist she did her job properly, looked for the iron, saw it was there.

You're left with the charge on your card.

A few mins devoted to this sort of thing early in your stay can spare you hours of trying to undo the damage after you've checked out.

I do not believe the comments of the "Owner of a Super 8". I am an honest citizen who has now had three really bad experiences with Super 8 and have found the management as well as the 800 number for customer complaints VERY UNHELPFUL and RUDE! I will never stay at a Super 8 again unless out of desperation.

My first problem was a year ago in Williams Arizona. I got home to a BOGUS charge on my credit card for towels I supposedly stole. I NEVER TOOK ANYTHING!! Not only that, there were no towels when we checked in ATL ALL so the housekeeper knowcked on our door about 5 minutes after we checked in and dropped them off and they marked down that we requested EXTRA TOWELS and got charged for those too.

The rude manager was NO HELP whatsoever and pretty much called me a thief and a liar. I had to call customer service for a month straight and finally got a refund of my money. I had never returned to a Super 8 until last month we had a family reunion in a VERY SMALL TOWN and Super 8 was the only hotel.

Along with not getting the amenities we were told, our tv being broken and no one knew how to fix it and not getting housekeeping service because a housekeeper walked out on them, we decided to leave a day early.

We paid cash upfront for the room so when we left a day early they said they would mail me a check within 7-10 days and I got that in writing so I let it go. We stopped that night at another Super 8 because EVERY other hotel in Frankfort KY was booked up.

My parents who were traveling with us came over about 5 minutes after we checked in to our room to use the restroom because they could not use theirs because there was feces all over the seat. The maintenence man came and cleaned it up but when my parents requested to speak to a manager, we found out there is no manager on duty at this Super 8.

When we got home I have waited 2 weeks and have still seen no money for my refund. When I called, I am now being told they can take as long as they want to refund the money as they do not give a time limit on refunds. So 3 Super 8's in one year, One in Williams Arizona, 1 in South Sillaimson KY and the third in Frankfort KY and they were all horrible..

What do you say about all of this? Just bad luck? I don't think so. Super 8 is going downhill severly and I will not stay at another one and will tell everyone I know about all of these experinces!!

I do not believe the comments of the "Owner of a Super 8". I am an honest citizen who has now had three really bad experiences with Super 8 and have found the management as well as the 800 number for customer complaints VERY UNHELPFUL and RUDE! I will never stay at a Super 8 again unless out of desperation.

My first problem was a year ago in Williams Arizona. I got home to a BOGUS charge on my credit card for towels I supposedly stole. I NEVER TOOK ANYTHING!! Not only that, there were no towels when we checked in ATL ALL so the housekeeper knowcked on our door about 5 minutes after we checked in and dropped them off and they marked down that we requested EXTRA TOWELS and got charged for those too.

The rude manager was NO HELP whatsoever and pretty much called me a thief and a liar. I had to call customer service for a month straight and finally got a refund of my money. I had never returned to a Super 8 until last month we had a family reunion in a VERY SMALL TOWN and Super 8 was the only hotel.

Along with not getting the amenities we were told, our tv being broken and no one knew how to fix it and not getting housekeeping service because a housekeeper walked out on them, we decided to leave a day early.

We paid cash upfront for the room so when we left a day early they said they would mail me a check within 7-10 days and I got that in writing so I let it go. We stopped that night at another Super 8 because EVERY other hotel in Frankfort KY was booked up.

My parents who were traveling with us came over about 5 minutes after we checked in to our room to use the restroom because they could not use theirs because there was feces all over the seat. The maintenence man came and cleaned it up but when my parents requested to speak to a manager, we found out there is no manager on duty at this Super 8.

When we got home I have waited 2 weeks and have still seen no money for my refund. When I called, I am now being told they can take as long as they want to refund the money as they do not give a time limit on refunds. So 3 Super 8's in one year, One in Williams Arizona, 1 in South Sillaimson KY and the third in Frankfort KY and they were all horrible..

What do you say about all of this? Just bad luck? I don't think so. Super 8 is going downhill severly and I will not stay at another one and will tell everyone I know about all of these experinces!!

I do not believe the comments of the "Owner of a Super 8". I am an honest citizen who has now had three really bad experiences with Super 8 and have found the management as well as the 800 number for customer complaints VERY UNHELPFUL and RUDE! I will never stay at a Super 8 again unless out of desperation.

My first problem was a year ago in Williams Arizona. I got home to a BOGUS charge on my credit card for towels I supposedly stole. I NEVER TOOK ANYTHING!! Not only that, there were no towels when we checked in ATL ALL so the housekeeper knowcked on our door about 5 minutes after we checked in and dropped them off and they marked down that we requested EXTRA TOWELS and got charged for those too.

The rude manager was NO HELP whatsoever and pretty much called me a thief and a liar. I had to call customer service for a month straight and finally got a refund of my money. I had never returned to a Super 8 until last month we had a family reunion in a VERY SMALL TOWN and Super 8 was the only hotel.

Along with not getting the amenities we were told, our tv being broken and no one knew how to fix it and not getting housekeeping service because a housekeeper walked out on them, we decided to leave a day early.

We paid cash upfront for the room so when we left a day early they said they would mail me a check within 7-10 days and I got that in writing so I let it go. We stopped that night at another Super 8 because EVERY other hotel in Frankfort KY was booked up.

My parents who were traveling with us came over about 5 minutes after we checked in to our room to use the restroom because they could not use theirs because there was feces all over the seat. The maintenence man came and cleaned it up but when my parents requested to speak to a manager, we found out there is no manager on duty at this Super 8.

When we got home I have waited 2 weeks and have still seen no money for my refund. When I called, I am now being told they can take as long as they want to refund the money as they do not give a time limit on refunds. So 3 Super 8's in one year, One in Williams Arizona, 1 in South Sillaimson KY and the third in Frankfort KY and they were all horrible..

What do you say about all of this? Just bad luck? I don't think so. Super 8 is going downhill severly and I will not stay at another one and will tell everyone I know about all of these experinces!!

I do not believe the comments of the "Owner of a Super 8". I am an honest citizen who has now had three really bad experiences with Super 8 and have found the management as well as the 800 number for customer complaints VERY UNHELPFUL and RUDE! I will never stay at a Super 8 again unless out of desperation.

My first problem was a year ago in Williams Arizona. I got home to a BOGUS charge on my credit card for towels I supposedly stole. I NEVER TOOK ANYTHING!! Not only that, there were no towels when we checked in ATL ALL so the housekeeper knowcked on our door about 5 minutes after we checked in and dropped them off and they marked down that we requested EXTRA TOWELS and got charged for those too.

The rude manager was NO HELP whatsoever and pretty much called me a thief and a liar. I had to call customer service for a month straight and finally got a refund of my money. I had never returned to a Super 8 until last month we had a family reunion in a VERY SMALL TOWN and Super 8 was the only hotel.

Along with not getting the amenities we were told, our tv being broken and no one knew how to fix it and not getting housekeeping service because a housekeeper walked out on them, we decided to leave a day early.

We paid cash upfront for the room so when we left a day early they said they would mail me a check within 7-10 days and I got that in writing so I let it go. We stopped that night at another Super 8 because EVERY other hotel in Frankfort KY was booked up.

My parents who were traveling with us came over about 5 minutes after we checked in to our room to use the restroom because they could not use theirs because there was feces all over the seat. The maintenence man came and cleaned it up but when my parents requested to speak to a manager, we found out there is no manager on duty at this Super 8.

When we got home I have waited 2 weeks and have still seen no money for my refund. When I called, I am now being told they can take as long as they want to refund the money as they do not give a time limit on refunds. So 3 Super 8's in one year, One in Williams Arizona, 1 in South Sillaimson KY and the third in Frankfort KY and they were all horrible..

What do you say about all of this? Just bad luck? I don't think so. Super 8 is going downhill severly and I will not stay at another one and will tell everyone I know about all of these experinces!!

As a Super 8 owner I can offer a little insight and advice. First Almost all Super 8 are individually owned and operated under aggreements with Super 8 Inc. Unfortunately some owners do not follow all rules. As for the charge for the blanket, when a guest check ins they sign a registration card that explicitly state their responsibility for any charges/ damages. Missing towels, blankets and pillows are a constant headach for owners, but the $100 charge could have been handled better. (We try and contact guest to inform them of damage or missing items before charging them. Often folks fess up an apologize and chalk it up to an oversight.) Anyone wishing to complain about an individual Super 8 should call the Superline 800-800-8000 and ask to file a complaint. Super 8 Inc. does not look kindly on franchisees not resolving disputes to the satisfaction of the customer. They even fine us if we haven't satified the customer to their expectations. Super 8 Inc. almost always sides with a customer first. I've lost or conceded many a battle even when I knew the guest was in the wrong in the name of long term customer service.

KEYS DEPOSITS....ARE NOT ALLOWED PEOPLE ARE GETTING RIPPED OFF EVERYDAY WITHOUT EVENING KNOWING. ASK FOR ROOM PRICE AND LOCAL TAX AND ADD IT UP YOURSELF YOU MAY FIND THIS VERY USEFUL.SO MUCH MORE.......MY GOODNESS