Wyndham Garden Hotel, Midland,TX Unauthorized Fees, Racist Staff, Rundown Property Midland Texas

I visited Wyndham Garden Hotel in Midland, TX in late February of 2018. Upon check-in, the front desk clerk charged my card $50 USD as a deposit and did not inform me of the charges. Another issue is that the staff was extremely disrespectful to guests. They would immediately start speaking Spanish and they would make disparaging comments about their customers. We are white but my son is fluent in Spanish because he lived in Mexico for a few years and continues to work there. He was with me and he was aghast at their conduct.

We were also told the property was full for the night. We checked in went to our room which we had to go through the pool-gym area to get to, which we had to use our key card to go in the door from lobby (we were not told about), then you had to go down a series of long dimly lit hallways, it was a long journey to our room. Once reaching our room, the TV was on and the channel could not be changed, we called about the issue a maintenance person came up and gave us an additional remote to work the TV.

Every time the TV was turned off you had to use one remote to turn on, then put the correct input in, then use the other one to change the channel or lower volume. We then left for dinner, upon return we got ready for bed, I dropped a hair tie between the bed and nightstand when I went to retrieve it, I found sunflower seeds and crushed Cheetos, (I left the hair tie where I dropped it). We also found a pen on the floor, not ours. The duvet was stained on one bed with ink. The window in our room was shattered by bullet holes along with several windows in the corridor. As pretty much all of Midland was booked up, and there was no place else to go, we stayed.

The next morning, I checked my bank account online and my card was charged $216 instead of $166 and change. I alerted the desk clerk by showing her my app on my phone for the correct amount. She then told me about the $50 deposit, and that it was a pending charge. I asked for the charge to be removed. The assistant manager then came out and demanded an apology from me because I was screaming at his staff when in actuality I was using a firm matter of fact voice. This manager does not know screaming! He then ordered me to call my bank because I told him the funds had already gone through, which they had according to my bank manager. He did not believe me and ordered me to give him my phone and speak with her. Not appropriate at all! This assistant manager then ordered me to apologize once again. Prior to this while waiting a man was trying to get help with the same problem and the staff treated him the same way.

When I got home, I reported the issues to the Wyndham corporate office, they said they would have the issues sorted out in a week or so. I then receive a call from the assistant manager, in which he said I was screaming at him on the phone, ( I was using a firm voice, which my husband can attest to), then demanded another apology. I called the corporate office again and requested that they reach out to me via e-mail only. The GM then contacted me, stated that corporate was no longer involved (which was not true), offered and was to have applied a 10% discount that did not happen. The only redeeming stay here is great soap, shampoo, and lotion. Every time I think of this stay I get really upset.

Another thing that has me concerned is that they took a copy of my driver's license. They do this in other parts of the world but they always maintain an air of professionalism. I don't trust these low-class operators so I'm paying extra close attention to my identity. They could steal it. This staff is improperly trained and this fifty dollar deposit is a con. Only the sleaziest budget hotels require a deposit. If I had not raised an issue about this, I bet they would have kept my deposit.