If you are ever planning a trip to Anaheim or a visit to Disneyland and are considering the ExtendedStayAmerica hotel, do yourself a favor and find another place to stay. The particular hotel to avoid is located at 1742 S. Clementine Street, Anaheim, CA 92802. The facility is horrible and the service was even worse.
When booking a weekend for my family to visit Disneyland, I tried out Priceline.com to check for decent prices. I booked what was supposed to be a non-smoking, one bedroom suite. When we got to the room, it was a studio with only one bed and smelled horrible. I went right back down to lobby to make arrangements to get checked out and into another hotel. After I got the "you have to get your money back from Priceline" speech from Vern, the front desk clerk, I proceeded to wait on hold with Priceline to get confirmation of the cancellation.
After 45 minutes on hold, I finally got Priceline to refund my money. I had given my debit card to Vern for incidentals, but he absolutely refused to give me a check out receipt or anything else in writing to confirm that I had checked out and did not owe any charges beyond what had already be debited from my checking account by Priceline. According to Vern, the manager was gone for the weekend and he could not help me.
I would suggest to Nina Valencia, the hotel manager, the she needs to give her employees a refresher course in customer service. Refusing to give me written assurances that I would not be charged any more money was absolutely ridiculous. When I called the main corporate number for ExtendedStayAmerica, they were equally perplexed at Vern's refusal to provide the requested information. They also could not help me.
Although I am a big fan of William Shatner and Star Trek, I doubt very much that I will be booking travel with Priceline.com on the near future and ExtendedStayAmerica will never get any business from me.
About the Author: Carl H. Starrett II has been a licensed attorney since 1993 and is a member in good standing with the California State Bar, the San Diego County Bar Association and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys. Mr. Starrett practices in the areas of bankruptcy, business litigation, construction, corporate planning and debt collection.
