Oh my, I'm not sure why I couldn't find this site before booking with them, but BAIT AND SWITCH IS WHAT IT SHOULD BE CALLED, if I could give a minus one, I would. That is illegal, isn't it. I made one reservation based on THEIR reviews that must be MADE UP, because when I reviewed it on another site it said EEWW! Stay away. So I cancelled that reservation, and made another, which I reviewed prior to making the reservation they did have the best price and it was a holiday weekend so the prices were quite high as it was. But, I've been having a lot of financial troubles for the past 2 years, and haven't been able to take my son on a vacation for 2 years. So we made the reservation for 2 nights at Pensacola beach. At the Best Western Blue Angel, had great reviews on and off their site, and great pictures on many sites. So ok we had a reservation. I got up at 3 am to drive down. I was going to go directly to the beach but something told me to swing by on the way to the beach at the hotel even though it wasn't check in time. They immediately handed me a fax from kayak and said that they had received a phone call, that they made an error and they would have to send me to another hotel. Days Inn in Pensacola 5 miles away. When I called them they said I could cancel the hotel altogether if I wanted, they were giving me an UPGRADE?, after driving 7.5 hours to another state, holiday weekend, I decided to take it. It was getting later, so I decided to go on to the beach and deal with the hotel later, I mean we had an upgrade, right and sometimes the Days Inn are nice, not typically nicer then a Best Western but you never know. I was on vacation right?
After a few hours at the beach, we (my 10 year old son and I) to head on to the hotel, not wanting to be overly burned at the beach. When we got there, we were sorely disappointed. The lobby was DRASCIALLY DIFFERENT then the other hotel, the Best western had a couch set with carpet and floral garden, we had to use the restroom which was great. NOT DAYS INN, it was a sterile small standing area approximately bathroom sized. The breakfast that was supposed to be a full breakfast at the Blue Angel Best Western the Days Inn was going to be cereal and yogurt up to 9am, if we woke up on time, we were planning on sleeping in... but it was a room right? So we checked in anyway, it "was" a room on a holiday. We got up to the room, my son noticed in the bathroom that there were splashes of poop on the wall, the tub was dirty, to room smelled like something? Mold something. The carpet was falling apart, there was a 10 inch TV. My 10 year old said he wasn't going to shower even with sand in the bottom of his bathing suit. Outside I didn't notice when I pulled up was scary... I read a review on that hotels website that said. Eeww! It was described pretty accurately "Crack house Haven". I was afraid my car would be vandalized or bedbugs were a great possibility. So I called the kayak people to get a refund, but I was tired, if I wasn't getting a refund I was going to crash there anyway, I was exhausted. My son was hungry but the fast food in that area was pretty nasty looking, so while I'm on hold, I looked for a new area for him to eat a fast food, while I'm holding for kayak to get whoever needs to authorize a refund, the girl said she'd get someone who said she was from the escalation department. After 35 mins. Another 25 mins, later she said yes, check out from this hotel and they "would" refund the "entire amount". Another 10 mins later I'm on the way home... after I told her I was in the middle of checking out when I was, she said, she called the hotel and because I had checked in and been in the room for an hour they wouldn't refund my money. She told me to check out. She knew I had been on hold for an hour and they are keeping my money. I'm sure the Days Inn re-rented my room, it was Memorial day weekend. So no room, no money, no fun! I got home about 1:30 am after being up at 3am for the trip down to FL. 1st vacation in 2 years