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| - This hotel will inspire two things that I detest: leaving one-star Yelp reviews and typing extended segments in ALL CAPS. I know that all caps is the INTERNET EQUIVALENT OF SCREAMING, but, you see, I am EXCEPTIONALLY ANGRY about MONEY BEING STOLEN FROM ME.
Priceline is partly to blame here, and I'll contact them with my concerns, but when your two-star hotel is listed in their Express Deals (a service through which one can book hotels by price, service level, and area without yet knowing the specific hotel) as "pet friendly," one does not typically even consider a $100 NONREFUNDABLE SURCHARGE, for any stay, of any duration, with said pets to be included in this "pet friendly" definition. It was a $55-a-night room special, meaning that, in all seriousness, the nonrefundable incidental for traveling with my two small, harmless dogs who did not befoul or otherwise damage the room in any way was THE F*CKING EQUIVALENT OF TWO ADDITIONAL NIGHTS' STAY.
So, besides the constant panhandling immediately outside the hotel door from vagrants staying at the adjacent Salvation Army shelter, the perpetual smell of Subway in the halls wafting up from the restaurant underneath the upper floors, the sealed-off fire escape door on the ground floor (hello certain death in the event of a fire!), the exceptionally slow and useless wi-fi, and the fact that COMFORT INN WILL STEAL $100 FROM YOU IF YOU ARE TRAVELING WITH PETS, this place was okay: nice room (with jacuzzi, min-fridge and microwave), nice staff, continental breakfast with scrambled eggs included, and great location immediately on Playhouse Square.
But seriously, the hidden pet fee is utterly larcenous and unethical, a deal breaker in every conceivable way. If they can charge $100 on a $55 stay, what is the limit at which Priceline will de-list them? $500? $1000? I adopted one of my dogs from the pound for less than what we were charged to keep them at this Comfort Inn for three days. I will probably investigate to see keeping this much additional cost below board is even legal.
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