Shephard's Beach Resort, Clearwater Beach, Florida Shephards Obnoxious Service / Dirty Rooms / Hotwire Hell Clearwater Beach, Florida

30th of Oct, 2011 by User283351

After an argument on the phone with this hotel Manager - the hotel would not let me check in and threatened to call the police if I came on the property. I have received no help from Hotwire who refused to switch this to another hotel or refund the purchase. We are traveling and the hotel said my wife and 3 year daughter could stay but I would have to find a different hotel to stay in. Does this sound reasonable to you? This was for my daughters 3 year birthday and this hotel ruined her experience and hotwire unbelievably denied any sort of assistance to us. We could not use this reservation as my wife was not interested in staying in a hotel without me. The argument began over loud music until 3 AM on the first night of our previous stay - when I thought thing were ok - the music did start blasting again till 3 AM again the next night - no one could sleep. The staff was unhelpful and disrespectful the manager the same yet belligerent and dictatorial. I am 41 years old - I will nto take disrespect from an 18 year old 'manager'. I did think the problem was resolved the second night so I did book a third night - but the music started at 11 PM until 3 AM. Loud thumping music that you could feel in the walls - in your head and in my heart. We could not sleep at all for two nights. When the manager said she couldnt move us away from the nightclub or refund our
money - we said we would stay in the same room - but she said that because we booked on hotwire - we would have to move we couldnt keep the same room for multiple nights. My wife told her that was unacceptable and she was then treated rudely and without concern for our enjoyment of the property. My wife was crying during the call and after. I called the 'manager' who immediatly began yelling at me - would not let me talk - talked over me and spewed a few obscenities - it was not ok for me to vent back - she told me to get off the property and that she was calling the cops! No more Hotwire for us! In addition here are some other things about this hotel in no particular order: All this the floors in the room were tile - which I thought would be great - no dirty carpet? After walking to the balcony and back to the bathroom our feet were black! Nasty! In the first room we found a used condom behind the night stand. You couldn't open the safe enough to slide in your laptop because it hit the top of the closet. Staff was rude bordering obnoxious - specially if you asked them for something. The restaurant was great food but the waiter acted like he was doing us a favor. Even when ordering a last round of margaritas during the last 8 minutes of happy hour - his response was that he would see if he could get it in! The bar was literally 50 feet from where we were sitting. And then he gave us a comment card expecting a good review for doing his job and walking to the bar and getting those for us during that eight minutes. The beach is nearly non-existent and does not resemble the online photos in any way - maybe a little at low tide early in the morning - but you wont be out there remember you cant sleep at this hotel because of the thumping music all night. Dont bother complaining or asked to be moved - they'll laugh at you. They said we should have read the website. We did - after hotwire sold us this blind booking. We couldnt see what it was until after we paid and then it was non changeable and 'impossible' to cancel or refund. That sounds more like a carny game to me. But hey it was hotwire - I figured we could trust them. Apparently not. Hotwire expressed no concern and when transferred to a supervisor actually sided with this hotel and the woman continuously enticed me to cuss and yell at her as if that would make her feel better about stealing my $75. She didnt get what she wanted - and supposedly a manager would call me back the next day. They never did. I have disputed the charge which went through my paypal (Hotwire's new scam) which I have little hope of recovering. But I am trying. I was going to bite the bullet and just stay one more night for my daughters sake - but they threatened to have me arrested if I came back. This was simply an argument over the phone that never should have gone that far - no threats were made - just a heated argument. Does this sound like professional behavior? A customer doesnt agree with the treatment they are receiving and gets thrown out of the hotel for complaining over the phone? Seriously? Also the hotel charged a $50 night deposit that was not disclosed at the hotel upon check in - it was on their website - but remember I didnt book this on their website and couldnt see this until after I had booked it. And then take it or leave it - but if you leave it - you lose your money. This woman then goes to the reception area and is balling like a child in front of all the customers - she had to come out to make this display. Also - if I was a dangerous person who needed to be removed from the hotel - the way she handled put other staff members and patrons in the lobby at risk. She is childish and when she cant get her way lashes out at you as a child would. But then she cannot handle the backolash of what she began(verbally). Folks - as my wife told her when leaving - I was very mild with her. I cannot stand thieving employees, and the most thieving type are those that are discourteous to customers - they are the worst because they steal your future business as well. The booty for the thieving employee? A big head power trip. Is it worth it to the customer or the owner of this hotel for her daily trip? Take a look at the reviews of Shepards - you will see that while my case is extreme - there is evidence of this sort of behavior and customer treatment throughout. Yes there were some nice employees - like the man that checked us in the first night - albeit missing several front teeth - nice none the less. No it wasnt 3 AM it as 4 PM. Nothing against this fellow - but not what you would expect as your first impression? Other observations: There were electrical wires hanging outside their conduit underneath the Tiki Stage. The wires were were exposed and in the water. The only protection against electrocution is the actual insulation on the wire itself. Once that breaks down someone will be electrocuted. Salt water is much more conductive than fresh water - so the area this will cover will be larger and the potential current much greater. This is a dangerous situation which the management expressed no concern about. There is no parking - well unless you count the eight or so spots in the front. The rest is valet - yes free - but free valet isnt really free so you're looking at $3 - $5 bucks every-time you drop off or request your vehicle. This can get expensive if you need to leave more than once a day or if you stay several days here. (Btw no problems with valet strangely - they must be under a different manager) But be warned- the hotel's policy if you book via hotwire is to move you every night to a new room. Dont get comfortable - but dont worry they'll move it for you - no of course no one would pilfer through your stuff or take anything.. noooo. This is their policy as told to me by the 'manager' Cody. She was probably not supposed to tell us that - but she was smug and feels nothing can touch her, so she does whatever she wants. This girl has no training in customer service and is not fit to be flipping burgers in the restaurant. Over $75 they now choose to severely damage their reputation? All I need to do is get one or two people to not stay at this hotel and I have extracted what they owe me. But I suspect there will be many that will not stay here now. So for the $75 - plus $50 per night 'room deposit' that I have yet to receive a refund for and told I will never see any money from Shepards- they lose thousands of dollars. Makes great business sense? I also own several radio stations and work as a broadcast consultant with hundreds of radio stations around the US. Many I consider close friends who are going to have a field day with this. I warned the manager about this at the end of the call - she thought it was funny. In the end - its a small amount of money to me - and even smaller amount of money to Shepards - the cost of even a single customer due to employees like this is immense - just in the future dollars lost from my business if this had been handled correctly - but when you push a customer to this extent - expect severe fall out for a long period ahead. This is not my only revenge upon this hotel as I am contacting the Hotel Board, health department, code enforcement, BBB (why? why not lol) scam report and anything else I can think of. Now its a bit of a hobby and I am having fun warning 'fellow travelers' about this hotel and specially hotwire.com. I will grow tired of this , but for now I am having fun with it. Other random things: Exercise room? Two machines in the size of a walk in closet with if I recall correctly a pay washer and dryer. Bring your own Beach chairs and umbrella - the hotel shows you nice pictures of these on the beach - but they're $20 extra per day! Their 'beach' is dirty - not regularly raked and tiny. If you manage to get a balcony - dont expect to enjoy the soothing sound of the ocean - all you will hear are the roar of many air conditioners from the other rooms and three monster truck size air conditioners on top of the conference center below you. They do start to drown out the loud music outside till 3 am depending on where they put you. But the thumping base is penetrating even with the doors and shades shut - right through the walls and you can feel it in your bed. If you like that sort of thing - this is the place for you. I came her for the beach and to get some rest. And if it weren't for the loud music - dont worry you'll still be woken up by drunken teenagers running around the hallways after the club closes. Hollering at the top of their lungs and running into the walls. Quite an experience at Shepards Hotwire - thanks!

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