Roaches, cracked bathtub,you have to have brutt strength to pull the old fashioned tab to start the shower, heat lamp in bathroom doesn't work, creaking beds that are hard as sleeping on the ground. 3 nights stay and not once did someone clean in our room.
HIExpress.com
Taking safety measuresBooking.com
Booking.com
Luckily we got to the hotel late after exploring Helen (which is adorable). Before we took anything out of the car I went in to turn the beds down because I had two sleep babies. As soon as I turned the bed down I noticed a dirty pillowcase so I turned the pillow over to find a BED BUG crawling on the pillow. I immediately went over to the other bed to check (out of curiosity) and sure enough there were two bed bugs crawling in that bed. We didn’t even get the stuff out of the car. My husband went to the front to let them know we wouldn’t be staying there and wanted a refund. They gave us a refund and we drove to a Hilton to stay.
Had to wait 2 extra hours to check in due to rooms needing to be cleaned. We ended up with a different room than we had reserved (no hot tub). The “breakfast” consisted of coffee available at the reception and pre packaged muffins, pure false advertising in my opinion. This place was the lowlight of a 10 night driving trip, lost time in Helen for which we had only one evening. Would not recommend this place.
Very disappointing, the room and service was the worst ever. When we arrived to our room, no shower curtain, no TV because cable company went bankrupt what we was told before we arrived . The room wasn’t cleaned during the day when we went out. Only got two towels and wash rags. Was told to bring old towels to get more towels. No access to pool because it was drained and no continental breakfast was offered. Was very noisy and finally we were checked out of our room because someone checked out and gave the wrong room number and we had to go down and tell the front desk we had another night. Very bad hotel never again we we ever stay at this dump of a hotel.My recommendation don’t stay at this Econo Lodge in Helen Ga don’t waste your money.
We arrived 30 minutes after check in and were told it would be 30 minutes before the room was ready. We came back 30 minutes later and were told it would be a few more minutes. We waited another hour! No explanation, no apology. Nothing. They could've at least been honest about how long it'd be so we could do something else and make accommodations for our food that was spoiling in the cooler. The manager looked like she would laugh at my boyfriend when he requested a discount to comp for our room not being ready until two full hours after check in, but ultimately gave us 10% off. She eventually told us that the wait was because there was only one maid. There were three women at the front desk. We really did not appreciate that she tried to blame it on the maid instead of helping her while someone else watched the desk or asking one of the other girls to help. We watched another group demand a full refund and stay somewhere else because they were still not in their room at 5 pm either. In addition to the staff's unprofessional manner, they were also unprofessionally dressed. The room was clean and really nice once we finally got to check in.
I booked two rooms five weeks in advance with reward points for two nights here. I was called at 5PM the day of check in by the "manager" telling me they canceled my reservation because they were overbooked. I am a Diamond level member, spending thousands each year on Choice Hotels, and in doing so, expect certain treatment. I know this is an Econo Lodge and not the Ritz, but canceling on me after check in time the day of is wrong when traveling from 6 hours away.
Helen is extremely busy during the summer, so finding another place was going to be impossible. I told the manager she would have to help provide me another place to stay. She called me back and said she found me two rooms in a town 30 minutes away. I had little choice. Arriving at new hotel, the clerk told me the cost to check in. I stated this should be covered by the Econo Lodge since they messed up my reservation. The Econo manager said she couldn't do that, so off we went again in place of somewhere to stay. We found 2 rooms at a hotel in town for a total of $600.
We did stay at the Econo Lodge the next night because I didn't have another $600 to blow from our vacation budget. We were told we could check in early (by lunch). What a dump!!! We didn't get in until after 5:00. One room was covered in pet hair, there were no towels, the linens were stained, the rooms were musty.
I still, 3 weeks later, have not been able to recoup any money, any reward points, or get anyone from Choice Gotels to return my calls. They have lost a customer for life.
