WoodSprings Suites

On 4 november 2019 at approximately 17:20 hrs and 17:28 hrs, I was at the lobby on the first floor getting dishwasher tablets, kleenex, and toilet tissue from the new front desk employee when the general manager, phil concepcion, came from the back part of the office to ask if my wife is upstairs. He asked because he received a call from choice hotels about a complaint that was made. He wanted to know if the complaint was made before or after he spoke with us in our room on wednesday 30 october 2019 at approximately 14:00 hrs. This was after my wife called choice hotels and woodspring suites to make a complaint about our collective mistreatment and disrespect by an overnight audit employee named rhonda. She complained to the general manager about her unprofessionalism and mishandling of guests (meaning myself and my wife) for two weeks without a response and with her not being reprimanded for how she handled us. I will discuss this further in much more detail later in this letter.

It took 2 weeks before he gave us an apology. He claimed that if the complaint made was after we had that discussion in our room, then there was still a problem. I told him that we have not been compensated for experiencing the mishandling and disrespect by his employee. He said that in the complaint, my wife stated that guests' cars were being broken into and were compensated with a free night or more. He wanted to know where she got this information from. When we were in the elevator going up to the 4th floor, I told him that the problem we're having is that we have not yet been compensated for the two weeks of dealing with the consistent disrespect we received from his employee. He stated that actually we will not be compensated because we are compensated $400 every week because we are on the weekly rate. We pay $60 a day and we have been guests since april 2019. He gave the impression that he's doing us a favor when we are paying guests and has been mistreated by his employee. No amount of "discount" is worth being disrespected and being mishandled. I am sure if we were white, we would be offered compensation and it would not take 2 weeks for an apology. I immediately got offended when he stated that we will not be compensated. After he went into the storage room to get the kleenex that I requested, I told him not to worry about coming to our room to "talk". There was no need.

On monday 14 october 2019 at approximately 00:30 hrs, my wife and I had arrived at the hotel after picking me up from work. Earlier that morning, we had communicated to phil that we would be paying after I come home from work. That night so happened to be the first night I had ever closed at the restaurant where I worked so we came home later than usual. Normally, there was no problem because I have been consistent in paying and paying on time since april. The only exception being when we had a storm and flash flooding which threw things off for a while because it affected my working schedule. When we came to the entrance of the hotel, we saw the overnight audit employees rhonda and avery with two other gentlemen talking at the front desk. We were happy because we figured we could pay for the day since the front desk window panel was up and rhonda was there. As soon as they saw us coming, rhonda lowered the panel. I was trying to pay, and she said she could not accept our payment. I responded, "rhonda, really? All because we didn't get the car [from the dealership that she informed us to go to that day]?" she stated that she can't take cash payments after 12:00 am and that she was "off". She was still in uniform behind the front desk at the time while talking to another fellow employee. I stated that I see others come here later than us and are able to pay. She stated that she is obligated to take payments from reservations as long as it is not cash when they arrive — regardless of the time. I responded, "so us who have been here since april and pay consistently in cash everyday, you cannot accept our payment but you can accept a new reservation's payment any time throughout the night? Wow." this is before phil explained the hotel's late cash payment policy after we complained about her treatment of us that night. She then replied, "I don't work for you." keep in mind we are still guests at the hotel. I was speechless, shocked, and floored. My wife calmly and gently escorted me to the lobby door so that we can enter the elevator and go to our room. As we approached the elevator, rhonda rushed out the laundry room lobby door and got on the elevator with us. She posted herself on the elevator wall as if she was bracing for an altercation. We looked at her in disbelief. My wife was bewildered by her posturing and asked her "why are you posted on the wall like that? We 're not going to touch you." we immediately recognized that she was attempting to provoke us, and we left the elevator in disgust and disbelief and headed to our room. Later that night, I came downstairs to get a snack, and was getting on the elevator where she saw me as she was headed through the lobby doors, she shouted to me that "if you don't make a payment by 11:00 am, phil said he will lock you out the room". I did not respond. I was shocked that she would say that. We've been paying consistently everyday, so why threaten us like that? That makes no sense, and I can't see phil doing that. There's no justification for it.
They question is: why did she respond to me and my wife this way? Prior to this night, rhonda had informed my wife of a car dealership where we can potentially get a new car. Rhonda had recently had her car repossessed, and she claimed they were working with her to get her a new car. My wife never asked her about getting a new car. We have recently purchased a cash car. However, my wife and my daughter had gone to the dealership earlier that day based on rhonda's insistence and had had a very bad experience. Needless to say, they did not leave the dealership with a newly-purchased vehicle. It was a dealership that rhonda had sent them to. There must have been some financial incentive or some other incentive attached to her sending them there which was exemplified by her response to us that night.

We complained about it to both the assistant general manager and the general manager the following morning. We also paid for the night before and the following day that morning. When we told phil — the gm — about what happened the night before, he informed us that rhonda could not take cash payments after 11:00pm as a security measure for the front desk. However, the front desk person is obligated to take non-cash payments of reservations irrespective of what hour it is during the night.

My wife and I were unaware of this policy. This was awkward because phil had expressed to us many times before that because we are long-staying guests over several months and have been paying consistently we just need to communicate with him and the front desk and we can pay later that day. Of course, the question that I asked rhonda that night and asked phil was:

You can refuse payment from long-staying guests that wants to pay — albeit in cash,
Yet a brand new guest who hasn't paid anything,
You are obligated to take their payment as long as it's not in cash?

I hope it's clear how this induced a brief sense of confusion on the part of my wife and myself being long-staying guests here. We immediately felt the sense that we were of less priority than new guests and felt taken for granted. We didn't argue with it. We thanked phil for bringing us clarity on that policy. He then alluded to how for the past two weeks, we had been making late payments and that it was becoming a problem. I informed him that was why we paid double that morning. We desired to get back up to par with our payments so that I can begin paying in the mornings. Two weeks prior, there was a flash flood that occurred in houston that ill-affected my work schedule which forced me to have to pay after I come from work instead of before I go in for work which caused me to pay after 11:00am as opposed to before 11:00am. Prior to that, we paid consistently for months on time. He wanted to inform us that if we were to continue paying late again we would be in danger of no longer being guests. We informed him that we appreciated that he gave us a period of time where we can pay after 11:00am. He stated there was another guest that paid late frequently, and he was forced to leave. According to phil, he paid everyday at 4:00pm like clockwork. We informed phil, that unlike that other guest, we communicated with him. Unlike the other guest, he did not have too look for us. So that allusion to the other guest was immediately perceived as a lightly-veiled threat. We were perplexed by this because we came to him to inform him of the unprofessional, provocative behavior we experienced from his employee towards us — long-staying guests. He then assured us that because we were long-staying guests, he would continue to allocate a 24-hour grace period to make a payment if we were ever to run into complications again that would affect our paying on time. We informed him that due to our experience with rhonda the night before, we did not want to have that type of experience again. He reassured us that if we were to make a payment that late again, that I can just wait until the next morning to make a payment.

Due to the unprofessionalism we experienced from rhonda, the de-prioritization of our status as long-staying guests, and the lightly-veiled threat we received from phil, we no longer felt comfortable as guests here at the woodspring suites 288 and medical center. We made sure that our payments remained up-to-par, but we felt that we now had an awkward and adverse relationship with the front desk — which should not be. Prior to this incident with rhonda, my wife and I had a wonderful relationship with the front desk. At least, we thought we did.

After speaking with phil, my wife and I began experiencing strange behavior from rhonda. For example, she called my wife's cellphone to "remind her" of making a payment. This was the first time that she ever called my wife on her cell phone about making a payment. Normally, if we ever got a call — which is rare — it would be on the room phone. The only time rhonda would call my wife would be about something personal that rhonda wanted to share with my wife. This was prior to the incident that occurred at approximately 00:30 hrs on 14 october 2019. However, my wife understood the provocative intention behind the call, and shrugged it off. We was not going to make the mistake of engaging with her again. We understood that we could just pay the next morning if we were to run late in making a payment. We made it clear with phil that we no longer desired to engage with rhonda again. However, rhonda made it a point to engage us in a provocative manner on several occasions.

After speaking with phil that morning of 14 october 2019, rhonda would consistently and deliberately make it a point to speak to us. We just ignored her and kept moving. She would "greet us" in a condescending pseudo-professional tone whenever she saw us in the lobby, hallway, or the elevator with the expectation of receiving a response. We gave no response. We ignored her each and every time. However, ignoring her did not stop her provocations.

There was an incident where my wife had her quarters stuck in the snack machine on the 1st floor one evening. The second shift front desk agent — sakura — went to assist my wife by attempting to use a business card to jiggle the quarters so that they will go down the coin slot. When rhonda saw sakura assisting my wife, she immediately yelled out to sakura: "us, here at the hotel, is not responsible for you losing money in the machine." sakura said, "i'm just helping her get change in the machine unstuck". My wife knew that what rhonda stated was false because she previously had spoke with the vendor for the vending machine and he instructed her that if she loses her money in the machine, then she can go to the front desk to get her money back. Nevertheless, rhonda continued to heckle my wife and sakura by emphatically attempting to get sakura away from assisting my wife. Sakura and my wife continued attempting to get her change unstuck. However, rhonda insisted that sakura leave from assisting my wife by telling her that her parents are waiting for her. Obviously, irritated by the persistent pressure by rhonda to get sakura to leave, my wife abruptly retorted; "she's assisting a guest". Rhonda then rolled her eyes, and continued to stare at sakura to pressure her further to leave. Soon after, my wife and sakura were successful at getting the coins unstuck. They both celebrated and my wife was thankful for the professional assistance that sakura gave her. My wife then got her snack and went to the room while sakura left to properly end her shift. This is just an example of the unprofessional behavior we've experienced from rhonda. [cameras in area can verify this.]

On thursday 24 october 2019 at approximately 09:33 hrs, I was in the gym with my wife working out when I backed into the water fountain, and had wet the back of my sweater. I immediately ran into the public restroom across from the gym to dry up my sweater and to use the restroom. At approximately, 09:35 hrs., rhonda opened up the public restroom while I was washing my hands, and I had just finished urinating. I pushed the door back and locked it immediately after seeing her. My wife was in the gym and witnessed the entire incident. According to my wife's eyewitness account, rhonda pretended to have a key in her hand, but was able to open the door without one. It is common knowledge that there is a camera in the lobby that monitors that specific area of the lobby — from the elevator to the lobby exit door. My wife believes she was able to see me enter the restroom on the camera, and immediately followed up to see if she can walk in on me. It's a very short distance from the laundry room door which is behind the front desk and the lobby restroom. This was determined by myself and my wife to be another provocation. Grant it, the door was unlocked. However, any other time, someone would knock before entering.

To keep things within context, this occurs after we complained to the general manager about her mishandling of us and informed him that we no longer desire to engage with her any more. However, she has persistently put herself in a position to engage us. This is why we can not see this as coincidence but intentional provocation.

My wife, who witnessed her attempt to enter the restroom while I was in it, naturally got upset — especially after trying to ignore her and avoid her although she persisted in attempting to engage with us several times prior. Rhonda did not see my wife in the gym. Normally, I am working out by myself in the morning. Rhonda looked shocked after seeing my wife was there. According to my wife's eyewitness account, she began to storm off after seeing my wife in the gym. However, while in the gym, my wife called rhonda out on what she did immediately after witnessing it. She yelled out to rhonda: "did you just pretend to unlock the door when my husband was in the bathroom? The door wasn't locked." rhonda heard my wife say this through the vent adjacent to the hallway by the laundry room door. My wife came out the gym and stated: "you did all this just to get us to say something to you? Don't you get it? We don't want to talk to you. You said you don't work for us so there's no need to talk." immediately, rhonda aggressively walked towards my wife and retorted: "lady, I can talk to who I want to." my wife responded back: "not me." that's when I came out the restroom, and I asked my wife was she all right. She then explained to me what had just happened between her and rhonda as we went up the elevator to return to the room. [cameras in area can verify this.]

We decided to report this incident to phil. When we came down the elevator to report what had happened that morning, we saw rhonda coming through the lobby doors. As we walk towards the lobby doors, rhonda walks by us and bumps my wife and yells out sarcastically: "excuse you" as if my wife bumped into her. I witnessed it myself, she bumped into her deliberately. We didn't respond to her. We immediately saw phoebe — the assistant general manager, and reported what had just happened to her. We also reported what had occurred earlier that morning. When we returned from running errands, we saw phil and immediately reported both incidences to him. [cameras in area can verify this.] phil assured us he will review the cameras and look over it in 3 days.

However, he did not review it in 3 days as promised. However, we were not surprised. Phil has not been the most hospitable when it came to us. For example, the first week when we moved into the hotel, we received a call from phil to move our car. He claimed it was parked in an odd manner in front of the lobby door. The car was in a very bad condition, and based on what we saw from the third floor window, it was parked in a way that would make driving around it very difficult. Only one thing was very odd about this situation: why did we receive a call? It was not our car. He assumed it was, and that gave us a peak into his mindset towards us.

There was a moment when I needed a ride to work because my wife was in possession of the car and she was too far to pick me up on time. I had asked daniel — a new maintenance guy that worked at the woodspring suites — if he could bring me to work after he clocked out so that I could get to work on time. He agreed to do it. However, when I went to look for daniel, he had already left the hotel. Fortunately, I was able to get a ride from a stranger at the gas station near the hotel. I saw daniel 3 days later and asked him "what had happened?" he told me that phil was in the hall at the time that I asked him for a ride and had overheard our conversation. He told me that phil told him that he should be "friendly" to the guests but not become "friends" with the guest and threatened him that if he did give me a ride to work, then he would lose his job. When he revealed this to me, I was floored. What did I do to warrant such a response from phil? This just revealed further and deeper his mindset towards us. Although daniel did not bring me to work, the following week or two later he was fired.

On october 29. 2019 at approximately between 13:00 hrs and 13:30 hrs, I left my room on the 4th floor to go workout at the gym on the 1st floor and noticed there was incense and marijuana smoke in the hallway. A week prior, phil had told us about a "new policy" of no longer will the hotel allow the burning of scented candles and incense in the rooms. My wife and I looked at each other and wondered why did he address this to us... Specifically? Why was there no memo that was issued towards all the guests to inform us of this "new policy"? Did he inform every guest that entered the lobby? It felt has he was targeting us. He said that he had did an "inspection" in all the rooms to see if there were incense or candles in the rooms. We were astonished by this but not surprised. He knew that we were into meditation and that we used incense in order to facilitate the proper ambiance for our spiritual development. We have been tenants in this hotel since april, and never before has the use of incense been an issue of contention. He has been in our room several times before where he saw the scented candle and incense and there was no problem. So after this surprise announcement of this "new policy", my wife and I complied immediately.

When I smelled the incense and marijuana smoke on the floor, I had a feeling he would try to accuse us of it, but I continued on to the gym to workout. While in the gym, I saw the housekeeping lady, an african-american female, tell phil that she smelled exactly what I smelled on the 4th floor. I saw them both go up the elevator, and I promptly called my wife to inform her that phil was headed upstairs to check out the source of the incense and marijuana smell, and he may choose that moment to make an accusation towards us since he had just informed us of this "new policy". My wife opened up the door to our room and met him on the floor. She saw him get off the elevator and saw him look towards his right and then to his left. She saw him proceed towards our way. She said, "hey phil! You smell that? The incense smell isn't coming from our room." he said", I know. It's coming from that room". The room he was referring to was three to four doors away from our room. [my wife has footage of phil leaving that room.] then he proceeded to question my wife about opening the hallway window as if she was trying to let the smell out the hallway. My wife was immediately offended. She asked him why would she open the window outside our room? Why would she open up the hallway window for anything? He replied to her "... To get rid of the smell." it was a way of phil attempting to apply guilt towards my wife for a smell in the hallway that she is not responsible for.
I was still working out at that time, and phil came down from the elevator into the gym to tell me about the exchange between him and my wife. He was even brazen enough to question me on why I warned my wife that he was headed upstairs. I told him that I knew he would target us, especially after the proclamation of this "new policy" of the use of incense and scented candles. I told him we felt we were being targeted and picked on.

The next morning on 30 october 2019 my wife attempted to explain to phil in more detail what had occurred the day of 24 october 2019 when rhonda attempted to walk in on me in the 1st floor public restroom across from the gym. During this attempt, phil took the pleasure of informing her that avery has written a statement saying that the reason rhonda denied me payment was because I was yelling at her. This is categorically false. My response was: "rhonda, really? All because we didn't get the car [from the dealership that she informed us to go to that day]?" nothing more. So it appears phil coerced avery into making this false written statement. This is clearly an example of abuse of authority. My wife and I are not problem guests. We comply with the rules and we stay to ourselves, yet phil felt the need to pick with us and attempt to position us to be viewed as problem guests just because we reported to him the mistreatment and the misconduct of his employee towards us.

My wife became infuriated and reported to choice hotels the unprofessionalism and misconduct we've experienced from both phil and rhonda. My wife spoke with an agent for complaints with choice hotels. After speaking with the agent for an hour, the phone was disconnected. [my wife has screenshots of the times and day of the call.] a few minutes after getting a call back from the agent, phil arrived to our room at approximately 14:00 hrs to "reconcile" and "apologize". However, my wife was still on the phone with the agent, and phil stated that he did not want to be recorded. My wife had the agent on speaker phone. So he asked if she could get off the phone with the choice hotel agent before he speak with us. The agent agreed to get off the line and told my wife to call him back after speaking with phil. Phil began to "apologize" for attempting to accuse my wife of opening the hallway window. He accused her of being paranoid. After we checked him about telling her that, he apologized for saying that. He went as far as stating, "I shouldn't have said that." there were other statements that he made that he subsequently apologized for and admitted he was wrong for during this attempt at "reconciliation".

We observed that he really wasn't sincere in his "apology". He never reprimanded rhonda nor were we compensated for the two weeks of harassment and unprofessionalism we've experienced from rhonda. He stated that he was never going to compensate us. This was categorically unfair. One of the guests had informed us that when his car was broken into he was compensated with one free night. The guest at the time saw us in the laundry room and asked if our car was broken into. We told him that our car was tampered with. Someone had attempted to open our back trunk while the car was parked in the hotel's parking lot and now our trunk no longer can be opened with the car key. When my wife informed phil that other guests had been compensated for their experiences here, phil would get upset and ask her where did she get her information. Why would a gm be so upset about providing what other hotels would consider "good customer service' to make the guest's sty more comfortable — unless he has something personally against us? My wife had made another call to choice hotels to inform them that nothing had been done. So on 4 november 2019, phil had received a complaint from choice hotels, as stated in the beginning of this letter, and wanted to speak with me and my wife in our room. Once he stated that he would never compensate us because we are already being compensated by some phantom discount he's giving us, I told him that we have nothing to talk about. There was no need for him to come to our room. This conversation happened approximately between 17:20 hrs and 17:28 hrs. At approximately 18:09 hrs, the water pressure in our room becomes very low. This was strange because there was not enough people at the hotel at the time to justify having low water pressure. [my wife has video footage demonstrating the low water pressure and emptiness of the hotel at this time.] my wife and I observed that this may have been an attempt to get us to come downstairs to talk with him after we denied him entry into our room to speak with us about the complaint he received.

Each time that I had mentioned compensation, he would claim that he was already giving us this phantom discount on our room. Let's take a closer look at this so-called discounted rate. We have been staying at the woodspring suites 288 and medical center since april 2019. We shared a 2-bedroom at room 309 with our daughter la'keishane crawford and our dog mr. Yum-yum. After our third month here, we no longer were paying taxes which brought the rate down to $63 a day, plus the dog fee of $10 a day which brought it up to $73 a day. Once mr. Yum-yum had passed away and my daughter had moved out, my wife and I moved into a 1-bedroom at room 401 at a rate of $63 a day. Phil also claimed he was giving us the"weekly rate". If this was so, the math does not seem to add up. How is it we are paying only $3 less for a 1-bedroom than what we paid for a 2-bedroom? We began inquiring about rates with the front desk personnel because we began to feel we were being overcharged. When we first began staying here, phoebe had informed my wife that if we stayed here for 90 days or more that our rate would go down to about $43 a night. Oddly enough, it was rhonda that had informed my wife that she discovered that other guests were paying a lower rate than us after staying so long and our rate would not go down. Of course, this was during the period when rhonda and my wife were under good terms with one another. Rhonda also told my wife that phil instructed her that"if anybody from this room (at the time we were in room 309) inquired about a discount to not give them one without his instruction". Rhonda told my wife that she herself was offended by phil for targeting us in this manner.

My wife worked front desk at the marriott and the w hotel and understands how hotel rates work. She was also observant of how other guests would come off the street paying a lower rate than we did, although we've been here for several months. It wasn't something she looked for, but she would hear what the front desk would charge other guests while she would be waiting in line for either service or to make a payment. When my wife would inquire about the rates with phil, phil would become confrontational with her. Sakura had also confirmed that phil instructed them to not change the rates — specifically for us — unless he instructed them to.

On 15 december 2019, my wife, after dropping me off from work, went to the front desk to get tissue, dishwashing tabs, and garbage bags. Sakura and my wife began talking and the topic of room rates came up. Sakura wanted to prove to my wife that we were being overcharged, and saved in the billing receipt the $43 rate that we are supposed to be charged. During the conversation, sakura was shocked that we were never offered a credit for paying the rate we were paying for so long. Sakura even complained how most of the guests are leaving because of phil's attitude towards and treatment of the guests. Sakura had complained how the hotel was losing business as a direct result of phil's handling of guests and that we were not the only ones whose rates were not being lowered. She even informed my wife that she has noticed that all of the guests that had higher rates were either black or people of color. Sakura herself is asian-american. My wife periodically requests to receive a print out of all of our payments up-to-date. Sakura had informed my wife that she had noticed that phil had erased from the record our stay in room 309 from 29 april 2019 to 12 september 2019 and only had our stay in room 401 from 12 september 2019 to now on the record. Sakura also informed my wife that phil and rhonda just wanted both of us out. Not that we did anything wrong but complained about their mistreatment and mishandling of us. So it appears we were no longer just victims of unprofessionalism and harassment, but also victims of racism, discrimination, and abuse of authority.

On 16 december 2019 at approximately 17:00 hrs, phil comes to our door and hands my wife a letter advising us to vacate our room the following day due alleged"reports and statements from the guest and employees about ms. Crawford asking and sharing guest's/employees personal information to other guest/s and /or employees, which created uncomfortable and inconvenient situations affecting the day to day operation of the hotel and other guests."

This is categorically false. My wife never asked nor shared other guests' personal information to other guests and/or employees. My wife only inquired about rates with the front desk employees. That's what a paying guest is supposed to do. With this act of attempting to kick us out of the hotel on this basis just escalated the problem to now we are also victims of defamation of character. This allegation is a lie. Nothing less. Oddly enough, rhonda told sakura not to help us because they were trying"to get them (meaning me and my wife) out of here". Sakura found this strange and vented to my wife that this was not right. She complained that they were in customer service and that we're supposed to help the guests. [my wife has footage of the conversation between herself and sakura on 15 december 2019.] so this was an attempt to accuse us of what they are actually guilty of. What makes this move even more insidious is that on 16 december 2019, my wife and I had left the emergency room in pearland, tx because my wife suffering from chronic muscle spasms in the chest and back. She is also suffering from illness and a high level of stress and tension. [we have medical records showing our stay in the emergency room that day.] now phil chooses this day to kick us out on false allegations? My wife and I have suffered enough. Something must be done about this. Phil has taken advantage of our vulnerability as long-term guests and want to abuse us with his misuse of authority. He has irreparably damaged the reputation of woodspring suites 288 and medical center and gulf coast hotel management, inc.in our minds and in the minds of many other guests. We have concluded that because we are still guests, phil will have to address our concerns and complaints. So he is attempting to kick us out so he would no longer have to address our concerns and complaints.

There are so many other petty things that phil and rhonda have done to make our stay uncomfortable but are too numerous to fit into this letter. My wife and I should not be forced to leave based on unfounded allegations. All we desired was do be treated with the expected level of respect, well treatment, and common courtesy that any paying guest should expect to receive from hotel staff and employees in any hotel — especially one that prides itself on customer service.

We have paid good money to stay here — over $14, 000.00 up-to-date according to the billing record. All we asked for is respect, some form of compensation for receiving the negative experience we received here as other guests have been compensated, and to be treated fairly.