I have had one of the worst hotel experiences of my life, and I truly believe my family and I were treated unfairly—and possibly discriminated against—during our stay.
To begin with, I was charged an additional $20 for a cot after explaining during booking that we would have 2 adults and 2–3 children in the room. I was told this was fine, only to be told the next day when I called to reserve an additional room that only 4 people were allowed per room. This directly contradicted what I had been told the night before, which is why I paid for the cot in the first place. Despite the inconsistency and growing frustration, I went ahead and booked a second room for my family at the same rate, again with a $20 cot fee.
When we arrived to check in, we were suddenly told we’d need to pay another $25 because we had 5 people in the room. I paid it because I didn’t want any further disruption to our vacation—I simply wanted my family to enjoy what was left of our summer and get an early start at Six Flags the next morning.
Later that evening, my husband called the front desk to politely ask for extra towels. We were told, quite bluntly, that the hotel doesn’t give out extra towels. My husband is one of the most humble and respectful men I know, and he was genuinely upset by the dismissive, unhelpful attitude he encountered.
Then, while we were at the pool, the same young woman who checked us in came into the area, opened the outside door, and said she was letting air in because it was “too hot.” She said she’d return in 10 minutes—but she never did. At the time, my family was the only one using the pool, so there had been no complaints from others. Having the door wide open while we swam felt inappropriate, uncomfortable, and again—disrespectful. When I voiced my concern, it was brushed off as if my experience didn’t matter.
Things only got worse when we returned to our room. I went to set up the cot and discovered multiple stains and what appeared to be bugs. One of the queen beds had something black on the sheet—again, looked like a bug—and the other bed had visible stains on the blanket. At this point, we were exhausted and disgusted. My husband and I went back to the front desk to show the pictures we had taken, and after some time, we were moved to a cleaner room and given a better cot. But by then, the damage had already been done.
Word of our experience must have spread quickly, because the following morning my husband was greeted by the manager with an apology and a promise that $20 would be taken off one of the rooms for the inconvenience. While it was a small gesture, it was at least something—until we checked out. As I was at the front desk scanning the barcode to leave feedback, the same manager suddenly appeared again with more apologies.
When I explained that the extra charges should have been removed from both rooms—not just one—he began backtracking, saying he “didn’t know” we had two rooms. This was hard to believe, considering both rooms were under my husband’s name. Then he started apologizing all over again, saying he had already apologized to my husband four times and asking for forgiveness. He told me he would now remove the extra $20 cot charge and the $25 over-occupancy charge for both rooms, totaling a $90 refund.
Honestly, it felt like he was trying to rush us out and quiet things down to avoid us making a public scene or fully exposing how we were treated. In truth, after everything we went through, we should’ve been offered a complimentary stay. Instead, we were offered empty apologies and an awkward attempt at damage control.
To make matters worse, when I finally received the confirmation email from our credit card company, I saw that only $65 had been refunded—not the full $90 as promised.
This entire experience has left me feeling humiliated, deeply disrespected, and extremely disappointed. I can’t shake the feeling that if my family looked different, we might have been treated differently. The shifting policies, dismissive tone, poor cleanliness, and lack of accountability all pointed to a pattern that felt like more than just bad customer service—it felt like bias.
I will never return to Comfort Inn Gurnee again, and I intend to report this experience. No family should ever be made to feel the way we did.
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