Quality Inn & Suites (Choice Hotels)

The pictures on the website show a well-kept property with clean rooms and palm leaf-covered huts.

But according to photos recently sent in by a TINA.org reader, the Quality Inn & Suites in Corpus Christi, Texas, has seen better days.

Our reader said she booked the hotel for a family vacation. When she arrived, she said what she found was a hotel in “complete disrepair, completely opposite of the pictures” on the website.

Then, when she attempted to get a refund, Choice Hotels, the parent company of Quality Inn & Suites, only awarded her points that she could use toward future bookings but not enough, she said, to cover all the nights she stayed at the Quality Inn & Suites in Corpus Christi.

Our reader is not the only guest to point out the stark differences between how the hotel looks on the Choice Hotels website and how it looks in person. Numerous other guests have left reviews on the hotel listing about the bait and switch (among a plethora of other, skin-crawling issues).

Of note, one-star reviews like these account for more than 99 percent of the nearly 2,500 reviews on the listing. Yet somehow the hotel has a guest review rating of 2.9 stars.

Consumers have also complained to the BBB about the misleading online photos.

Choice Hotels did not respond to a TINA.org request for comment.

The bottom line

When making a hotel reservation, it may help to read reviews from people who have been on the premises and can report back what they’ve seen. In addition to hotel listings, check a variety of third-party review sites before booking.

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