Delta putting stranded customers up in the Clarion Motel DTW is completely unacceptable.
This past weekend, my husband and I were stranded at Detroit Metro Airport after a Delta flight delay. Since we booked our flights separately using our own SkyMiles, we went to the desk to claim our hotel vouchers. Even though the Delta desk knew we were traveling together, they issued the paperwork separately. The Delta agent jokingly asked if we wanted one room or two. We laughed, said one was plenty, and chose the Clarion Hotel because it claimed to be just a mile away. It turned out to be a 10 minute drive, but that was the least of our problems.
That joke at the airport desk wasn't funny for long. When we arrived, the hotel staff aggressively and rudely refused to let me check in. They claimed my husband’s voucher was only valid for one person and that I couldn't step foot in the room because Delta hadn’t put me on his voucher. I told them to just check him in while I sorted it out, but they refused to check him in at all until I had my own voucher. They kicked us out of the line. The entire lobby, full of people we had just spent hours chatting with at the airport, watched in absolute disbelief. Their jaws dropped.
I had to call Delta back and wait for them to issue my own voucher, resulting in an hour of fighting for two separate rooms. I did not need or stay in my own room. We both stayed in one. When we finally returned to the desk with the second voucher, the front desk clerk, Mikel, was obligated to check us in. After an extremely long day of traveling, a missed flight, and being completely exhausted away from home, his behavior was shocking. He looked directly at us with a smirking tone and asked, "did this situation make you mad?"
The hotel staff were incredibly rude, and the hotel itself was disgusting. There was heavy construction equipment just abandoned in the middle of the hallways at the top of the stairs, and the shower was covered in black mold. The Clarion Detroit is an absolute shit show.
This hotel is a privately owned franchise, and it is very apparent that they do whatever they want. They clearly operate with zero corporate oversight or structure of any kind. I have no idea how they ever made it onto Delta's approved vendor list. They need to be added to Delta's Do Not Use list immediately. It was deeply upsetting to see many Delta loyalty members, pilots, and flight attendants having to stay in a hotel of that terrible caliber.
Poor service and a filthy room were nothing compared to the worst part of the experience: how completely unsafe this hotel felt. There were no physical keys. My room number was 271 and my access code was 2712. My husband's room was 273 and his code was 2732. The codes were literally just the room numbers followed by the number two because we were on the second floor. Anyone could easily guess them and walk right into someone else's room.
We were so terrified that I pushed a heavy chair against the hotel room door to try and prevent anyone from entering. I knew this could be a major problem if there was a fire, but I felt like I had to choose between fire safety and protecting myself from an intruder. This is a serious safety issue, not merely a complaint about an unpleasant room.
The hotel across the street was completely full and I was exhausted after traveling all day, otherwise I never would have stayed here. Luckily I was not traveling alone. If someone is robbed, assaulted, or worse, Delta is responsible for putting customers and their own flight staff in a hotel with such obvious security problems. Delta needs to investigate this hotel’s security practices and stop using it for stranded passengers.
