We stayed in the Holiday Inn Express in Saint Joseph, Missouri last night. We live in town and had a bit of a house fire that made it impossible to sleep in our home. We booked the hotel through Expedia (thinking we were getting one of the nicer ones in town so we could at least be comfortable despite our circumstances). Upon arrival, I gave my license and the card being charged. Immediately the front desk receptionist noted my license said I lived in town. I said that we did (my husband and toddler), but we had a house fire. She showed no sympathy and said she’d have to check with her manager before she could allow us to stay. I was nearly in tears at 10:30 at night thinking I might have to face finding yet another place. Quite frankly, at that point, I didn’t even want to stay. The receptionist walked away to contact her manager and came back to ask who was paying for the room. At this point I was distraught (though, I didn’t show it. I just wanted a place for us to sleep as soon as possible). I told her we were paying and she walked away again to tell her manager. I can’t even tell you the terrible way this woman made me feel on top of already being displaced from our home. Apparently, the hotel does not allow locals to stay. However, we often book this hotel for our special speakers and out of town guests and I don’t think we’ll be doing that again. If they can’t treat local residents with kindness and hospitality, how can we expect them to treat our guests that way? This
