Garden Inn

Where to begin... The garden inn is a place where dreams go to die. The people were alright as far as service goes, but that didn't make up for the short comings of this "hotel". In the words of my traveling mate "dude, this is the worst..." I am pretty sure this was Stanley Kubrick's second choice for where to shoot the shining. Let me paint a picture for you. We had adjoining rooms and when my coworker went to close the adjoining door, his mirror fell off of the wall. His bathroom came with its own plunger but that still didn't help the toilet flush. He also had a gigantic red stain on the bathroom wall which let our minds run wild with possibilities. There was only three outlets in the room, one behind the TV, one at the beat up old corner desk, and one behind the bed, which for some unknown reason did not have an outlet cover on it which in no way was a fire hazard especially since the mattress was pushed all the way up against it. This is a smoke free hotel but you could have fooled me. It smelled like a casino and not the good kind. Our room did not have any towels or wash cloths in it when we arrived and we had to call down to get some brought up. Even then the towels were paper thin and sand papery. I know I might be nitpicking here but good grief, there was not one thing I was pleased with and this is coming from somebody who hates writing negative reviews. The beds felt like they were made of styrofoam, the wifi did not work even though the signal was "available", and honestly I felt more clean when I entered the night before after a long day of work, than when I left the following morning. Needless to say we will not be returning here. (Also not going to go into details but I am 100% sure they did not change the sheets after we left)

Wow! Where to begin?!?!?! My wife & I had made the reservations through Booking.com. We looked at the wonderful accommodations & pictures that were nearly 15 yrs. old. We were especially interested in that the hotel had a pool. We got to the the hotel on 07/15/13. We had called ahead to see if we could check in early by 2 pm as we had a blind cat that was having a hard time with the hot weather. They were accommodating in that respect. Once we got to the hotel, we entered the lobby which was just as warm outside as it was inside (approx. 95 deg.). There was NO A/C in the lobby! As customers, we expected it to be cool & comfortable in the lobby as we checked in. The front desk clerk indicated that the owner was trying to conserve on using the A/C as she is struggling to keep the hotel running. She also indicated that she couldn't give us a room key since the key machine was out of order & she was waiting on the owner to fix it. We were let into our 1st room. We were amazed at how spacious it was. I attempted to turn on the light in the bathroom. Much to my surprise, the light flickered like the bulb was going out. I then proceeded to go to the front desk & speak w/the person there. She indicated that they'd have NO problem changing rooms for us. We gladly accepted the change in rooms. My wife & I then moved all of our luggage & our blind cat to the 2nd room. With everything that has been going wrong so far, we really didn't want anything else to happen. But surprise!! Our bathroom ADA railing was not even attached to the wall!! By this time I was a bit upset. My wife & I attempted to connect to the hotel's FREE WiFi. Again, filled with disappointment. There was no free WiFi in the room. I went down to the front desk & spoke with "Jean" the clerk. She informed me that the owner is having difficulty getting the WiFi into the rooms & that it's available in the lobby (where it was extremely warm)!! I also informed her of the issue with the ADA railing. She said she would get the new handyman to fix it. I went back to the room & informed my wife. By this time, our cat was feeling better that she was in a cool room. I tried putting our refreshments in the fridge to get them cold. Yet again, to my surprise, the cleaning staff neglected to look in the mini-fridge. The previous guests had left their "take home" containers from a local restaurant in the fridge. By this time I was getting very mad at everything that had been going on. I marched down to the front desk & spoke with Jean. She was very apologetic & said that the cleaning staff should've inspected the fridge. The owner was at the front desk by this time trying to fix the key machine. She indicated that she was waiting on her son to come & fix the machine. I informed the owner of my dissatisfaction with her hotel. She said that she was having trouble paying the bills & that's why she hasn't turned on the A/C in the lobby. I was furious by this time & informed her that maybe she SHOULDN'T be in business & to close her doors for good!!! She did offer to move us to yet another room. I said no because we've done this twice already. I asked her if there was anything that she could do as in giving us a jacuzzi room. She said no & that with having that kind of room, the county charges her for her water & that the room would be $125/night. I also asked the owner about the swimming pool. She said that the pool area has been under construction (I find out later that it's been out of order for almost a year)!! I was totally astounded & frustrated with this information. If a guest has had a bad experience, you'd think that the owner would make every attempt to make the guest happy. She did nothing of the sorts!! I took our key cards back to the room. By this time, the new handyman had been working on the bathroom railing for over an hour. He was having trouble getting the screws into the wall since the walls were made of concrete instead of drywall/plaster. I was sitting in the room using my personal hotspot on my phone to access the internet. Each time the handyman was trying to use the drill, he was scaring our cat. My wife had to take her out of the room repeatedly. After 3.5 hrs. of the handyman trying to fix the railing, my wife ended up telling him that he can stop for the night & that we didn't need it fixed. She was at the front desk as she was doing this because the handyman had came down to ask the desk clerk a question. With some of the information that the desk clerk had told my wife, she was astounded. Jean said that the entire staff lives at the hotel which was very strange to say the least. Then we also find out that they've also go migrant workers that are bussed to the hotel to live on the 2nd floor. All the school age children were dropped off on a bus in front of the hotel. We also found out that the hotel provides free coffee & donuts to the guests. The migrant workers & their children

This place is horrible we called to cancel room the host said let us know once u get in when we got in host said we could not cancel because we booked through third party then he wanted to charge us double an hold our money til we leave then there is no guest allowed in ur room 500$ for smoking this place is horrible

I travel quite a bit and have NEVER been treated so poorly by a hotel staff. I should have read the reviews.....no wonder there were no people in a relatively big place.....I am originally from Kokomo and came back to visit my ailing mother. The cable was out, the wi-fi was out and there was no hot water. I told the front desk, and they said that the cable was going to be fixed and it took a long time to get hot water....well, I took a shower in cold water ...After the first night the water never got hot and the cable and wi-fi never came on, so I decided that it was time to move on. The real problem is that they charged me for TWO nights. After I returned home, I talked with the manager , KELLY PATEL, and she was not only extremely rude, she hung up on me.....she told me that the sign clearly said, "no refunds"....Who knew that I should NOT have paid for two nights in advance??? Since I come back to Kokomo relatively often, I have stayed in several other hotels in the area.....anyone of them would be better than the Garden Inn and Suites . But the fact Garden Inn people were exceptionally rude AND charged me for the second night (even though I I checked out before 9:00 in the morning) is not only poor business, it is probably illegal....we shall see!