We stayed at The Ark in Jonesboro while traveling in for a funeral, and it was honestly one of the worst hotel experiences I’ve ever had.
When we arrived, they had already given our reserved room to someone else. From there, things only got worse. They first tried moving us to a room where the door lock didn’t work, the room smelled horrible, and everything looked dirty and stained. They then attempted two additional rooms, both of which also had issues. One had another broken door lock, and another had no working lights at all.
Eventually, we were moved to a room on the third floor, despite there being no elevator and my elderly mother traveling with us. The room itself felt unsafe and poorly maintained. The smoke detectors had been disconnected, the electrical outlets were so loose and damaged we were afraid to plug anything in, and there was even a hole in the bathroom wall.
There were also no trash cans in the room. When we asked for washcloths, they said they had none. When we requested an iron, they handed us one attached to a giant base like it belonged in a museum exhibit called Hotels of Regret.
To make matters worse, there was water leaking from the ceiling outside one of the rooms into a trash can in the hallway, and staff members were openly complaining to guests about management.
The billing situation was the final straw. The hotel successfully charged our card, the payment had fully gone through on our account, and they still repeatedly attempted to charge us