Hotel Clarion a Fort Collins

Admittedly, this was a busy time to book (CSU family weekend/homecoming), which is why I booked (or thought I did) almost two months early. We drove 8 hours from Omaha and arrived to spend time with our freshman daughter then decided to check in to our hotel room at roughly 9:30 pm. The place was a little run down but looked ok for sleep and to enjoy a hot breakfast (or so we thought...side note; the website says breakfast is included - IT IS NOT). When you get there the front desk has a sign that acknowledges that fact and says the website is indeed incorrect and there is no breakfast included. The sign also says they are working to fix that mistake on the website. Apparently, in 2023, updating a website is hard work because the website still says you get a free breakfast. I was slightly alarmed when I walked up the check-in area because there were multiple people stacked up to get in, all looking fairly upset. Once it was my turn, I was told that there were no rooms left and that they overbooked multiple people (perhaps this room went to the poor person who got charged multiple hundreds of dollars per night at the gouge rate instead of me, who booked in advance - shady s&^t man). Then I was told that there was an option for me to get a room - they were going to give me a voucher for another property and I would be honored there. No problem except - THE PROPERYT WAS TWO HOURS AWAY!!! I don't know about you, but after driving 8 hours to get there and having toured campus and other areas all day, the prospect of driving two hours away (at 9:30 pm) and then two hours back the next morning, multiple times over the weekend was not very appealing to me. This is where I was told there was nothing else they could do for me (they hadn't actually done anything yet). I declined the voucher and was told, ”don't worry, we're not going to charge you for the room.” HA!!! Now we enter scramble mode. As stated, this was a busy weekend so finding a hotel room was not easy. We called around many hotels and finally found one room, which we booked for the only night they had available (which meant we also had to find a room for the next night too). Cost - $400 per night for each hotel = $800 for two nights and a nice move from one hotel to the other in the middle of the weekend. I booked two months early for a bill that would have been ~$250. So, because some hotel chain doesn't understand what a ”reservation” actually means (anyone watch Seinfeld:)), I'm out about $550. This is of course, unless Guest Services for Choice Hotels decides to do something (something else I get do...call and argue with a hotel chain and deal with that). No one at the actual hotel was willing to do anything ”else” for us - just sent us packing. Thanks Clarion, Fort Collins for making what was supposed to be a relaxing weekend enjoying family a pain in the A%$...be warned anyone looking to stay here.