I pre-paid my room via the Choice Hotels site. Every time I have done this in the past, I have never had a problem with my debit card being charged again. This time, well before my arrival and check in, my card was charged the total amount of the room rental a second time. The front desk staff told me that it should not have happened; that since I pre paid I shouldn't have had any additional charges. They could not get anyone from the corporate offices on the phone to clarify or explain. I called the main number for the Choice Hotels website and explained the problem, and was told that I needed to take it up with the hotel, not with them. I went to Twitter, and got a canned response from Choice Hotels wanting me to email them to see if they could help. I didn't receive a reply until well after the problem was resolved and my trip was over.

The staff at the hotel, particularly Felicia, and especially Wil Adams, were most empathetic and helpful as they tried to resolve the matter. Wil explained that they were in the process of changing computer systems (or something to that effect), and my reservation was one that slipped through the cracks. He was able to release the "hold" (that should not have been there) and called my bank to have them release the funds.

When I finally heard from the corporate office, they explained that the hold was for "incidentals". In my reply I stressed that I should have had a choice as to what method of payment to use for "incidentals", instead of them running my card again without my authorization. This was a few days ago, and I have yet to receive a response. I doubt that I will.

Other than the billing problem, I found the hotel to be clean, and my room was what I expect from a Choice Hotels room. The breakfast was adequate. Not many protein or fruit choices but that might not be a big deal to some people. The staff, as mentioned above, were very friendly and helpful.

For the money (as a Choice Hotels member I got the pre-paid rate), this was exactly what I needed for this trip to visit friends and attend a wedding. It seemed to be centrally located to everywhere that I needed to be, on a major street that runs through Panama City.

It appears that consumers are being punished more and more for paying with cash/debit. I know how "holds" work, and this is why I don't use my debit card to reserve hotel rooms or rental cars. Now it seems that even if you pre-pay a room, they still withold funds, with no warning when you make the reservation. In the future, I will be pre-paying rooms with a pre-paid credit card, rather than have to deal with the hassle of my actual money being held hostage without my authorization. I hope that Choice Hotels changes their policy with regard to room pre-payment and "incidentals" at check in.

I marked the service as EXCELLENT, because of the staff at the hotel, NOT the customer service people who have had little to nothing to say about the mistake made with my card.

My husband and I stayed at the Sleep Inn & Suites this past weekend for my husband's birthday and we enjoyed our stay. The room was very clean, hotel staff was most helpful with anything we needed and breakfast was hot. The bed was very comfortable if you like semi-firm and we do. We only had one complaint and that was the toilet sometimes kept running. My husband fixed that with a jiggle of the handle. Overall, I'd recommend this hotel to my friends and we will be returning.

I need a credit for a 2 night stay for a room that was not clean,I contacted the General Manager Dan Browser at 850-2492501,he did not return my phone call in reference to the complaint.The Hotel is the Sleep Inn & Suite 9201 Front Beach Road Panama City Beach FL 32407.My name is Zachary Ellis Arrival date 5/26/11-5/28/11 my phone is 4047875734.

Me and 3 others booked in advance online and when we arrived they hit us with a deposit of 300.00 and it had to be cash. If we didnt have the extra cash we would have drove all the way from alabama which is 6 hours away with no place to stay. The deposit should be advertised with the purchase of the room. I asked to speak with manger about this situation, which he was nice about it but it took the front desk 30 minutes to find him so that I could speak to him..he needs a walkie.We called for 2 extra towels and the lady said she would have someone bring them to the room after she questioned us about why do we need extras, where there some already in the room, how many ppl are in our room.. on and on when we just paid $366.00 plus their dumb $300.00 deposit. We waited atleast 20 minutes still no towels so I called back and the manger said house keeping was gone for the day and this was 5pm why is house keeping gone and why did you all have us waiting in the room for 20 minutes when you knew you were not bringing us towels?? So he tells me I would have to come and get the towels from the desk. I beleive that we were mistreated for that amount of money we paid they were very rude and even put a curfew on what time we can have company and you had to pay $10 if they were not staying there..If we could have found somewhere else to stay we would have I dont recommend anyone to sleep at the Sleep Inn sorry my honest opinion.Last but not least..the first night the elevators didnt work we had to take the steps and the bathrooms were dirty but they did go and clean them.