My boyfriend and I spent 3 days in Tampa Bay last week. We stayed one night at the Motel 6 Tampa, and decided to go to St Petersburg the next day. After a long day, we didn't want to make the trip back to Tampa, and decided to stay in St Petersburg. I booked and paid through hotels.com for one night at the Budget Inn St Petersburg. At check-in my reservation was not there yet, which I understand because I had made it about 15 min before. I expected to be checked in and the paperwork to be done when they get it. Well no, I had to wait 20 min for the check-in person to call them, and get the fax. That was still ok. But then he took my credit card and ran it. I told him that I had paid through hotels.com, and he argued that the paper didn't say that.I had paid twice for the room, and had to point out the line that said it had been paid. He was missing the payment info from hotels.com to pay for my stay. The missing fax page with the payment info from hotels.com came in while I was standing there and the gentleman blamed it on them, but still apologized and told me I would get a refund. Problem is, the manager only can do refunds, and she doesn't come in until 10 pm. I was upset but since I was exhausted, my boyfriend and I went upstairs in the room. When I opened the door, I thought I had just walked in a retirement home room that hadn't been occupied in years. the ac was off (In Florida!!!) so the heat was unbearable, everything looked old and dirty, the sofa had huge stains on it, it was dark and sad. We had no desire to spend the night there. People from other rooms were having parties and cooking, it smelled like alcohol and bad food. It was just horrible. We tried to turn the ac on, and it wouldn't, so I went back downstairs to change rooms. The next room was the same, still hot as hell, and dirty. The bed was old and uncomfortable for the 5 seconds I dared laid down on it. The check in person had to come up because the ac wasn't working either. He had to turn the buttons in every direction quite a few times for it to start. The ac unit was hidden on top of an open closet, so it would take quite a while to get the room to cool down. I called hotels.com and begged for a refund so we could leave that place. I would have left anyway, but I figured I would try. They were very understanding, and called the front desk. The hotel agreed to not charge them so they refunded me. We walked out and the man came to apologize, and told me he would make sure I would get my refund for his mistake as well. I was promised a refund as soon as his manager would come in that night. I kept the sales draft from the credit card charge which I didn't sign since the hotel was not supposed to charge me directly. It has been a week and the charge is still on my account so I called tonight to check on my refund. I talked to the manager who was the rudest person I ever talked to. She did not want to listen to me, and kept saying they only charged me once and I was wrong. It took me 20 min of talking through her screams to make her understand that they were not supposed to charge me at all since I had already paid for the stay when I checked in and her employee charged me by mistake, apologized about it, and promised me a refund. When she realized she was wrong I was rudely told to call back tomorrow after she finds out what happened. I disputed the charge through my credit card and will call back tomorrow. This is the worst hotel experience I ever had, and the manager was the rudest person I had seen, without any kind of skill necessary to work in hospitality, like customer service of the ability to listen for a minute without cutting people off and scream. STAY AWAY FROM THIS PROPERTY!!! We went back to the Motel 6 we stayed at the night before for half the price (employee discounts) and had a wonderful clean quiet and pleasant stay, even an hour away from St Petersburg.