I was appalled at the recent treatment I received when I reserved a room at the Fairfield Inn in Lewisburg, WV. My husband and I were unable to get to our home in White Sulphur Springs, WV due to a bad snow storm and roads being closed in our area. We are committed Marriott members and only stay with the Marriott brand when we travel. This is due to the excellent service and accommodations we have come to know. Due to being unable to get home, we decided to stay the night at our local Fairfield Inn, which is very close to our places of business. Upon making our reservation, we provided the clerk with our Marriott rewards number. She then informed us that since we had a local zip code, in order to have a room for the night, we would have to put down $250.00 in cash along with reserving and paying for the room with our credit card. I inquired as to why they needed that much cash deposit in addition to my credit card and was told that "locals reserve the rooms and then trash them". While I understand the need to protect the property, who is to say that someone from out of town would not be capable of the same thing? Also, is that not why you keep my credit card on file to begin with; for the incidentals or any damage I cause? I am pretty sure it was obvious that my husband and I were not there to "trash the room" since there was a major snowstorm happening outside. I braved the roads in order to get the cash from my bank account and arrived at the Fairfield Inn. The clerk, Heather, was on an obviously personal phone call and this just put a cap on a horrible experience. We were the only ones checking in and I had to wait for her to get through a phone call about the fact that her boyfriend is picking her up from work.

I paid for the room, $250 in cash, and then put the room charge on my credit card. This morning upon checkout, the manager came out to check our room for one thing. That one thing was to see if we had smoked in our room. Again, I was floored that all of this mess was due to people smoking in the rooms. Even though we were informed that this is a local management decision, I find it insulting and rude to learn that since I live 15 miles from this hotel, it is more difficult for me to stay there than it is for any of the other local hotels that I could have easily walked to.