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Visitor books room at trashed OYO hotel, struggles to get refund

BATON ROUGE - The city wants the OYO Hotel off of Sherwood Forest Boulevard in Baton Rouge cleaned up. They gave the property owner 60 days to clean it up, and that deadline has passed. It's been abandoned for months, but still appears on booking sites with available rooms for purchase.

David Lewis booked a room in October and drove in from Texas for the LSU-Texas A&M football game. He arrived late at night, but there was no mistaking what he saw.

"Just utter chaos," said Lewis.

Every room has been trashed. The exterior walls are missing, and every window has been broken. There are mattresses, furniture, and other trash all around the property, and it reeks of urine.

The property is far worse than it was in November, when 2 On Your Side last reported the conditions.

Lewis booked a two-night room through Hotels.com for $177.12. 

"At first I thought, we're not at the right place," he said.

Immediately, he contacted Hotels.com to let them know about the property's condition and that he was unable to stay the night. Getting a refund hasn't been easy, and Lewis has been fighting the credit card charges for weeks.

"I'm not getting a refund because they say I was a no-show," said Lewis.

Even sending the company photos of the property along with a current newspaper in the photo didn't work. Lewis learned they couldn't open the attached files and were unable to use photos as evidence.

Frustrated, Lewis reached out to 2 On Your Side. After 2 On Your Side emailed Expedia, the parent company of Hotels.com, the OYO Hotel on Mead Road in Baton Rouge has been removed from its websites. There are other websites that continue to offer the hotel as a booking option, including the OYO website. After calling OYO properties, a representative confirms the Mead Road hotel is closed, and apologized for not having an updated website.

"It's fraud," said Lewis.

Expedia issued an apology to Lewis for his experience and has issued him a full refund. The company says it's investigating OYO and has removed the property from its websites. The City of Baton Rouge is putting the project out for bid to get it boarded up, which will be costly. 

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