When you book a hotel stay, you usually expect decent service and a comfortable experience, especially since you’re paying for it. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for a disabled woman in Virginia. Joy Patton and her husband Matt were staying at the Woodspring Suites Extended Stay hotel and had a room on the fourth floor. Since Joy uses a wheelchair, the only way for her to reach the ground level was by elevator. But then the elevator broke down, leaving her trapped in their room for weeks.
The Virginia couple repeatedly reached out to hotel management, asking when the elevator would be fixed, but received little help. Frustrated, they contacted local news station WAVY in hopes that media attention might pressure the hotel into action, and it worked. The elevator was finally repaired, but not without some drama. Shortly after speaking to the media, the Pattons were allegedly informed that their weekly room rate would jump from $600 to over $1,000. The couple saw it as retaliation.
Hotel CEO Jim Darter denied the claim, stating that the rate remained the same and insisting that the couple had been offered a room on the first floor but had declined. The disabled woman disputed that, saying no such offer was ever made. When WAVY asked management whether a first-floor room could be arranged to avoid future issues, they were told it was “being worked on.”
Finally, on Thursday, after spending 42 days stuck indoors, Joy was able to roll out of the building and breathe in the fresh air and sunlight. Beaming, she said she had never felt so free. The Virginia woman shared how exhausting it had been to feel trapped in the room day after day, and that simply opening a window did nothing to ease the sense of confinement.
Joy wasn’t the only one shocked and frustrated by the situation. Many internet users were outraged that she had been trapped in her room for over a month. One user wrote, “I hope she sues the sh** out of that company… Jesus.”
Others pointed out that the couple should have been given a first-floor room from the start, especially since elevator repairs can take a long time. “Elevators can be incredibly hard to fix if they break down due to the lack of certified elevator techs out there,” one Redditor explained.
Another user criticized the management for their cold and indifferent attitude, writing, “I so hate that kind of attitude you saw from the on-site manager. You can tell they treat every resident like something they got on their shoe.”
