Pittsburgh Plaza Hotel

I was in town to attend the funeral of a family member. The Pittsburgh Plaza hotel is dirty, in disrepair, vacant, has no security, no valet parking, and the grounds are dark. The Pool and exercise room are closed as well as other parts of hotel. The front desk is only staffed by one person who disappears for extended periods of time so you have to wait for help. In addition, the staff is rude and dressed unprofessionally in crocs, jeans, and sweatshirts (some of which are stained). The manager of the hotel retracted an offer for a discount for bad experience I had at their hotel.

I had to abort my stay here - for good reason. I arrived to check in after earlier leaving my suitcase there to do some visiting before check-in time. In hindsight, I'm lucky to have even gotten my suitcase back, given how sketchy this place is. Things went left at check-in when I happened to look up after giving the front desk attendant my driver's license and card for incidentals and saw that she was making a copy of my license. This struck me as odd and disturbing - I've never checked into a hotel where they make a copy of your ID. In this era of identity theft, that is quite worrisome. So I told her as much and asked why she needed a copy of the ID. Her only explanation was that it is hotel policy. I informed her that I wasn't comfortable with that, and then asked what they do with the copies after the stay is complete. Her response was that they keep it on file? Excuse me? I'm not comfortable with complete strangers in the hospitality industry having Personally Identifiable Information of mine on file. That level of risk is unacceptable. She asked if I would like to speak with a manager and I took her up on that offer. The manager rudely informed me that I can either leave and they destroy the copy of my identification but under no circumstance could I check-in without them keeping that copy. When I told her that all she needs with my ID is to confirm that the person checking in is the person represented on the ID. Her response was "so WHEN the police come because you've done something or something happens to you, what then?" I responded by kindly telling her that if I'm checked in, you already know my name and where I'm at, but also, does this sort of sordid occurrence happen often? And so I called Hotwire, and when I told them about this egregious tale, they refunded me my money. I returned to the front desk to request that ill-gotten copy of my identification and would you believe the woman at the front desk was reluctant to give it to me?? Rather than simply hand it over to me, she took it to a shredder behind her. The shredder wasn't working, and so I more firmly asked that she kindly hand over the copy of MY ID! With quite a nasty attitude, she finally handed me the copy of my license. I rebooked to another hotel and when I told the front desk attendant of my ordeal, she winced and said "that place is known to be a hotbed for sketchy activity. I wouldn't advise anyone to stay there." Well, I know that now, and I feel like I need to do the public service of ensuring that others visiting the area aren't lured into this awful place.