Complaint against Sleep Inn 'unfounded'
By Steve Herring
Published in News on October 27, 2016 10:07 AM
MOUNT OLIVE -- A price-gouging complaint against the Sleep Inn is expected to be ruled as "unfounded."
"After reviewing the complaint it appears that it will be unfounded," Julia White of the N.C. Attorney General's office said this morning. "They (Sleep Inn) were very cooperative once our office reached out to them about the complaint.
"They provided all of the appropriate information."
Ms. White said an official letter on the finding of the complaint being unfounded is expected later today.
The complaint appears to have started out as a Facebook posting and is basically an Internet version of an urban legend, said Stephanie Kornegay, whose family owns the Sleep Inn.
"We have submitted actual charges for every room during that period, and it is obvious there was no gouging," she said. "It just did not happen. But because of this attention I would like to tell what did happen.
"We gave lower-than-normal rates to the power companies and the Red Cross to keep them in the area to help our community get back to normal faster. We could have charged them full rates because we were completely full even before the storm but we didn't."
The hotel even brought in food from a two-hour drive to give free to those who were without because the restaurants and stores were closed, she said.
"We welcomed school kids who needed to keep up their homework to use our Internet free because they had no power at home," she said. "They were not hotel guests.
"I could go on, but the bottom line is we are proud of our efforts and our staff. They received numerous compliments and thank you notes. I would appreciate you shining a light on them because this unfounded urban legend has really hurt them and all of us quite frankly. That is not who we are."