#stephandlou

Thank you to everyone who helped spread our story via social media. We have been a bit overwhelmed by the attention. We never expected to get any sort of positive outcome from this situation, but we’re happy to tell you that on Friday we spoke with Michael Mueller, Senior VP of Super 8, and a refund has been initiated.  We plan to donate that money to Maryhaven, a phenomenal organization in Columbus that pounds the pavement every day, helping the homeless.  

Super 8 has taken full responsibility for the actions of one independent owner/operator, and promises to work on the company’s internal training and policies so that this never happens again.  Michael expressed gratitude to us for bringing this to his attention, before apologizing on behalf of the hotel in question. 

In addition to the refund, and promise of internal efforts to prevent this from happening again, Super 8 is now working behind the scenes with our friends at Homeless To Higher Ed, as they attempt to identify Stephanie and Louis. Should we find them, Michael has generously offered to provide air and ground transport as well as hotel rooms for them as they get back on track. 

We hope you’ll take a look at this description of them and contact us if you’ve seen or know Stephanie and Louis. If you should encounter them, tell them that Mr. George and Miz Joyce are looking for them. Let them know they’ve made the news and we still want to help!

In the meantime, we are eagerly exploring ways we can help here in northeastern Ohio.  If our story outraged you, we can only hope that it didn’t discourage you from trying to make a difference…in fact, we hope our experience inspires you to find a way to help the homeless where you are. 

Once again, we thank you for helping us bring this to Super 8’s attention, but for us, this was never about taking down a hotel chain...it was about helping people. We look forward to helping the homeless in our own backyard and encourage everyone to do the same.

 Warmly,