BATON ROUGE - A Baton Rouge visitor left the boot state with huge sticker shock when she was charged nearly double for her lengthy stay at a Holiday Inn in 2016.

Stella Okoh is from Houston and was in town on business. She stayed at the Holiday Inn Baton Rouge-South off Airline Highway from September 24, 2016, to November 4, 2016. Her total bill for that stay was $4,688.32. Soon after she left the hotel and paid her bill, she saw two more charges pop up on her credit card statement.

"I checked out and paid all my bills but then found out additional charges were made to my credit card," said Okoh.

An additional $3,463.62 was charged in two transactions on November 11, 2016, and November 24, 2016. Immediately after noticing these charges, Okoh says she began cordial communications with InterContinental Hotels Group and Holiday Inn Baton Rouge-South.

"They acknowledged it was their mistake," she said. "I had to pay the bill just to stop my account from being delinquent."

The months kept passing by and Okoh had yet to receive a refund. She even had a lawyer send a certified letter which was accepted by the hotel but did not hear back.

"I'm really, really disappointed that they had to treat me the way they did," she said. "I had just been tossed around at the corporate office and the Baton Rouge office would not talk to me."

Okoh provided IHG and Holiday Inn Baton Rouge-South with bank statements and other documents proving her length of stay. Still, no sign of a refund.

More than a year and a half after her stay, Okoh contacted 2 On Your Side on July 11, 2016. That same day, WBRZ contacted IHG and was told Okoh's case had been escalated to the executive team in IHG Guest Relations. By July 20, 2016, Okoh received a check in the mail from IHG for a full reimbursement and deposited it that same day.

To this day, Okoh doesn't know why the error wasn't corrected sooner.

IHG said it apologizes for the error made at this independently owned and operated hotel and that this guest had an experience that did not meet expectations. IHG is pleased it could help resolve this matter for Ms. Okoh and look forward to welcoming her back to an IHG hotel soon.