Oh boy where do I start off with this review. First off let me say that I like staying at this particular Interstate exit as its convenient to where I work when I'm in town. Last time I was in town I stayed at the Suburban Extended Stay hotel with is next door to the Candlewood Suites, both hotels are owned by the same company, Lee Hospitality. I had a bad experience there, see my review, thus I decided to try the Candlewood Suites instead as I figured it couldn't be worse..... it was.

When I arrived at the hotel I was greeted with the nice aroma of fresh manure fertilizer that was spread on the plants surrounding the hotel. Little did I know once I actually got inside the room that the manure smell was a welcome relief from the horrendous stink that was in the room itself. The room smelled like old, rotten food and feet, ingrained in the carpet, drapes, etc from thousands of travelers cooking smelly foods. I immediately went out and bought 3 air fresheners which masked the smell enough to make the place habitable.

This is a pretty typical older Candlewood, very basic, that's why these are budget hotels. I mainly booked it for the kitchen as these hotels have a cooktop, full sized fridge and dishwasher.

Everything was going pretty well the first couple of nights then directly across the hall someone checked in with two dogs that had severe separation anxiety. The owners left around 7am and that's when the barking started, NONSTOP, constant, relentless barking/yapping. After about 3 hours I was getting irritated, after 5 hours I was livid and after 12 hours I was about ready to shoot myself. I had a lot of work to get done, which involves number crunching but could not concentrate at all, they could easily use that as a torture method as after several hours I could tell I was entering some mental distress.

So I went down to the front desk where the "manager" promptly did absolutely nothing, I wasn't even given the common decency of an apology, no apology and no recourse whatsoever. The barking was treated as nothing more then a joke and I basically just a nuisance to her, she would have been happy to have me checkout right then and leave. She obviously had absolutely ZERO customer service skills whatsoever. I attempted to contact the general manager but he was conveniently "on vacation"...lol...like I believed that. There was no regard for me whatsoever, I had no rights other then moving rooms at my inconvenience.

Those people with the dogs should have been told to leave the hotel as many guests were irritated, not just me. Well, the owners finally came back around 7pm and walked the dogs for 5 minutes then headed back out, again the yapping started, more hours passed, more frustration for me, the suffering which started at 7am finally ended at 11pm. The barking only stopped the couple of minutes they were back beyond that it was like a non-stop record playing, no break, no relief, like the Energizer bunny they just kept on going and going.

Finally decided to cut my hotel stay short and leave, screwing up my travel plans, the manager was more then happy to see me go I'm sure, she could have cared less. This has to be one of the worst run hotels I've ever seen and I've stayed in hundreds, absolutely zero professionalism.

The hotel itself may have rated slightly better without the barking dogs but was still pretty rough. The Internets speeds were awful, couldn't even stream video. The shower was cold and the bed was hard. About the only positive thing was that the cleanliness was good.

I've stayed in two Lee Hospitality properties and both were bad experiences, these people are extremely cheap, putting the bare minimum back into their hotels at the expense of the guests, they are pretty much the slumlords of the hotel industry.

Bottom line avoid this hotel at all costs.