Now that I have your attention let me start with this: a year ago I stayed at this same hotel. The room was great- nicely painted, flat screen TV- cleaned carpet, clean bathroom nice fluffy white towels etc. Everything you want in your home away from home and you still get to keep your arm and your leg!

So when I came back to Ruston, I headed right for the Super 8. After working a full day til 9pm, I drove an hour and a half to Ruston. My plan was to stay til Thursday. The lady offered me a handicapped room with a king bed. I accepted. The room was okay. The fridge was taped closed and the microwave (which I can only assume was the first one ever made) did not work. So I asked to use the microwave in the front office to heat up some soup. The lady was very friendly and let me use it. She said they would replace my broken microwave the next day. When I said the fridge was also not working she said that would be replaced as well. When I went back to my room I discovered that the toilet was also NOT WORKING.

Keep reading.

So I called the front desk. A man answered. I told him rather than go through the trouble, I would just check out the next day. He said I could switch rooms the next day. I said okay- because I was hoping to get a nice room.

The next day,Tuesday, I went down to the office and a DIFFERENT lady showed me another room just like the one I was already in, reeking of cigarettes and another broken fridge and microwave. I did not take it. She found a room for me with double beds, working amenities, not the fancy room I had hoped for but at a glance nice clean room. At this time, one of the housekeepers and the front desk lady were both irritated by me and I found myself apologizing and thanking them for being so helpful. I moved my things from one room to the other and decided to have some coffee. I had a coffee maker, but no coffee pot. So I called her again and asked for a coffee pot. By this time she was really rude and brought me COFFEE but no COFFEE POT. So she left and came back some 30min later with a coffee pot and asked (unpleasantly) if I needed anything else. I thanked her and said no. I turned on the TV and half the screen was blown. I did not call about this as I felt they would kick me out and I wanted to drink my coffee and stew about how I was apologizing for ASKING FOR A CLEAN ROOM WITH A WORKING TOILET among other things.

The next morning, Wednesday, I woke up to a mosquito/ spider bite on my finger and one on my arm. Thought nothing of it. Went back to the hotel after work.

Thursday morning I woke up COVERED IN BED BUG BITES! COVERED! I went to the front desk and informed them of the issue and young man told me the manager wasn't there and he could only give 50% off one night! He said housekeeping checks the rooms daily for bed bugs. When I went back to my room, I could see those little buggers crawling all over my pillows! And I also noticed gum stuck to the headboard, I do not chew gum- I prefer mints but that's neither here nor there. When I went to check out, the lady who put me in that room implied there was no way there were bedbugs in there today and not yesterday. She refunded 30$ for a 200$ bill. I spent 15$ at Walgreens on Benedryl and hydrocortisone cream.

In short- if you get a renovated room and don't complain about ANYTHING even if it's legit you got a nice place to stay. OR your could end up in one of the other rooms they dont take are of and be covered in bedbugs like me. Good luck. My advise save yourself the aggravation and stay at the Hampton.