I booked this hotel with travelnow.com because of the excellent price. I also thought that it was a good location. It was a bit difficult to find at first, because you have to drive through a car dealership. It's best to turn at the big blue HOLMES (I think that is the name sign...staff showed me).
The room I ordered was a double. Once I arrived I was pleased with the outside appearance and it seemed somewhat quiet. First problem was the double actually means, one bed. I planned on bringing my son to stay over so I upgraded to a double double? There are no bathtubs, which was not a plus but the shower was nice.
The room was clean, the staff was extremely helpful and friendly.
First, I noticed one bug, and killed it without thinking too much about it. Except for the fact that it was a strange bug that I had never seen before. It looked like a big roach that had been smashed and killed and then came back to life. Then I saw another bug (the same kind), but killed it and thought that would be the last of it. I woke up at 5:30 in the morning to see that there were a whole gang of these big bugs, all over the ceiling, curtains, lights. Not only did they look horrible, but to my surprise they could also fly.
I freaked out and called staff, she came promptly and moved me and my son to another room. I was kinda afraid of moving to another room because I thought there would be bugs there too. But I went anyway to look, all the lights were on and there wasn't a bug in sight. I didn't sleep, because I was still shaken up. I left a few hours later, and felt okay because I didn't see another bug. I came back in the evening.
Around 9p.m or so, I saw one of the same hideous zombie bugs. I seriously thought that maybe it came with me from the other room. I killed it and didn't see any sign of anymore.
I was tired, but I had things to do on my pc. I happened to glance down at my leg. For a second I thought to myself, I never knew I had a beauty mark there. Then it moved, and I was shocked that it was a bug, because it was so tiny. I became extremely nervous, and looked down at the bed. I saw a white bug, a gray bug and lot's of tiny little bugs crawling around. I started searching on the internet to identify these tiny bugs, and came to the conclusion that they were bedbugs. At least the light brown ones were bed bugs to my knowledge
I killed some of them, and decided that I would have to leave first thing in the morning.
I called the front desk and while the lady was there, I showed her the ones that I had killed. Then there was one of the flying big ones, I killed it and then another, killed it too.
She was very sympathetic, but while speaking to me, the police showed up. Then she came back and while speaking the fire alarm went off, and wouldn't go off for about 7 minutes. My son is autistic so all of this was really too much for him.
I couldn't sleep (even tho I was awake since 5:30a.m.), but I had to let my son sleep because he was exhausted from being out all day. I kept every single light on in the room and turned the lamps to face the bed. Since bedbugs don't like the light. I did notice a few little bites/bumps on my arm but they have disappeared. I didn't notice any on my son.
At first they didn't want to give me back all of my money. Travelnow said that they would do whatever the hotel agreed to do. First, he said that he spoke to the manager and she agreed to refund me for the two nights that I didn't stay there. I said "no way", I called back to speak to the manager of the hotel and was told that she wasn't there. So I left a very detailed message with the young lady who answered the phone. Later on the same night, the same young lady that I spoke to called me back and said that she was the manager and that she had spoken to the other girl. ha ha Whatever, she agreed to give me back all of my money which was due to me. I don’t know why she lied but I don't hold it against her. Maybe I caught her off guard.
End of story, if you don't have a lot of money, and have no problem with all kinds of weird bugs this may be okay. But who wants the risk of bringing bedbugs home with them.
I don't think that they will get rid of their bugs any time soon. I have pics from my phone and I will post them later. Trust me they were so hideous and scarey looking. I still have no idea what kind they were. In fact, scratch the lack of money statement because without travelnow.com the price was about 51 dollars. Not worth the trouble.
If you seriously don't care about bugs, it's a decent place. It was fairly clean, fairly roomy and the air conditioning/heat worked. Good hot water and all appliances worked.
Very responsive staff, which was very important. I really couldn't have dealt with bad attitudes plus my stress, so thank God! God helps because I know I would have had an infestation at home if it weren't for prayer and just his loving protection. Always pray!
- Crossland Economy Studios Philadelphia
