we booked 3 rooms for 4 people and were in Wichita Falls for a family reunion. 2-night stay Friday and Saturday nights. Chose this hotel because of its rating on trip advisor. However our experience went from bad to the worst hotel experience ever (and 2 of us travel several times a year for business purposes, with one of traveling extensively in the summer from California through New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Texas on a regular basis.)
Pulling into the parking lot you are greeted with ominous 'park at your own risk' signs. The desk clerk was super nice (Sabrina) when I asked her about this. She claimed it was Candlewood policy and those signs are posted at all their hotels as they are required by their insurance.
We checked in. One person had booked all 3 rooms, but we were paying with 3 different credit cards, and Sabrina handled this with efficiency and a smile - no problems. We discovered that one of the 3 rooms was quite a bit larger than the other 2 and requested a switch in rooms so that our health-compromised party member had enough room and accessible plugins for his oxygen equipment. I gave up my suite & moved to the smaller handicap-accessible room, we informed Sabrina, who took care of the billing changes no problem and again, with a smile on her face. she was delightful.
However, the AC did not work in my room and it was 97 that day, and did not cool down much during the night. I finally went to the front desk around 5 am and asked the counter clerk - now Jeremy, also very, very nice, if anyone else staying in 104 reported issues with the ac. He told me that because I had tried turning it down to 66 to get it to work, I had likely frozen it up. I went back to the room and shut it off. At 8 am I turned it back on. and it still didn't work. so I asked Sabrina (by now she was back on staff) and she informed me that the maids had reported that ac frozen up prior to our check-in but that they thought that the issue had resolved. She moved me to 101, across the hall and to the south a bit. This was an upgrade to a suite, more room, same charge, & she offered it up very graciously. The AC in 101 worked well & I got my bags moved over with the help of my sister - we put them down, she left to finish getting ready for the day. I'm checking out the little bedroom, the wheelchair accessible bathroom area, the living area, kitchenette, etc. & my cousin (rm 105) comes over for a look-see, knocks on the door and I turn around to open it, glance down and see that there is a 3 inch x 1 inch COCKROACH lying on it's back up against the wall near that door up against the kitchenette cupboard where it joins the wall. Because I am phobic, I am immediately shaking and feeling nauseous and I want out now (I have goose bumps tryingt to leave this review even). But my cousin was calmer & said she would take care of it for me. I said no I needed to be able to show front desk. I go into the bathroom cuz i thought i was gonna barf, and the sink, 12 inches from my head has a 2 inch long KISSING BUG, very much alive, in it. OMG. my heart and stomach are now doing flip flops. My cousin took pictures and care of them both and we delivered to front desk.
Sabrina told us that they spray every 30 days but that these bugs come up from the drain pipes and the drainage ditch that runs outside of the hotel property, but adjacent to it. Apologies were made but it was pointed out that we were in Texas........ I left all the lights on in the rooms because I spent 8.5 years in San Antonio Tx as a kid on an Air Force Base, in base housing. And off to our reunion we went.
We were gone from 10 am to 10:30 pm. Got back to hotel. entered my room with trepidation - scoped it out, seemed okay, but I left all the lights on and the tv, and slept a bit, off and on, as noted by my fitbit tracker.
In the morning - I found a small dead cockroach under the kitchen sink in the cupboard area. Took a shower, constantly on the lookout for - and when finished, nothing in the bathroom thank goodness, BUT - a 2 inch cockroach, still alive, on it's back in the kitchenette area, this time against the south wall of the room, very near the refrigerator. I sat down and made a list, noted the 2 bugs my sister found in her room, and that this was unacceptable, that Sabrina and Jeremy were nice - however my intention was to Yelp my list and post the pics so others do not have this same experience.
I couldn't get out of here fast enough. At the front desk, NO luggage transport carts - and a crabby, don't give a hoot clerk named Christa, who turns out is the 'front office manager' informs me upon inquiry that when she checked into her shift (I believe she said at 6 am) those carts were already gone. I asked her how I was supposed to get my luggage to the car as I have a strict weight limit due to severe back impairment, and she said she was sorry, but there wasn't anything she could do about it. Fortunately I remembered there was a laundry cart in the laundry area - and my cousin and I were able to use that, make 2 trips and get our things to the car.
I complained to Christa at check out (before I realized she was the office manager) about the No AC the first night, and let her know about the 4 lovely bugs in my room AND the 2 cockroaches (one small, 2nd one 2+ inches) in my sisters room (102) and she immediately offered to comp me $30 for the inconvenience of a small bug in my room. She rolled her eyes as she said it. This did it for me. I showed her my list and told her it was NOT 'one little bug' but 4 of them, with 2 large and one HUGE one. That this was my list I was posting on Yelp letting people know about my experience and before I could add that I would make sure they knew that I was comp'd $30 for no AC st night and the bugs the next day/night, she got in my face and asked me in a threatening tone, if I was threatening her, because if i were there were laws against coersion to get a lower rate. "Maa'm I've already told you I'm giving you $30 off for the small inconvenience of a bug in your room' if this is threat to try to get a lower rate... which it wasn't , it was a reaction however to her trying to downplay what I went through. AND then, she tells me that if we had stayed on second floor this would not have been an issue.
So, I suggest avoiding this hotel. I find it hard to believe that they are as their voice response message when calling states 'an award-winning IHG hotel' - I am shocked that they are IHG approved at all.
US