Review of Extended Stay America, Woodway, Texas

Woodway, Texas – Our stay was from August 31, 2010 to September 2, 2010. On our first night, I was just about to doze off after driving most of the day to get there. I was in one of those trances where you’re just between being awake and dreaming of a nice big piece of cake… or whatever you dream of. That’s when the fire alarms went off. It was around 11:00 PM when they went off the first time. I walked into the hallway, looked outside (to make sure there wasn’t a fire) and went back inside.

The alarms would go off for another hour and a half. It was hard to get back to sleep, but I managed, and drug myself out of bed a few hours later so I could work all day!

The next night was even more interesting. I got a call from my worker who informed me he had bed bugs. He didn’t just think he had bed bugs, he actually took 3 of them off his body and showed them to the desk clerk downstairs. He called to inform me that I should check myself, which I did immediately. I didn’t find anything, but once someone puts something like that in your head, you can’t hep but feel like every square inch of carpet and bedding in the room has a bug just waiting for you to sit still… so it can finally have supper!

The hotel made him go to another room and washed all his clothes for him. The room was even charged to me at the higher rate!

The next morning, the clerk tells me, “I guess I can give you a couple of vouchers.” He was very reluctant. I told him I wanted the room to be for free and he said he couldn’t do that. He gave me a card for the hotel manager and said he would have her call me. She never called. I ended up calling her on my way to Baytown. She said she would send me 4 vouchers for a free stay anywhere there was an Extended Stay America.

On our last night, I had just sat down with nothing but shorts on when there was a loud, consistent knock at the door. I kept yelling “Just a second”, but the pounding continued. It was the hotel maintenance man and an Orkin man. They walked in and started removing the sheets off the bed, took the mattresses off, leaned them up against the wall and stayed for 40 minutes checking the room for bed bugs. They didn’t find anything but loads of dust, paper and trash under the bed. The maintenance man called someone about the cleanliness of the room, and next thing you know, there’s 2 women in the room looking at the mess under the bed. During this time, I’m sitting in a chair at the desk, in my shorts, pretending to be preoccupied with my computer!

They put the mattresses down and said someone would be up to make the bed. The maid showed up a couple of minutes later, made the bed and had to vacuum the floor.

So there’s my personal experience with Extended Stay America. I don’t know if they had someone come in and spray the room for bed bugs or not, but in my opinion, I’d ask about it before you decide to stay there… if you dare!