Candy Suite Home

My friend and I booked through hotels.com, and it was awful from the start. The online listing gave check-in times of both 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. The room was clearly dirty. It was listed as smoke-free, but it reeked of cigarette smoke, with a cigarette butt on the floor and ash and cigarette marks on the table. The couch was badly stained, the bed had only an unclean flat sheet and no fitted sheet, and there was old food in the mini fridge. Clothes had been left in the closet, the floors hadn’t been cleaned, the walls were marked with dirt and drips, the bins still had trash, and the shower had terrible mildew or mold. I’m allergic to cigarette smoke, so I couldn’t have stayed even if the other problems weren’t there. The service was strange too. A younger man let us in but didn’t introduce himself or show us to the room. He just told us the floor and left us trying to work out how to get there. Another man came out of the ground-floor/basement “apartment” and showed us how to open the door. He rattled off lots of information at once, seemed annoyed by questions, mentioned we could use the kitchen one floor up, and left. When we asked about cleaning because we were trying to stay, we got no clear answer and felt pushed back, as if we were asking too much. The stairway smelled strongly of cat urine. The light switches weren’t clearly labeled, the lighting was inconsistent, and one switch was missing its faceplate. We left within four hours. Three days later, Hotels.com told us we couldn’t get a refund because the hotel wasn’t answering the owner’s calls. They’re apparently ghosting hotels.com, and without the owner’s approval we’re out over 300$(usd). Our friends also rented a room and were told they’d be charged 150$(usd) if they canceled. The whole thing is ridiculous. It was advertised as a higher-quality hotel than some nearby places, but it was just disgusting. I wasn’t expecting anything fancy. We ended up staying at a hotel that felt safe and was clean and welcoming.