OYO Hotel Columbia SC West

I booked through booking.com and was told at check-in that only a smoking room was left. I needed somewhere to sleep, so I tried it, but lasted just 5 minutes. The smell was shockingly bad. The floor was filthy, the bedspread had suspicious stains, loose tobacco was piled on the nightstand, there were no toiletries or even toilet paper, the tub was visibly dirty, and cockroaches were running around the bathroom. I’ve slept in a car and a tent, so I’m not high maintenance, but I couldn’t stay. The front desk said booking.com controlled the refund. I contacted them and sent a video of the problems. They said they needed to contact the motel, then later told me OYO had ignored their calls and emails, and that was all they could do. OYO, you owe me $50, buddy. I won’t forget. The pictures may look okay, but I don’t know what filters they use. The place looks nothing like that, more like somewhere people die daily of overdoses.

The office staff were polite. That’s the only good thing I can say. My room was filthy, with large dead cockroaches on the floor. The sheets had big yellow and brown stains, and I was afraid to sleep on them. The bathroom door was broken and couldn’t be opened or closed; the shower head was at chest level, and the stall leaked water all over the floor. The smoke alarms had been pulled off, leaving wires exposed, and plaster was flaking from the ceiling. I’m asthmatic and had asked for a non-smoking room, but this one smelled strongly of cigarette smoke and set off my asthma. On top of that, they charged me twice for a one night stay, so I’m disputing the second charge with my bank. Avoid this place. You’d be better off in a car.

Management was nice enough to let us stay the night and pay in the morning, since we thought we’d booked through Thursday morning. That was the only good thing about the hotel. The room was clean-ish at first, but the TV had come off the wall and was barely standing on the dresser. The wifi barely worked, there was no microwave, the fridge hardly kept anything cool, the shower head was missing, a light hung down from the wall, and an outlet was sticking out. Our neighbor yelled randomly and played loud music at 2-3 am. The next day I saw how bad the bug problem was: German roaches everywhere, including in the fridge over the last two days. The room reeked of musty mold or roaches, and I couldn’t stay in it during the day because of the bugs. Bugs also crawled in and out of the shower at night. My daughter’s electronic bassinet may need to be thrown out because bugs followed us from the hotel on our electronics. I woke up with bites that looked like bed bug bites, but I never saw bed bugs in the room, so they may have been mosquito bites. We never got fresh towels after asking the cleaning lady, and when I told the front desk about the bugs, they acted shocked and said they’d send her up, but she never came. We also saw hookers around the hotel, and many guests seemed to be drug addicts. It was really disappointing. I don’t know how this hotel is still open. I won’t stay here again.

Management was very nice and cooperative, but the rooms looked nothing like the pictures. The first room had bedbugs and an unbearable smell, so we had to buy incense. They wouldn’t refund us, but gave us another room. That one stank too, though it was manageable. The sheets were torn and barely clean, and it’s clear housekeeping doesn’t clean very well.