Sarasota Suburban Extended Stay should fucking be torn down! (but Orbitz rocks!!)

The BBQ Pit
#1

I put this rant off because the situation was under investigation.

I purchased a travel package from Orbitz which included a reservation for a 1 week stay in a NON-SMOKING room at Suburban Extended Stay Hotel in Sarasota, Florida. Arrived on XMas Eve. Though we were the only customers, it took over 30 minutes to check in because they couldn’t find our reservation.

Upon entrance to this room my wife and I were disgusted!! It stunk not only of tobacco smoke, but of other odors as well. The curtains, sheets, and blankets were hideously stinky. There were thousands of bugs, including fleas flying around the room and crawling on the counter area of the kitchen. The bathtub was incredibly filthy. But worst of all was the carpet. The carpet was not only torn & tattered; it was covered in black soot. Simply running my finger over ANY area of the carpet produced thick black stains on my fingers such as ones produced by police finger printing. This room was horrifically gross!

After complaining about the disgusting condition of the room, we were allowed to inspect several other rooms. To our dismay they were WORSE!! All of them were just as dirty and most had dozens of tiles that had crumbled into the bathtubs. They looked as though an earthquake had struck.

Because it was late, and Christmas Eve, it would have been difficult for us to find another hotel. Besides, I had pre-paid the fee. We were forced to stay in the first unit.
Luckily we were able to find a store that was open so we could buy blankets and cleaning supplies so we could stand being in such a disgusting room. Just the thought of this place makes me want to fucking vomit!
After 2 nights here we were finally able to find a different hotel with vacancy.
Neither I nor my wife has ever been to a more disgusting place. The Suburban hotel is the grossest, dirtiest, smelliest establishment I have ever been to in my life. The employees are ignorant, and some are incredibly rude, to the point of being verbally violent, screaming at us that we shouldn’t complain to them as it wasn’t their problem. And there was never any management on the premises. The business cards of 2 managers are on the front desk, but neither were ever on the property.

I called Orbitz and sent them the photos I took of this fucking dump! I told them I wanted a total of $300 which included the amount we had to pay for another hotel and the cleaning supplies. I would have been happy with $200, but if you want the moon, shoot for the stars, right?

After an investigation Orbitz contacted us and said they were not going to give us $300.

They gave us $390!:eek::cool:

So, kudos to Orbitz customer service. And if you’re ever in Sarasota, STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM THIS SHIT HOLE!!!

#2

Well? Where are the pictures?

#3

Did you use the magical jizz light seen in several forensic tv shows and movies that makes surfaces with past semen contact glow? Maybe that would have been a bad idea, actually, the place might have burst into flame…

#4

I think someone needs to start a campaign to have people on those shows call it the ‘magical jizz light’ :smiley:

#5

Heh. My wife and I were just booking a hotel in Charleston this afternoon. We found a place recommended by AAA that was pretty cheap, and we were getting ready to book it, when I said, “I wonder if there’s anywhere we can find reviews of this place?” After a little poking around, we found www.tripadvisor.com, which had a lot of reviews.

Oh my freakin lord. Almost every single review of the hotel (part of a chain) included descriptions of multiple species of cockroaches, horrifying stenches coming from clogged toilets, or worse. One person talked about the cache of used fake fingernails and kleenex under the headboard. Another talked about the live frogs in the room.

We looked and looked, and found that a lot of Charleston hotels have similarly Stephen-Kingish reviews. Finally we found one that people said, “meh!” about, which is about what we’re looking for (we can’t afford the ones that people say “Woot!” about). Bullet dodged!

I will never ever book a hotel again without checking out online reviews first.

Daniel

#6

Wow… you might want to post this rant on Yelp, (here) and on other review sites, help other avoid this same experience.

#7

TripAdvisor has been invaluable as we were booking our trip to China. The hotels we had been looking at had good locations/prices but upon further review on Tripadvisor, we changed our plans. Stories of finding live scorpions in a room made the trip a bit more adventurous than I cared for.

#8

pkbites, I’m not sure why you’re posting this 2 months after the fact. Did you just now get the refund?

But yikes! What a sucky way to spend Christmas Eve. Even if you exaggerated all of that stuff, it still sounds horrid. Was the cleaning staff on vacation? For a fucking decade?

The worst I’ve experienced was two years ago. The doors were falling apart and the carpet was coming up in places. And it was a shoebox. The only other couple staying there was right next door, and we had to call the cops because it sounded as if the domestic violence was going to end up in a death. The man ran away, the woman was hauled off in the police car.

My GF was so upset that she would rather have gone home early instead of staying that night. Instead, we got upgraded to the handicap room, which was the only other smoking room there. Nice and roomy, in great repair, and it had a fireplace. Very very nice!

#9

Orbitz is still booking rooms at that hotel. Either they’re leaning on the hotel to clean up their act, or they’re betting others won’t complain, or both.

Either way, it seems a little funny to me.