My wife and I along with our feline companion booked a three day vacation from the 9th to the 12th of this year, at an Extended Stay Hotel, called Homestead Studio Suites (a ‘pet friendly hotel’ that received two diamonds rating from the AAA Tourism Editors). My wife has been a member of the AAA club for 38 years so we received the ‘show your card & save’ rate. We asked for an accessible room, because my wife has a disability & has problem climbing stairs just in case they didn’t have elevators. So we were given a handicapped room which sounded okay with us. Upon our arrival to the hotel, we immediately noted a very strong animal urine stench from the front/back door; and all over the first floor and our room. Looking around the hallways we noted that the hotel needed cleaning, and maybe removal of the main source of the stench all throughout. Our room was small and dirty. The carpet was dirty with fowl smelling odor. The sofa had stains of what appeared to be bird droppings. There was missing furniture in the kitchenette, like chairs in order to sit down for meals. The microwave had splattered food stains from previous guests, was making strange noises and not heating up food properly. The office chair was dirty with all sorts of stains, in total disrepair & wasn’t even safe to be sitting on it. There were exposed electrical wires up on the ceiling. The sliding mirror door of the closet was not only all jammed tight that we couldn’t put anything inside; but also broken on the right lower side of it (a safety hazard). Our cat started itching so we had to buy her a flea collar as soon as we noted this. To make matters worse my wife had a bad fall, because the hotel neglected to properly assemble the metal/wooden frame, which was supposed to support the bed; so when my wife sat on the bed, the whole thing collapsed & she sustained a jarring & jerking motion of her spine. What if it was a paraplegic transferring him/herself from the wheelchair to the bed when it collapsed? Or a quadriplegic being transferred from the wheelchair to the bed when it collapsed? Our cat could have been under the bed when it collapsed! We called the front desk immediately and reported what had happened. Two maintenance/check-in personnel came, and it took them quite a while to assemble the bed frame which was inadvertently not assembled correctly. We were not even offered a room change. The men just laughed at us, and sarcastically said, "Enjoy the bed" then left! My wife immediately complained of spine pain which continued all throughout the night even with pain medication. We all didn't sleep the entire night due to the intermittent loud noise which sounded like a generator starting every 15 minutes all night long. The next morning, I spoke to the manager, and she filed an incident report. I was shown four rooms that we could move to, two of which were in the same poor state as ours; we eventually moved to a room on the second floor which at least had everything working and the floor and the room were void of any strong odors.
I made an emergency appointment and took my wife to the Chiropractor on 1/10/2008 to get a spine adjustment and treatment modalities on her back. The Doctor advised my wife to rest and not to stress her back at all, and to follow up with weekly treatment until regaining her pre-injury mobility and functioning status. My wife had another chiropractor visit on 1/16/2008, but she’s still experiencing constant spine, neck and chest muscle pain. Our cat still has fleas so we left the flea collar on although she’s an indoor cat. We’re hoping that the collar will help rid her of the fleas she contracted at this hotel. The manager of the hotel called on 1/15/2008, six days after the incident asking to speak to me; but each time I attempted to call her back I was always told that she’s not available to speak to me. We’re still in total disbelief of our nightmarish experience at this hotel; we had a handicapped room which was supposed to be safe for disabled people; but instead we were thrown in this unsafe and substandard area of the hotel. We checked out on 1/12/2008 and were charged several hundred dollars for three nights of what should have been a relaxing mini vacation; but instead we paid this sum to have a traumatic stay & to be injured and inconvenienced.