Comfort Inn & Suites Dallas Medical-Market Center — Hotel in Dallas

Ok, folks, I originally gave the hotel all 5's because while the location does have the occasional homeless person panhandling, I felt fairly safe when parking near the entrance. Also, for the price, it was a convenient location to our medical appts, and while an older facility, it was usually clean, and the staff (office, breakfast area, and one particular housekeeper named Iba-not sure I'm spelling correctly) have always been nice, helpful, and accommodating. However, this last trip was not up to the usual standard, and one employee ruined the whole experience for us! 1st, when we checked in late on Wed night, we found live bed bugs on the top of the bed frame. I honestly thought it was trash, but when I wiped it with a clorox wipe, I saw it was 3 bed bugs when one of them began crawling. I immediately went down to the front desk, and even the clerk shivered when he saw them. He immediately gave us another room, apologized, and thanked me for bringing to his attention so he could shut that room down so they could take care of the problem. Thankfully, we had not unloaded our cart, and Needless to say, we thoroughly inspected everything in the new room before unloading. Things were fine til my son (special needs-down syndrome and autism) ended up in the ER on Friday b/c of a condition he suffers from. We extended our stay to Sat. He was discharged from ER on Friday evening, but we were all exhausted, and he kept us up again all night. We were trying to be out of the room by 12 (late checkout). I checked out at 11:50 and told them we would probably need help taking the loaded cart down to the car. They said to call once we were loaded up, and they would send the maintenance man to help. I also stressed that we would probably be a little while after 12 getting out of the room b/c my son was still nauseous, and b/c of his autism, was having meltdowns and not cooperating. The girl in charge said that was fine, that they know we are trying to get loaded up. However, @12:20, the other girl at the desk called, asking if we were ready. I told her no but almost. We had several more items to fit onto the cart. She told me I was supposed to be out by 12 and I told her I knew, but we were having trouble with my son, which was putting us behind. I felt pushed, so I told her to go ahead and send someone. The man (who did not speak much English) shows up and immediately says ok you ready and we said no not quite. He kept insisting we were, then told us that we were putting too much on the cart and wouldn't let us put more on it. Then he said it was too cold in the room, so he said he'd go on down, and we begged him to please wait in the hallway as we were almost done. My daughter, who, by this time, is so exhausted and frustrated is almost in tears. As she is loaded down with items to put on the cart, the man says no, that's too much and said I go down. I said No, please stop, and suddenly my daughter lost what patience she had left and yelled at the man telling him to "cuss word" Stop! We managed to grab what was left under duress, and my son decided to freeze b/c of the stressful atmosphere. The man proceeded to yell something in Spanish to the housekeeper at the other end of the hall, and they both laughed. Needless to say, my daughter immediately and emotionally told the front desk that we would never return to this hotel. The girl in charge asked why, and my daughter was trying to tell her, but the man kept interrupting my daughter in Spanish. The girl finally spoke to him in Spanish and he hushed. She apologized to us for his behavior and said she would bring it all to the Mgrs attention. While she was speaking to us, the man turned to a housekeeper who had just finished mopping the lobby, pointed to where our cart was and spoke to her in Spanish. Once our cart started moving out the doors, she went and remopped that area, so that made us feel like he thought we were dirty or something. I have never been made to feel as disrespected and demeaned as I...

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As I was walking on to the plane home, my cell phone rang. I looked at the caller ID and it said Dallas, TX so I answered it. The person on the other end said he was calling from the Holiday inn (I just checked out before heading to airport) he said that I left something behind. I was racking my brain because my friend and I did a last sweep of the room, I could swear we didn't leave anything. He said that it was, " big, black and powerful" I was dumbfounded - what is he talking about? Honestly, he sounds like a pervert with those choice of words. I said that I had no idea what he was talking about and asked to verify my room number. He said the correct number and I said "what is it?!" And he said "a gun, you left a gun between the mattresses" I went totally silent. I never touched a gun, I hate them and I was shocked and terrified. I told him over and over that it wasn't mine, I'm boarding a plane, what am I supposed to say or do?! He said that housekeeping found it, asked me if I let anyone in that I didn't know into room then told me that he's going to contact the previous guest before me then contact the police. I told him that we didn't even have housekeeping because we were in there watching the football game and that she stopped by and we just asked for some towels and to empty the trash. We also had a maintenance issue we reported before we left earlier in the day which they said they fixed when we returned (it wasn't fixed). I told him that I was on the plane, he said "not to worry" oh, ok don't worry...you just told me that a gun was in our room the whole visit. I sat down in the chair and clearly upset - the flight attendant asked if I ok - in shock I told her what just happened - she was super sweet, good for a hug and a water while I tried to calm down. Now here I am, on a flight back home, no way to contact a manager or the police until I touchdown 3 hours later. As I walk to baggage claim, I get a hold of non emergency Dallas PD (directed me to a scam department - odd, right?) then Holiday Inn customer service. After that call, my cell rang and it was the general manager from hotel to apologize over and that "I had his word and that IT WAS A TOY GUN" WHAT THE WHAT?!?! A TOY GUN. Ridiculous. Thanks for the anxiety and meltdown...I spent reward points on my two night stay, you can bet I will NEVER be a loyal IHG customer again. Check your mattresses in every hotel, you never know what is lurking in there. Update to this: IHG emailed me - giving me back 5,000 points...

A lot of my "reasons" for a low score are outside of the hotels control. But I do feel guest should be made aware because it was a jump-scare. We stayed on the 2nd floor of the hotel and the entire floor smelt of weed. No smoking, unless it's weed apparently. Even the housekeeping staff smelt strong of weed in passing. The elevator itself would give you a contact high. The outside grounds of the hotel was nice, nice stone bricks, but the outside appearance was deceiving because the inside needed major updates and needed to maintain cleaning of the halls/walkways. However the room itself, although dated, was clean, and the bed was comfortable. But had we expected any of this prior, I would not have booked this hotel. The PICTURES are NOT accurate and cannot be trusted. The immediate inside felt dirty and dated fluorescent lighting upon entry. The hotel was full of Middle Easterners and Hispanic folks perched/lingering around watching our every move and made us feel threatened, in-addition to the halls smelling of weed. There was a gap under the room door that let light into the room from the hall, which made us feel someone might insert something under the door to try to break-in to our room. We'd walk the narrow hall to leave and guest would have their doors propped open while lingering at the entryway of their room, making us feel they might try to drag us in as we walked by. It had the vibe of an old college dormitory, very strange. We had to construct a hanger mechanism on the door handles to make sure no one could break-in while we were sleeping, we even pushed furniture up against the door. Outside the hotel there were homeless people lounging around, and under the overpass walking distance from the hotel, there is a homeless camp. We worried our red Ford Mustang Convertible drew too much attention and might not make it through the night without a break-in. We were very fortunate. We did NOT feel safe at this hotel. Both front desk girls were friendly, other than that, everyone we passed in the halls did not have a welcoming demeanor. We consider this a learning experience on researching our stay a lot better moving forward. We do not recommend this hotel. We couldn't wait to leave due to feeling unsafe. Breakfast was a nice selection. I know the hotel can't control the type of guest who book their rooms, but you certainly get what you pay for, and I wish I would have spent the extra money and stayed at a Hilton. Lessoned learned. This hotel was not priced for...