Candlewood Suites Washington North by IHG — Hotel in North Strabane Township

This is NOT a ‘hotel’ if that is what you were seeking. I thought that is what I would find, but its more like a Halfway House.. ||||First I wanted to point out that||I was not only charged the rate that I was quoted on the phone by Janet, upon looking at||my bank statement, she also tacked on a $15.00 incidental fee (without telling me). The credit card machine she had me put my card into did not show an amount that I was being charged.||||The next morning I spoke to Nancy who said that should not have happened - and usually that incidental charge||is only charged to those who pay for the room in cash or have a prepaid room (neither applied||to me, I used a credit card). So a room that I was quoted $89.00 for, with tax 11% and the 15.00||came to $113.79. Not happy that this information was done without my authorization - and the ||credit card machine you need to insert your card does NOT show you the amount you are going||to be charged!!! FYI - There is no breakfast included or offered.||||For this kind of $$ I would rather have spent the extra and gone to the Hampton Inn which would have||been much nicer. This felt like a YMCA or Halfway House - a bunch of ‘workers’ and people from south||of the border - lots - who I found out from the staff, live in this ‘hotel’ and have been living here for over 3 years. It does not feel like your normal hotel by any means. These guys live here and monopolize the place - when I was wanting||to use the laundry room, these guys have 6 loads of laundry lined up and will not let you use the machines. Upon asking front desk ||Janet - she said ‘they take priority since they are long term guests and I cannot tell them otherwise…’ Oh really?||You cannot tell them to share and take turns, and let overnight guests who are only here for the evening but needed to do their laundry to let them do one load!!? ||||One inconsiderate lunatic guest left their clothes in the dryer and was not there to remove them. The 2 worker guys needed a dryer and removed this ‘guests’ clothes to a chair in the room.||When I came back to get my clothes, this lunatic guest ripped out the clothes from two of the dryers and threw these guys clothes All over the floor and took all the lint and spread it over the machines. I was in shock what I saw. People here are not sane.||||Additionally there is NO (not one) luggage cart in the place, so good luck if you have a lot you need to move in the room. It took me three trips to get everything in the room and upon checking out I still on the next day had no luggage cart and was given a linen basket which was cumbersome and ridiculous (see photos). ||||The 2 elevators both reeked of urine - I am not sure if it was human or animal - but it is gross. Why haven’t they ripped the carpet out of those elevators and just put flooring in is beyond me. The rooms themselves look ok when you first walk in, but you notice the stench of dirty work socks, and I think its embedded in the carpeting and drapes, even the sheets smelled like a dirty ||sweaty man. When laying on the sheets, I kept itching, so I don’t think they were clean. The room was not ‘clean’ I saw someone’s booger on the wall (its still there to the side of the window) and some toilet paper wadded on the floor of the bathroom. The ‘toiletries’ were attached to the shower wall, and dirty/rusty and I did not chance using them. There also was a child||across the hall that kept screaming and whining for over 3-4 hours past midnight and again the next morning through noon, and nothing was done about it - the guests in this place are — lets say lacking in many ways, including common sense, respect of others, etc. The bed was comfortable,||and the shower pressure fine - The bathtub is also quite grungy looking, but if you are ok with ‘the rest of this’ good luck. I will spend the extra money next time and avoid this chain - since this is not what I was hoping for. Check out my photos from this...

Candlewood is currently renovating their rooms. When we stayed there this past weekend, we occupied room 421. The renovation was “complete” on this room. We were told this multiple times.

Additionally, we were told that there was no internet and therefore no way to accept my credit card. Interestingly enough, the guest WiFi was working.

When we got to our room, the window wouldn’t close all the way. At first it looked like it wasn’t sitting in the track all the way, after screwing around with it to get it to go back into its track, I realized that the track itself was crooked and it wasn’t going to sit closed all the way.

The first night we noticed a very faint odor(more on this in a moment) in the room. We didn’t mention it at first as it was a very minor inconvenience and we were tired from traveling.

The second night when we returned to the room, as soon as we opened the door, the odor we smelled the previous night was 100x’s worse.

It smelled of Cat Urine.

At this point, we immediately went downstairs and notified the front desk. The gentleman there apologized and said that the room was “just renovated” and maybe the smell “was BO from one of the workers”. Either way, he would credit our bill for each night.

If that was the case, the smell would have been that bad from the beginning. Not a full day and a half after we got the room.

When we checked out, I couldn’t be given a receipt because their internet was still down.

I’m still waiting for my card to be run and I’m still waiting to learn if the credits were applied to my stay.

We would NOT recommend...

I was in town for a funeral and we needed an additional space for family to get ready comfortably as our local family had limited space. The hotel itself was fine. Room was very clean and the well appointed...staff was very friendly.

One of my only issues was that upon pulling into the parking lot, there were several (10-12 total) people standing right outside the entrance/exit doors smoking (including the front desk clerk on duty...who did come in just a few minutes after I entered the property). This included the main entrance as well as the side doors. So it was a little strange to have to walk through smoke to get into the hotel...and also for guests who wanted to enter/exit through the side doors. My husband (who was not with me) is a smoker, so it's not that I'm someone who isn't ever exposed to smoke, but I just wish the "smoking areas" were not right beside the doors...while there is no smoking in the hotel, it kind of defeats the purpose if non-smoking guests have to pass through a group of active smokers to get in/out of the building. Perhaps you can make an actual smoking area (covered area) that is away from the building so that smokers can still comfortably smoke but without affecting the non-smokers trying to enter the building.

The only other issue is that the noise from the interstate is pretty significant so I'll ask for a room on the other side of the hotel on...