Comfort Suites Inn at Ridgewood Farm — Hotel in Salem

Received the following email from Kim O'Conner at Comfort Suites Ridgewood Farm. Attempted to reply to her privately, but my message failed to deliver stating that the email address I was replying to was incorrect and/or not accepting emails. If someone wants to insinuate that I have made a false or inaccurate claim about the evidence I saw of bed bugs in my hotel room you would think they would provide accurate contact information in order to allow me to reply to further discuss the matter. However since I am unable to communicate with Kim directly I will leave a review here.

We stayed at this hotel last weekend. We were placed in room #224. I always thoroughly check the room when we must stay in a hotel due to having had a previous incident with bed bugs. It is a traumatizing experience that I never wish to repeat. The mattress in the room had several areas that looked very much like bed bug excrement. Please do your research so that you are informed of the signs. Areas of black dots that smear easily with a damp rag, but does not wipe off completely in most cases, often found in seams and creases of the mattress are indicative of bed bug activity. The mattress in this room had multiple areas with this issue. We asked for a room change and the hotel staff was very pleasant and accommodating. The second room we were given had no signs of bed bugs. I'm not saying this is a dirty hotel or that every room is infested. That is often not the case. But room #224 was suspect and I was uncomfortable staying in there. I appreciated that they allowed us to move. That would have been the end of it if not for Kim's dismissive email.

The hotel was adequate for our needs and the breakfast selection was decent. The second room was relatively clean, but I highly recommend you avoid room #224 and do your due diligence in any hotel room you stay in so you don't accidentally take home any unwanted visitors.

Email from Hotel:

After your claim of bed bugs we had our exterminator come in and inspect the room as per our protocol. No bugs or evidence of bugs were seen. Our exterminator has been inspecting our property for 10 years. He does a great job therefore we have zero issues with bugs.

Sincerely

Kim

My reply to Kim that couldn't be delivered:

Kim,

Thank you for your email. I am relieved to hear that no bed bugs were found during your exterminators inspection. I have no doubt that he performs his job exceptionally, however I’m sure being in the hospitality industry you are aware that bed bugs are notorious hitchhikers that can be brought in by anyone at anytime, spread very rapidly and are difficult to detect and exterminate. Unfortunately we have had the unpleasant experience of having to deal with this nightmare personally which is why I diligently look for signs any time we have to stay away from home. I wish I had taken photos, and will make sure I do so should this ever be an issue in the future, since there was definitely evidence of what appeared to be bed bug excrement in several locations on the mattress nearest the window of room #224, which is what prompted us to request a room change. We appreciate the pleasantness and accommodation of the hotel staff that assisted us in this matter, though I don’t necessarily appreciate the accusatory tone of your email seemingly dismissing...

This was the absolute worst stay I have ever experienced. We came from Staunton on Thursday night because our daughter was scheduled for surgery Friday morning at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. She had a 3 day stay after surgery. I had booked the room on 12/14 for 3 nights. 12/26-12/28. My husband spoke to the front desk on Friday morning that we were leaving and the puppy may bark and we would be back as soon as she was taken back for surgery. I get a phone call before we even make it to the hospital saying that the puppy was not supposed to have been left alone and if other guests complained she was going to call me back. I again told her we would be back as soon as our daughter was taken back. We got back to the room by 11. We ate lunch and I fell asleep. I left at 4:00pm to get some food. Front desk calls again. I told her that I had just stepped out to get some food. She said I was lying that I had been gone all day. I said, no, I just woke up and went to get food. She said, this is your 2nd warning. If I don’t come back the dog will be removed. So I turned around and went back to the room and my daughter stayed with him until they left at 8:00pm. Saturday morning I get a knock on the door from front desk asking me when I am supposed to check out and I told her Sunday and she said I was already checked out and not showing in the system. And she would get it straightened out. Later that day my husband went to the room to take a shower and forgot the key so front desk gave him a new one and also gave him an itemized receipt showing my charges and that I was given a free night for their mistake. The total for the 3 nights was supposed to be $267.11 with $100 pet fee. I was charged $491.57. I woke up Sunday morning and it changed to $399.67 and I went to the front desk because I needed to stay another night because my daughter wasn’t coming home until Monday. The manager and her daughter both tried to say that I was o my being charged for 2 nights and that a refund in the amount of $91 was going back in my card. I asked if they could cancel the refund and let me stay another night and they refused and said they can’t do that. She tried to make another adjustment to my charges and it changed to $425.06. This extra amount was only leaving me $130 in my account so therefore I didn’t have enough money to pay for another night. And there is nothing they could do to help me. I’ve been in customer service for over 30 years. And the right thing to do would be to make the customer happy. It instead I was threatened to have the police called on me if I didn’t leave or pay for another night. I was already charged for way more than the actual stay to begin with and obviously didn’t want any more charges to my card. So now I am stuck with no money and no place to stay tonight. I know places put holds in your card but I also know she could have made an exception and let me stay as well! They are shading people and even though it says pet...

I was on the first floor, more or less the basement. The first thing I noticed was a musty smell as I left the elevator on the first floor. Down the hall was a smallish dehumidifier sitting in a doorway. It appears there had been some sort of water problem that left the smell. Thankfully the smell did not waft into the room. However, the room had its own problems. I am hard of hearing and need to be able to turn on the captions for the TV or risk disturbing others... First there was no controller. That makes turning on the captions a lot less intuitive and therefore more difficult. I went back to the lobby and explained. The clerk said the controller should be either in front of the TV or in the top drawer of the night stand. I went back and looked. No controller. The clerk looked for a controller and found several that had not been programmed so changed me to another room. That room had a TV controller but... it was not programmed to control the TV in that room or at least didn't control the TV though the light on the controller would blink when a button was pushed... it wouldn't do anything. AND, the back of the controller that holds the batteries was missing. I reported this on check out and the day clerk more or less denied the controller didn't work by saying all the controllers were universal. That may be correct but universal controllers must be programmed for the TV they are used on and this one appeared to have not been programmed. Back to check in and bed time... by this time it was after midnight so I gave up. Both rooms had "stuff" on the floor under the sleep sofa. I reported this to the desk on check out and received an apology. As I checked out the next morning I decided to take whatever it was on the floor with me to the front desk... it appeared in the dim light and while standing to be a corn chip... I was wrong. And owe the desk clerk an apology over the concern of it being food left behind. Instead it was a piece of fabric that was the exact same color as a corn chip and about the same shape... The fabric appeared to be part of the bottom lining of the sofa that had come loose from the sofas in both rooms. That is strange but true and makes it look like there is some sort of trash under the edge of the sofa. Breakfast was okay but certainly not as great as other reviewers have stated. I've stayed at a number of other Comfort Suites and had a better stay. I could have had a room with an unusable TV for less money at a cheaper property. I've stayed at Comfort Suites in TN and had great stays. Maybe these guys and gals can call down to one of those properties and have them explain how to get the TV controllers to work. On the up side the place was quiet and the bed comfortable. The bathroom needed some touch up attention from a painter... a few visible scars on walls, edge of tub...