Sheraton Columbia Town Center Hotel

I travel three to four times a year on business so have stayed in various hotels around the country ranging from large corporate hotels to small single family owned hotels. I stayed at the Sheraton as it is on our companies list of approved hotels in this area. I was surprised to find this hotel had no shuttle service and I had to take a taxi service the Sheraton has a contract with. The ride to and from the hotel to the airport cost my company $50.00 each way which I thought an unnecessary expense since all other hotels I have ever stayed in have shuttle service. I got to the hotel late and went to my room. It smelled quite dank and musty as though it had not been opened or stayed in for quite some time. There were cobwebs in the corners of the ceiling and floor and bugs crawling on the walls. I turned the air conditioner on to circulate the air, gathered four bugs one at a time into toilet paper and flushed them down the stool; then went to dinner. I ordered salmon which was excellent as was the service and returned to my room. Imagine my surprise when I found a family of bugs who must have been vacationing in the air conditioning unit crawling toward the ceiling away from the unit. I noticed a few on the floor which I could reach so gathered and flushed those bugs as well. While inspecting the unit for any more live bugs, I only found a family of dead dried up bugs. I left those where they lay, "out of sight out of mind", I hoped, but I couldn't help but wonder what type of bugs were rooming with me that I didn't see. I called the front desk to request a room change but the person at the other end of the line was off site and spoke broken English which was difficult to understand. I explained my situation and was assured by the female who stated, "Bugs don't harm you. They ‘stink bugs’ don't kill them. They stink when you kill them. But you okay they don't harm you." I thought to myself, "How lucky I am that I didn't squish those nasty bugs and stink up my already stinky room!" My pause in thought must have registered with the female because she offered to call the front desk and have them send an exterminator. “Hmm, musty smell, stink bug smell or exterminator smell; choices, choices”. Now by this time it was close to 9:00 pm and I still had a few hours of work to do so I thought if I could get to the front desk I could ask for a different room. I waited as the phone rang and rang but when it was finally answered it was disconnected. Dialing zero again would only put me back where I started and my colleague was waiting for me to finish our work. I left my room and went to complete our work for the day and when I returned around midnight the air conditioner had done its' duty; the room no longer smelled dank, just a little musty. This was tolerable. To be honest I was too tired to go down to the front desk and after inspecting the room one last time I found only a few bugs crawling on the floor and the family of bugs from earlier had settled themselves on the ceiling far above my reach. I showered and found the bathroom had no exhaust fan which may have been one reason for the musty smell in my room. Now that my clothes for the next day had a fine mist over them I thought this was the capping event for my day and headed to bed...but I was wrong. Upon reentering the bathroom I slipped on the damp floor which even though I had dried it still had a fine mist which had resettled to the lowest point in the room. Feeling quite lucky I had not hurt myself I ran for the safety of my bed in hopes it did not have bugs as well. The next morning I attended our company event and enjoyed a tasty lunch prepared by the hotel. I wanted a soda so since no vending machines were available I made my way to the front desk. A soda which costs $1.25 in a vending machine at work was $2.25 at the front desk! I returned to lunch finished our business and returned to the airport where the soda in the machine was an acceptable $1.75. If I ever have to

weddle wrote on October 19, 2011