Anonymous

This is my Trip Advisor post: BED BUGS! It can happen anywhere to anyone, but as much I’ve traveled globally in my career, it’s never happened to me. Until last week. I traveled to the Dallas area for work and the Hampton Inn-Dallas DeSoto came recommended. I read all of the TripAdvisor comments which were good. When I checked in Monday evening, I was pleased to find the hotel relatively new, clean, and with a friendly staff. They put me in Room #315. My night’s sleep was quite restless as the freeway was really noisy. In the morning, I got up, turned on the light and noticed how disheveled my bedding was – I assume because of my restless sleep due to the noise. I then noticed a bug crawling across the ecru linens. I quickly grabbed my phone and snapped a picture and then grabbed a tissue and smashed it in the tissue. I opened the tissue only to find loads of blood in it, unfortunately mine. I went to the front desk and asked to speak to the manager. A woman named Jordan came out and I showed her the picture and the bloody smashed bug. She appeared surprised and asked me to send it to the hotel email address so she could show her manager. I asked to be moved to a different room (should have checked out) and they moved me to Room #406. I moved my belongings to the room but didn’t unpack anything. That morning, I didn’t appear to have any bites. By the time I returned in the evening, some bites had begun to appear on my chest and hands. I showed the supervisor and she apologized and asked if I wanted her to check out the room I had been assigned for that night. I did. I watched as she tore apart the beds, looked with a flashlight all over the beds, closet, headboard, etc. (and looked over her shoulder and searched with her) and we found no evidence of bugs in that room (not that I really knew what to look for!). She offered to go out and buy me medicine for my bites but at that time they didn’t seem that bad. I “slept” with the light on that night. By morning the bites that were there yesterday were worsening and others were appearing. I didn’t know if there were bugs in the second room or if it just took time for them to appear from night 1. I went to work. As the morning progressed, the bites worsened and more appeared. I went back to the hotel at noon to check out. Around the same time I drove into the hotel parking lot, I received an email from 'name witheld', the hotel manager (whom I had not yet met). He apologized for the bed bug and said that it was uncharacteristic for their hotel. He inferred that the only bug that existed was the one that I brought to the front desk and offered me 25,000 Hilton points for my inconvenience. When I went into the hotel I asked to speak with him. He came out and I told him that 25,000 Hilton points wasn’t going to cut it and showed him my arms, upper chest and jawbone where the bites were festering. I told him I was not paying for the rooms and he said I’ve already charged your corporate card. I went to my room, gathered my belongings, and left. I was appalled that he knew full well his hotel had caused me great discomfort physically and even more psychologically and he thought it was right to still charge me (my company) for the room. I understand that any residential hotel can get bed bugs, no matter what the star rating or the cleanliness level. It’s just fact in this day and age (though had never happened to me in over 20 years of corporate global travel!). What I cannot believe is how the manager, 'name witheld', handled it. The rest of his staff were far more compassionate and professional than he was. He seriously has no business holding the role he has. I arrived home and put my entire suitcase full of clothes and the suitcase itself in the dumpster. Losing whatever that cost may be was far easier than imagining those bugs in my house. At any rate, I sometimes am hesitant to believe “bed bug” claims on TripAdvisor and believe it may sometimes be “sour grapes” or a bad experience, but trust me, this one is true. I am posting pictures of the bed bug I actually saw and killed, my bites as they progressively got worse, together with Jeff Livingston’s email where he admits they had at least “one” bed bug (because they couldn’t refute my bringing it freshly killed to their front desk). Make your own decision about whether you want to stay at this Hampton Inn.

• Bedbugs Found
• Requested Refund