BED BUGS. Need I really write more? Well, we did pick the cheapest inn from the road, without checking reviews. Wish we had. I see now that a guest, back in January 2011, had bed bugs in her room, so the management has obviously not gotten the problem under control. Indeed, when I got my money back, the desk clerk did not seem terribly surprised, but at least they refunded my money. Beware, there aren't always obvious signs - the room appeared superficially clean, pretty shabby and smelled of stale cigarette smoke (what I expected from an uber-budget inn) but didn't look buggy when we entered. It wasn't until about an hour later, while watching TV that I saw one come marching across the sheets at me. After tearing the sheets back I found another in the bed and one on the floor below the bed. That's when I also found all the dirt, the dead cockroach and the empty prescription pain bottle (it was under the mattress- classy). Finding a couple bed bugs was enough for me, so we quickly grabbed our stuff and got out of there. And, as another reviewer pointed out, they don't have a night desk clerk. Instead, there was a crappy telephone in the "night entrance" that took a couple of tries to actually get working. It was answered by someone, who, when I explained my problem with the room and that I wanted a refund, said he wasn't able to do refunds but that I could change rooms. I said no thanks and asked to speak with a manager. He said that I had to call back in 5 minutes. I waited, called back, and spoke to a woman who said that they could not physically access the money to do a refund until after 7 am the next morning, so I would have to come back if I wanted a refund. So that's what I did. I will mention that the staff were incredibly nice and polite and did not put up a fight regarding the refund. That was about the only positive. The inn looks acceptable, just older when you pull up, but out of sight from the road it is really quite dilapidated looking, like it has not been kept up. To round out the list of lesser problems, there was no security latch on the door, just the holes where it had once been; there was a mysterious wet patch in the carpet next to the dresser (hope it was water......); and when I took a shower (this was in the hour before the bed bugs were discovered), the floor of the tub felt like a trampoline, making me wonder if I would suddenly plunge through the bottom. But really the take-home message should be: don't stay here - they have bed bugs and they don't seem to be taking care of the problem. I don't care how cheap the place is, there should not be bed bugs. Stay at the Holiday Inn across the street if you can afford it - it's NICE!
- Knights Inn Florence
