BASICS:

The breakfast is satisfactory, not as much variety as other HIEs, but it's free and it's good, with plenty of room to sit.

The wi-fi was only down momentarily because of the storm, but the issue was resolved quickly and was reliable the rest of our stay

The laundry facilities are free which is very helpful if you need to do your laundry before you leave.

The shuttle is reliable and it takes you to New Carollton Metro - the driver we got every time was super friendly - she's just a blast.

The security feature for the elevator is great, I like that not just anyone can come up the floors.

The rooms were clean, minus the not-so-minor exception listed below - but the GM ultimately corrected the situation and our second room was immaculate.

The location is good, you have plenty of small shopping areas with food nearby (within 3 miles), plus easy access to the Metro with the shuttle (very quick ride into DC).

THE WHOLE STORY:

This stay started out well, their guest service rep that was on duty when we checked in was PHENOMENAL, she had our keys ready, our reservation done all the way up the point of swiping the credit card. We were so pleased with that service that we wanted to make a point to talk to the manager before we left to let them know how great it was.

Then, after staying one night, we found bed bugs in our room. Now, the problem is not necessarily the bed bugs themselves. Yes, that's gross, but unfortunately pretty common on the east coast (although all the other hotels we stayed in for the past month did NOT have a bed bug infestation).

The problem was how the managers on duty handled it and how awful it got from there. I found one adult bed bug, one fifth instar nymph and one first instar nymph when I woke up in the morning. Later on, my boyfriend found another fifth instar nymph in the bedding. Now, these were actually ON the sheets and pillows, I never even looked under the mattress. An adult bed bug takes 37 days to reach that age and can live two months without feeding, so yeah.

The manager on duty implied I was a "problem guest" for identifying the bedbugs and wanting to leave the hotel. We were stuck there another night and yes, they did comp our first night's stay and switch rooms, BUT, the manager refused to reimburse any of the costs to launder and treat our belongings to prevent spreading the infestation to the next room, the next hotel or our own home. The manager's response to our request, "It's not our problem."

I made a comment about this on their Facebook page, gave just the facts - that we found bed bugs and the manager refused to reimburse us for the costs of cleaning up. The sales manager and manager both "decided" we should leave because of that.

Obviously, they didn't actually kick us out that night (I was 11 weeks pregnant), but it was a very unpleasant situation all the way around and it could have been handled with proper customer service and understanding. The general manager was unavailable and the manager and sales manager both handled the situation distastefully and did a horrible disservice to their hotel.

We had reserved an entire week here and we checked out after two nights because it was made very obvious that we should leave.

The only redeeming factor was the guest service representative who kept apologizing for us having to deal with the bed bugs when I called down the front desk.

UPDATE:

After we checked out, the GM contacted us to try to resolve the situation. He completely redeemed our stay by making up for the poor customer service we received from the manager and sales manager. We ended up coming back to finish our stay and they more than took care of the issues with clean up.

I've upgraded my review to 3 stars instead of 1 because of the actions of the General Manager and the service from the Guest Service Representatives. We still have a bitter taste because of how we were treated by the manager on duty and the sales manager, but we are very thankful that the GM stepped in to take care of things the way they should be taken care of.

Because of that, we would now consider staying here again.