Suburban Studios

We arrived Friday at 1:30pm. Room is not ready, it is being "cleaned" and should be ready by 3pm. We had meetings we had to attend and left and returned at 8:30pm. Upon returning, we could tell there was a delay. Overhearing another man entering HIS room, and another man is in there in his underwear because its "his" room. We get our keys and go to the room to find a "non-smoking" room smelling as if a carton of cigarettes were smoked in them. Pics will show ashes on the night stand lamp proving it was smoked in. There was an employee repairing blinds as we entered them room as it didn't have them and the sheets/comforter were not put on yet. Had to ask for toilet paper. Bath towel rack was broken and parts in the closet shelf. Handle to the bathroom faucet comes off. Door to fridge broken. No remote to the TV. Employee said he'd bring one and never did. A light across mirror in bathroom was out so only light was vent light. The microwave, in short, was disgusting (pic included). I haven't even gotten to the cockroaches yet. Big, small, you name it. Roommate on phone call with friends while lying on bed just watched a big one going back and forth on the fridge. Using bathroom, see little ones walking around. I read where a lot of hotels (since Covid) were being used to house the homeless. I get it, but when you have patrons with an expectation of a clean room that would meet minimum health/sanitary requirements and functioning equipment and they don't even get that....it's a serious problem.

During my 30-plus years as a soldier and law enforcement officer, I have been inside truly horrible dwellings and hotel/motel rooms, including in a number of war-torn third-world countries. Yet this establishment is now tied with a motel in Baltimore for the title of "Worst Lodging I've Ever Seen"! I was part of a security team working 11 days at Augusta National Golf Club for the Masters and associated events. The company I was working for provided lodging for out of town officers, and my teammates and I were billeted at the Suburban Extended Stay Hotel. After completing in-processing at the company office, we drove a short distance to this place and checked in. A very nice woman named Tay checked us in and assigned us our rooms on the third floor. Upon driving the rental car around back, I first thought I was back in the suburbs of Baghdad. Debris littered the parking lot and breezeways, sketchy characters were hanging around, giving us the evil eye, and it just got worse from there. Climbing the corroded metal stairs, I noted that the window screens on at least half the rooms on this side of the building were torn and hanging out from their frames. Unoccupied rooms had open doors. Made it to our teammate's room, and they held up a towel covered with the corpses of crushed cockroaches that they had dispatched in the first 30 seconds of occupying their room. Got to our room, observed that the door had a 3/4 inch gap at the bottom. Opening the door, the funk of body odor and embedded cigarette smoke caused my lungs to spasm, and I began to cough uncontrollably. (My lungs were damaged by prolonged exposure to toxic chemical smoke in Iraq.) Not only was there our own stable of cockroaches gamboling about the floor and counters, but the visible coating of mildew I could see in the bathroom led me to fear that there might very well be a decomposing body residing in the tub. (But to be honest, although the room stunk, it didn't stink like a dead person does, so that was a plus.) I'd seen enough. I drove back to the company office, and explained to the boss that this lodging was a no-go. He was kind enough to billet me and my teammate at another establishment, which although was a half-hour drive from our worksite, it was well worth losing the extra 30 minutes of sleep! (By the way, the other two guys from our team who had slaughtered the herd of roaches ended up staying there, because they are both heavy smokers, so they wouldn't have to leave their room to light up, plus they wanted the extra half hour of sleep. Of course, they were disappointed when we told them that our new hotel served a really good breakfast every morning...which isn't offered at the Suburban Extended Stay Hotel...unless you like microwaved roaches with your coffee!) When I handed back the room keys to Tay, she remained very polite and sympathetic...She clearly deserves to work at a much nicer hotel!