Review of Candlewood Suites Sumter, an IHG Hotel 2*

I was forced to stay here on a one month work trip. While I wasn't expecting much from a budget hotel, the Candlewood Suites still managed to disappoint. When I first checked in around 1130 pm, there was no courtesy from the guy working the desk. He wasn’t mean, but certainly wasn't welcoming. After receiving my key and waiting on the incredibly slow elevator (recommend using the stairs if you get stuck at this place), I was denied access to my room since the clerk forgot to key the cards or did it incorrectly. When I showed up back at the desk he did not apologize, nor did he seemed surprised that the keys didn’t work. I was able to get in with the new set of keys, but then struggled to fall asleep due to the elephant walking on my ceiling until two in the morning. The following day I attempted to move to a room on the top floor to avoid have noisy neighbors above me, but was told those rooms were being held for customers who hadn’t checked in yet, but would be in a few days and had requested top floor rooms. So essentially the were denying an actual customer, who was actually already staying at the hotel, a new room in lieu of a future customer. What?! It took 3 days to finally get a new room, and the top floor was not even close to full. There were dead bugs in the stairwells for the entire time we were there (as in, the same dead bugs), the hallways smelled terrible, my boss got bed bugs (legitimately), and if you have desire to workout, you’ll find the “fitness center” to be an embarrassment. When attempting to purchase plane tickets home, my business card was declined because the hotel was holding over $4000 of my credit…. For what? Even if this is a policy that hotels use, they ought to tell you up front. I had to sternly request the clerk to remedy the situation. On a positive note, none of my stuff was stolen. And Logan’s Roadhouse is across the parking lot with cheap beer on weeknights.