Embassy Suites Baton Rouge

“Changes are needed in Management.”

Full transparency…… The GM, Barry did give us 10K Hilton Honor points as a good faith gesture regarding the room issues that will be explained in this review, but let me start by saying that the Senate Room Hospitality staff, specifically, Mr. James Collins saved this hotel from just a horrible rev… more

Full transparency…… The GM, Barry did give us 10K Hilton Honor points as a good faith gesture regarding the room issues that will be explained in this review, but let me start by saying that the Senate Room Hospitality staff, specifically, Mr. James Collins saved this hotel from just a horrible review. Ms Barbara was great as well, but we had more interactions with James who went over and beyond to decorate the space and accommodate us before even hearing about our issues with the rooms. The food was amazing too! I wanted to get that out before becoming longwinded. So we booked the Senate room and a block of several rooms for our daughter’s LSU graduation party last week. It was immediately apparent that this place is in need of some updates, especially the rooms. The toilets in some of the rooms barely leave space to use the flush lever since they are so close to the sink counter. There is also a bit of old smell too, which I would assume is the carpet, ducts, furniture, etc. These are all tolerable things, but let me explain where the big issue came in. (I was going to withhold this information since the Senate Room Hospitality group did such an amazing job, but a friend that works in the field suggested that I be candid since that is what most corporate divisions really want to see.) When we got into our room, we sat our bags down, then my wife and son went down to the front desk to get snacks. While sitting I noticed a bug on the wall. As I got closer, I realized it was a baby roach. I took a picture and short video to send to my wife since she was already down there. They had no issue apologizing and moving us to another room. So far so good. Well, the next day my other daughter (different room) is sitting in bed and notices a bug crawling on her leg. She squeezed/killed it and while pulling the sheets back she notices another one just like it. At that point she calls us to her room so we can see it. I immediately figured it was a bed bug or at least a tick, but wanted to be sure so I captured it in a zip lock bag and brought it down to the front desk. At this point we were concerned because we don’t want to bring any of them to our home. Although we understand that things happen, we still don’t want to have bugs in our rooms. The front desk rep apologized and offered to move her to another room. The issue is that the front desk rep couldn’t confirm that it was a bed bug, but she said that she would report it to management. Later we were called to the front desk to be told that they had Orkin come in and check the room, but no bed bugs were found. At that point I asked them if it wasn’t a bed bug, then what was it? The front desk guy said that he didn’t know. I then asked if they showed the bugs that I captured to the Orkin agent. He said that he wasn’t sure. I then asked where the zip lock bag was at and he said that he didn’t know. After a little back and forth he said that he would have the GM come speak with us. Barry came a little later and attempted to explain that they recently had that room treated and that bugs become more active after treatments, etc. He even made a comment about the hotel being in southern Louisiana so bugs are inevitable. Even though there is some truth to the statement, it is not the best thing to say when we are worried about bed bugs. He continued the denial of bed bugs and kept saying that Orkin came, checked the whole room and didn’t find anything. We asked him since they didn’t find anything, then what were the bugs that I captured and turned in. He didn’t have an answer and when my wife showed him the picture, he said it was a silverfish. That bug was clearly not a silverfish. I then asked if he showed the Orkin agent the bugs I captured, and he said he didn’t. I asked why not and he danced around the question. I asked where the captured bugs were and he danced around that question as well. He just kept trying to show us the Orkin invoice to attempt to prove their visit and findings, or lack thereof. I explained that I brought the bag with the bugs to them to be helpful, so they could show the pest people, but he just kept pushing the fact that Orkin came and didn’t find anything. It was just a little off-putting when the GM of a hotel dances around questions and doesn’t give guests who are trying to help them identify what kind of bugs are in the hotel’s rooms enough respect to answer honestly. I think that if the hotel really wanted to get to the bottom of something like this, they would have shown the pest control company the bugs after being told there were no bugs…..I brought them proof to be helpful and candid. I think James should be given an opportunity to be GM, because his customer service is top notch. He said all the right things while we explained how his department turned a bad experience into a good one.

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