Extended Stay America Oakland-Emeryville, Oakland

I interned in San Francisco and was placed in this housing from June 6 to August 10, 2011. My first night there I woke up in the middle of the night scratching and found that my bed was infested with bed bugs. I complained to the front desk and they were not surprised. Apparently this happens all the time. They switched my room but that was not the end of my bad experience. Almost every single time they changed my sheets I found blood stains. My fridge either froze all my food or it leaked. Every single time I cooked, the fire alarm went off even when I followed their instructions to open all the windows, turn on the stove fan, AND turn on the bathroom fan. The pans were the worst pans ever - terrible quality and burnt all my food. The cleaning service hardly came when they were supposed to so I had to constantly take my sheets and towels to the front desk and change them myself. One of my stove tops was broken and never fixed. My telephone was broken and fixed 3 weeks later. The hallways smelled of cigarette and marijuana smoke and/or food. The management was very rude and did not care about my well-being or happiness. Their employees were actually quite pleasant. Nicole is such a doll. The cleaning staff and night staff is rude. The security guard is never there at night as was promised. The people that stay in the hotel are ghetto. Very very ghetto. They are loud and rude. Some of them are drug dealers and loiter in front of my room window (I'm on the first floor). The others are drug addicts, I'm sure. They seem to be always high on crack or crystal meth. The hallways and elevators are dangerous. A few times men followed me into the hotel and I was very afraid - this was one of the nights that the security guard was not there (no surprise there). And to top that off, I washed my clothes in the laundry on the premises and when I went to pick it up, IT HAD BEEN STOLEN! I was upset and filed a complaint with the front desk and they said they would talk with their insurance company. But since I left the clothes unattended while they dried, they said they could not reimburse me. I lost $1,000 worth of clothes and all they could say was I'm sorry because apparently they do not have any security cameras. This was honestly the worst hotel I have ever stayed in. It needs to be shut down immediately!

The hotel was filty. The hallways were dirty and the room was just as bad. The bathroom was dirty and there was no shampoo supplied. I was even concerned about sleeping on the bed as I wasn't sure as to how well the linens were cleaned. I took the train to California and did not rent a car. There were no eateries or stores within walking distance. When I did walk somewhere I was constantly looking over my shoulder. I was told by a taxi driver that this hotel was right next to the worst neighborhood in Oakland. I even found a bullet in the parking lot. When I asked the staff about it, they seemed to clam up. It was not the response I was looking for. It made me even feel less safe than I did before.

I booked this hotel on my parents' behalf knowing the quality of extended stay to be generally nice without excess frills that they didn't need considering the nature of their trip (a funeral). This "Extended Stay" changed my opinion of extended stays forever! Although fairly new, it was filthy! The sheets would not stay put on the beds, there was no dishsoap -- who knows if the last person in the room did their dishes! Although not in a bad part of Emeryville, my mother did not feel safe leaving the room even to go down the hall to the lobby after dusk. Never again will my family stay at an Extended Stay! I would be embarassed to suggest these accomodations to friends or clients.