Marriott International

Back in march, our family traveled to Florida on business. We arrived at the Marriott Courtyard, Aventura, Florida, late on the night of the 19th. We checked into two rooms-one for my husband and I and one for our two adult children.

On the 20th, my daughter complained that has ankles were a little swollen and she had red blotches on her legs. I purchased some cortisone cream and had her use it on her legs, which helped. We again arrived back at the Marriott Courtyard, Aventura, Florida, on the night of the 20th. My 22 year old daughter woke in the middle of the night to something crawling in her bed-she was covered in ants! She ran out of the room, down the hall to our room and banged on the door. She had ants in her hair (she has long hair) and in her pajamas. We called down to the front desk and were told there was not other rooms available, that they would have an exterminator come up and take care oft he ants IN THE MORNING!

Meanwhile, our two children spend the rest of the night in our room (thankfully we had two beds). Upon checkout on the 21st, we woke up to find the rooms already charged to my credit card. I called a second time down to the front desk for the hotel manager. He as not in and the assistant manager was in a meeting (on a Sunday morning)...I tried to work out a discount or credit to my bill prior to my departure, but was informed I would have to speak to one of the managers.

Later that morning when I finally reached the hotel manager, I was told I would not be receiving a credit for the ant infested hotel room. Yes, there were ants in the room, and yes, they did spray but I was told they were sugar ants and no one is allergic to sugar ants. In essence, the manager told me I was lying.

Meanwhile, we had a dilemma-we were working a large event at Dolphin Stadium, Jazz in The Gardens and my son needed to take our daughter home. Her legs and other parts of her body had red marks, her ankles were swollen and she had a fever. They left and drove 14 hours back to North Carolina. Meanwhile, we had to find, hire and pay for two additional people to work on the last day of the event.

To date, we have not received a refund. We were told we have to PROVE Emily had a reaction to the ants in the hotel room. My husband and I felt that waking to a bed full of ants crawling on her body was distress enough. We have been Marriott Club members since 1999, Silver Elite members since 2004. Our daughter was very traumatized over this experience.

Hotel manager-no way no how are we refunding you anything for your room-we have never heard of anyone experiencing an allergic reaction to ants-bugs in the hotel rooms are no big deal in Florida-you should expect to find them there, after all it is Florida-no we cannot provide you with another room-it is the height of tourist season and we have no other rooms-you are simply trying to get out of paying for your rooms...at the end of the day our books have to balance.

Here's my take-I will report this to the Florida Environmental Health Department. I will report this to any and all sites on the internet. I will report this to Marriott Corporate (not that they have offered to do anything either). We will never stay at a Marriott hotel EVER again. We have been visiting Florida for most of our lives and never experienced bugs in a hotel room.

DO NOT STAY AT THE MARRIOTT COURTYARD, AVENTURA, FL!
All they want is your money-forget about cleanliness and courtesy. That is not their focus-their bottom line is, not matter what might happen to you! This has been a nightmare for our daughter-a scene right out of a horror movie.