Budget Suites of America: What Every Non-Smoker Should Know About Extended Stay Hotels

I was so excited. I had just taken a new job in the North Texas area. Looking forward to better-than-expected pay and benefits was all fine and good, but I first had the impending obligation of finding a place to live.

Like so many in my situation, I set my mind on what has become more popular over the last several years-extended stay hotels. Why get an apartment with a lease that ties you down? Imagine having no set lease, no electric bill, no water bill, and getting free cable television and Internet for one monthly rate. Sounded good, and I took it. But the all-expense-paid hotel/apartment option is a mixed bag.

In addition to having police cruisers comb the area and run plates to look for child molesters and convicted felons on the run from the law, you have neighbors that are in and out. You get new neighbors every few weeks or so. You don't get to know who is living next door, and because it is a hotel, those who become your neighbors for the week or month will have you calling security to shut them up for the night. You can't be blamed for supposing the roof is going to cave in on you with all the hoopla that is going on in the soon-to-be-trashed apartment above you.

After a brief search of extended stay hotels, I had my list narrowed down to two, InTown Suites and Budget Suites of America, both located in Lewisville, Texas near Corporate Drive about 6 miles away from the new job. I decided on the latter because the rooms were bigger and the accommodations seemed less like a hotel. At the InTown Suites I considered staying at, one is required to stand outside of their room for 20 minutes every week for a mandatory cleaning by the maid. Because I value that hard-to-come-by thing called privacy, this sealed the deal in my conviction that InTown Suites was not for me. The price was the same as Budget Suites-just over $700 a month for all-expense-paid living. That did it. I went with Budget Suites.

For $727.95 a month, I felt I was getting a pretty good deal. I had a 700ish square-foot apartment, mail forwarding, a laundry room, a swimming pool, cable TV, and Internet provided by Time Warner (sizzling fast, but unfortunately not wireless). The room came with a full kitchen, along with the furnished apartment. There was no microwave oven, nor was their room for one on the small countertops, but that was not big on my list of concerns.

The long and the short of it is that I got very comfortable here. Three full months soon went by and I was surprised to find that I had only needed to call in three noise complaints. When I did, security responded quickly and took care of business. This does not change the fact that the area is still quite scary. You need only drive by and look around to get the feeling that you are going to get mugged the second you step out of your car.

Tattered old vans and beaten-up pickup trucks with rust and chipping paint occupy many a parking space. Cars with dents and dings - sometimes missing hoods, bumpers, and whole sides - were everywhere. The occasional couches can even be found outside on the walkway with those who sit on them drinking down 40-ouncers of malt liquor. Unsupervised kids run around and mess with vehicles or otherwise create mischief.

These would be huge issues to some, but I wasn't bothered. Despite appearances, things were going great. I had by now abandoned any plans to move to a more conventional apartment. Then...it...came. I was sleeping, only to awaken to the sound of my own coughing. I smelled smoke. It was unmistakably coming from somewhere, though I couldn't find out where. I checked outside and there was no one. I checked the air conditioning vents. Nothing could be found that accounted for the awful smell of cigarettes that drifted through the air. That left only one conclusion-the smoke was coming from a nearby room.

A few days passed as this coming-and-going cigarette smoke odor became a familiar unwanted guest. I decided to head out to Walmart where I bought a $20 air purifier. Didn't help at all. I decided the smoke smell was bad enough to go to management about. I asked to speak to someone in management, but the person was somewhat hard to get a hold of. The messages I left were not returned. After some prodding, I got a hold of the first manager I would speak to, one Lawrence, who admitted to me that guests are allowed to smoke in their rooms, and yes, it is highly possible that someone smoking in a nearby room would become a problem for non-smoking guests. It happens a lot, I was told. The solution was simple-I would need to move rooms. That was what I ended up doing.

My new room was not nearly as nice as the one I had before. The walls in this one were dinged and scuffed up, the bed frame was collapsed, the mattress dilapidated and yellowy with who knows how many samples worth of bodily fluids collected over time. Bear in mind that Budget Suites doesn't provide blankets or bed sheets except at extra cost, which was why I always brought my own (with this nastiness, I was glad I did). This room smelled of smoke so badly that I went out and bought a commercial-strength carpet cleaner and a bottle of 409 to see what good I could do on my own.

At first, the smell in this room seemed to be from past smokers. I cleaned the carpets. I scrubbed portions of every headboard and wall in the place with no results that lasted longer than several hours, but I soon found that I had smoking neighbors in this place on top of the smoke smell already ingrained into the furniture and surfaces of the room itself.

I stayed here not more than 7 or 8 days, and by that time found myself coughing violently and waking up with headaches and watery eyes. I was unable to sleep because of the indoor-smoking trash I called neighbors. I could never find out who they were, but of course, it wouldn't matter if I could. This situation was thoroughly wearing on my nerves. I now dreaded coming home from work. This had to be resolved, and soon!

I again spoke with management who agreed to move me, but reiterated that they had no control over whether or not an occupant decides to light up in a room. When I suggested that I either be moved or be refunded my money and take my business elsewhere, he gladly had the sweet Asian lady behind the counter agree to let me look at other rooms and move. It was no great mystery why the management team was getting really sick of seeing me.

At first, the next room seemed promising. Even the parking was closer and better. My neighbors were nice enough. Everything seemed fine for the first week. Then...it...returned for the third and final time! It seemed to be getting worse by the day. There was so much smoke in the room that my clothes stunk. Washing clothes at my parents' house, my mother remarked: "You're clothes reek of smoke!" I explained the situation to them, and then a second time to a boss at work who assumed I had started smoking. He was about to remind me that no employees were allowed to smoke on the job and in uniform. I put the situation in its proper perspective, but this was royally embarrassing!

By the beginning of October, I was out of that horrible place, having found a much nicer abode. I came to find that the problem I experienced was a very common one in the extended stay network anywhere smoking was allowed. It took some searching to find a better, cleaner place, but it eventually happened. My blood pressure (which was already high) is only now coming back down to within manageable range. This was an extremely tiresome and stressful ordeal. It cost me $30 to wash all of the blankets, sheets, towels, and clothes I had to my name. Even the socks, undies, and whites I had tucked away in drawers needed to be power-washed to get rid of that awful, putrid, nasty smell of menthol cigarettes.

The sad part is that nobody really cared. The management, though they claimed to have done their best, never bothered to separate the rooms into smoking and non-smoking wings. Maybe it was corporate who wouldn't let them do anything about it, though I have my doubts. Worse yet, I have not been able to contact the Budget Suites corporate office. Their website www.budgetsuites.com doesn't have a feedback or "Tell us how we're doing" link. The main contact number leads to no one in management. You can only make reservations at local establishments. How much clearer can Robert Bigelow (the owner of Budget Suites of America) make it that he has no desire to hear from those who stay in his hotels?

In conclusion, I now see what so many anti-smoking lobbyists have been fighting over for so long. The smoking bans in San Antonio (where I hail from) are steadfast and citywide. I took them for granted. In North Texas, quite a few restaurants still have smoking sections. I can't go into them without coughing or come out without my clothes smelling like smoke. Being a non-smoker and an asthmatic, I am now mindful of the fact that it is high time better efforts be made to place further restrictions on this horribly offensive and health-destroying practice.

If you are considering an extended stay living place and you don't smoke, remember to aim high. Don't stay at Budget Suites of America, InTown Suites, or Crossland Suites (the latter two, by reputation, are no improvement). For the more economically minded, I would recommend Homestead Studio Suites, or if you are able to afford it, spend more for Hawthorn Suites or any other higher-end establishments like Westin, Comfort Suites, and Marriott (all 100% smoke-free). While not all locations will offer extended stay rates, you can ask to speak to the manager and they will often be eager to negotiate a discounted long-term rate if you are going to be there a while (I talk from experience). It'll be worth it-I promise!