Holiday Inn Orlando East - UCF Area by IHG

My lodging in Orlando was booked at the Holiday Inn from Thursday, January 11th, 2024 - Monday, January 15th, 2024. I was forced to check out early on Sunday, January 14th, 2024, as I experienced a very traumatic bed bug event. I booked a room with 2 queen beds and slept on one and laid my clothing out on the other. I had not noticed anything out of the ordinary until Sunday morning when I was choosing clothes to wear that were laid out on the bed. I noticed 2 bugs on the bed sheets. I immediately panicked as I had a feeling it was bed bugs. I began to investigate further and pulled open the sheets and found many others. A whole colony was found moving at the top of the mattress around where you lay your head and at the bottom where you lay your feet. During this whole interaction, I was experiencing so many mixed emotions. These bugs had been walking on my clothes and found their way to my luggage which was on the bed at the time. I went down to ask for the manager on duty and immediately he was not cooperative. His name was Alex Proano. He kept telling me that he would discount my rate rather than provide me with a full refund of my stay. The hotel experience as I know it, is the full stay from check in to check out. This individual only wanted to give me the last night free because that's when I found out about the bed bugs. On top of that, he blamed me for bringing in the bed bugs stating they travel on suitcases and with people's belongings. I would have noticed if a whole colony of bed bugs were traveling with my belongings and on top of that they would have been found on the bed that I was sleeping on, not the bed I had my clothing on. I saw different colored and different sized bed bugs, meaning that some of them have been there for a while since some looked like babies and some were white that were not filled with blood. This manager Alex Proano does not understand the paranoia and the hassle associated with making sure all my clothes are free of bed bugs as well as my luggage after coming in contact with the bed found in my room in 205. I was afraid the whole flight home that I was going to be bit and I was going to pass these bugs to another individual. I have to thoroughly wash/maybe throw away all my clothes and find a way to clean my luggage. He then promised me an exclusive room for the last night, but all he did was move me to another standard room and he kept arguing about the amount that was to be refunded when I wanted the full refund to deal with this massive inconvenience. Mind you, I was already extremely uncomfortable with staying in this hotel or let alone any other hotel. I am still dealing with this nuisance, as I have called pest control to my home to make sure I did not bring anything back with me. Overall, I want to submit this complaint to warn others and hopefully for them to receive some sort of repercussions for not taking the necessary precautions to stop bed bug infestations.