I was a guest there at the Comfort Suites on 7th Avenue, in Bay City, Texas, in room 319, from Thursday, December 7, 2017 through checkout on Tuesday morning, December 12, 2017, during which time, I was directly exposed to some kind of fungal bacteria emanating from the underside of the toilet rim, which, had probably not been cleaned in months.
I first noticed a slight tingling on my lower back and right rear upper thigh on Friday night and Saturday morning, but didn't look at the areas or think much of it until the areas began to itch on Sunday morning. At this time, I also was experiencing a tingling on my right buttock and looked at the areas as best I could with my magnifying mirror, but the positioning was hard to see it well. The tingling was stronger at this time.
By Monday morning, the tingling was an itching and I avoided scratching the areas. I went back into the bathroom to see what could have caused the itching and irritations, since I wiped the toilet seat down on arrival days earlier. I thought it could not have been the seat itself. So, I took tissue and wiped under the rim of the toilet. I was horrified to see how filthy the tissue was.. I performed this a number of times, each wipe still revealed an inordinate amount of the same black-brown and speckled matter on the tissue. I then video recorded the before, during and after of my wiping the underside of the rim, revealing still more of the black-brown accumulated nasty, probably toxic, bacteria-filled fungal matter.
Having heard the housekeeping lady in the hall earlier, I looked out and saw her cart towards the end of the hall and went to take her my old towels and get more. I also asked her if she could come and clean the toilet under the rim. Not seeming to understand, I offered to show her. She came to look at what I was talking about and I showed her, with one wipe, how nasty it was under the rim. She indicated that she would come back. (I am not sure if she spoke English at all, because she only seemed to nod as I explained everything to her.) I assumed that she planned to come after she finished the other rooms and worked her way back down the hall to my room.
When I needed to use the bathroom and since she still had not come back, I called the front desk. While I was asking them to have someone come clean under the rim, Marshall, from the front desk, came to the door, with a clipboard and said that he understood that the room had not been cleaned and that I had called about the toilet needing to be cleaned. I told him that my Do Not Disturb sign had been on the door each day and that I was exchanging my own towels, etc, and that the toilet, however, had clearly, not been cleaned under the rim in a VERY long time, perhaps months. I offered to show him, but he declined and went and spoke with the housekeeping person.I also told him that I needed it done soon so that I could use the toilet..
When she had not come in six minutes, I went into the hall and asked her if I could use her toilet bowl cleaner and I would do it myself. She said nothing and gave me a plastic spray bottle labeled as an air freshener. I told her that is not what I need. I needed something to clean the toilet. She then handed me a different plastic spray bottle, marked "bleach" which I then took and tried my best to spray under the rim. The problem then was that the sprayer worked fine when it was right side up, but not so well when turned on its side or upside down to spray under the rim, not to mention that this was not a true toilet bowl cleaner and sanitizing solution. Nonetheless, I was able to then spray the bleach onto tissues and wipe under and around the rim several times and flush the toilet repeatedly to get it to where the tissue was almost clean upon wiping, before I again cleaned the seat and wiped everything with water, before I felt that I could use the toilet safely.
In my experience, this should never have occurred (the lack of a safe and sanitary/sterile toilet, my having to be the one to clean the toilet and the resulting skin irritations, resulting from exposure to what appears to be toxic bacteria (fecal and other matter) ). I am not sure what the sanitation guidelines are at Comfort Suites at 5100 7th Street in Bay City, Texas, but I am certain that the lack of attention to the sanitation standards of hotels, particularly as related to toilets, have not been followed. The hotel offered 20% off on a future hotel stay, but this is insufficient and I will never stay there again, or recommend that hotel. I will publish the video on social media and YouTube so others will check their hotel bathrooms and hold the hotels accountable under these kind of conditions. read more