My wife and I stayed at Cambria Suites in Dania Beach Florida. When I state that we thought we were in a 3rd class country, I am not exaggerating.

When I made reservation arrangements, Kamal at the front desk stated that the hotel was a 5 Star property. Although the hotel is nice, at best is a three star.

He also said that because the occupancy rate was high, he would offer the room to us because he considered our stay to be long term, 6 days. However, because he was oversold on rooms, he said that if we check out prior to the 6th day, we would be responsible for all 6 days. At that time I didn't think much about his claim.

Here is what occurred:

On Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday there was not hot water. Each day I had to call about not having hot water for a shower.

The few days we could use the pool we could not stay poolside. A truck pulled into the hotel parking lot towing a large power washer which was used to wash cars. This went on for 3 hours. The din was so loud, we were forced to leave the pool area.

We went to the pool area for towels and there were none. The manager happened to pass by and said that he would return with towels. He never returned and we had to return to the room to dry off.

At 10:00 PM, a bus was idling near the front entrance of the hotel. The noise and fumes woke us up. I called the front desk to ask why the bus was idling. The girl at the front desk said she would check into this. After another hour, I called the front desk again because the bus was still idling. Again, she said she would check into this. A half-hour later the bus moved to the driveway.

During the three days we spent poolside, I noticed that the pool and jacuzzi filters never ran. However, on February 22nd, the board of health was inspecting the hotel, the pool was temporarily closed while they completed their inspection. This was the first time that the pool filters were operating.

Because of a medical condition, I have a prescription for a narcotic pain killer. I packed 7 tablets and didn't have to use any of them. When I returned home there were only 3 in the bottle. I can't prove that the maid stole them but I have no other explanation for them being missing.

Their $8. breakfast buffet was average for a resort hotel. But we elected not to participate because I felt that they fell far short of what is considered to be basic food service health concerns. No sneeze bar, food temperatures were questionable, and tinted green scrambled eggs indicated that the eggs were not fresh.

On Saturday of our horrific stay, our room key card which permit access to the pool, door entrances, gym and outside doors would not function. We had to walk around the perimeter of the hotel to the front entrance. The front desk said that either their card readers were malfunctioning or an employee invalidated our key cards.

We would have left after two days if we could, but then we would have been charged for the entire 6 days.

I submitted a complaint form and recieved an e-mail that I would be contacted by customer service within 24 hours. I waited. After TWO weeks, I called customer service. They offered us a reduction of two nights stay. When Chris from customer service asked if this was acceptable, I said no. I wanted to be reimbursed 50% of our hotel bill and also wanted a 6 night comp at a Choice Hotel.

Bottom line after REPEATED, REPEATED phone calls and e-mails and 2 e-mails sent to Kevin Lewis, CEO of Premier Division (?) which were not responded to I was able to recieve a 50% reduction of our hotel bill. Corporate office said that they would not offer the 6 night comp to compensate us for the grief and aggrivation of our 6 night FORCED "imprisonment" at the Cambria Suites Hotel.

I thought that my request for the comp and reimburserment was reasonable considering that if we could have left after the second day, we would have but could not afford to be billed for 4 nights and then find another hotel and pay for another 4 nights.