The Cambria Hotel Is Dangerous — I am Ivana Estelle

Oct 16

Oct 16 What The H*LL Is Going On At The Cambria Hotel

If you know me you know that I love all things true crime. Love is not the right word, I am infatuated. A couple months ago I sat through the entire docuseries about the famous Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles. This hotel isn't so much spooky as it is sinister. It is known for suicides, rapes, and murders. Serial killers would stay there during their time visiting. And of course the notorious Elyssa Lamb case where people thought a young girl visiting the states had been possessed after footage of her in an elevator went viral. It turns out the truth is much more sad, it looks to be that Elyssa was having a mental break episode, which resulted in her death. She was found floating in the water tank on the roof of the hotel building.

Now we are in Washington DC and though the Cambria hotel is not as old or notorious as the Cecil, there still are a lot of strange things happening at that hotel. The Cambria hotel is located on Q street in southwest Washington DC. I personally am not familiar with the hotel, but having seen pictures I can tell you that there are two locations that is the first and most important thing. There is a location in northwest on O street and there's a location in southwest in the Capital Riverfront area on Q street. The hotels are three stars with an average of $130 a night to stay there. They both are decently upscale looking hotels, they are known for having a nice bar. Most times if you're staying at the Cambria it is because you are doing a staycation, or you are coming for a short time maybe with a friend or you are in DC for work and don't want to really spend too much money. Both locations are around other bars and restaurants in the DC area.

Maya Angelique (@moneyymaya on Twitter) Took to Twitter last Wednesday to explain her experience at the Cambria hotel on October 9th. Maya is a beautiful young African American woman from Virginia she's 25 years old works in Tech and is entrepreneur. She's pretty popular on Twitter with about 50,000 followers, and all of them did not grow overnight due to this story. In fact her Twitter popularity may have helped save quite a few lives. Since this entire incident a lot of Maya’s social media presence has been bringing justice to other people of color. Maya was staying at the Cambria hotel for the evening.

On Sunday at around 11 p.m., Maya checked into her room at the Cambria Hotel. It was late and she was exhausted, as she entered the hotel she noticed things were eery. She talked to her friend all night about how suspicious the place felt.

“As soon as I parked I face-timed my friend because it all felt OFF,” she tweeted. “There was a woman standing on the corner acting weird and as if she was being a lookout. She was watching me VERY hard as I was taking stuff out of my car. She had AirPods in and was obviously on the phone.”

Maya felt like she had been watched from the moment she pulled into the parking lot of the hotel.

“As soon as I turned the corner there was a man sitting at a table a few steps away from her in front of the hotel who was also on the phone,” she continued. “It was VERY OBVIOUS they were talking to each other and he was staring at me HARD as if he were plotting on me.”

It didn't help that the initial room key did not work when she got to her room. Maya explain that when she went back downstairs to get the rest of her bags and fix her key the same men that were looking at her were watching again. “As I open the door to go back down there is a man standing halfway down the hallway STARING at me as if he is watching my room,” she said. “He then goes into the housekeeping closet.”

Maya emphasizes that none of the people mentioned so far were any of the people who tried to break into her room, but alleges they were all in on the plan.

It was around 1:00 AM when Maya decided to take a shower. She turn on the faucet and the water began to run, steaming the bathroom. As she stepped in the shower, she heard the banging and the screaming of a man trying to get into her room. It seemed like a mistake at first, the man repeatedly screamed, “Open the fucking door.” Blood rushed from Maya’s cheeks when she realized it wasn’t a mistake. Maya plummeted out of the shower as she wrapper herself in a towel to see what was going on. The yelling and banging continued, in fact the man had a key and began banging on her door in attempt to break in. The man was unsuccessful in getting in due to the door being locked from the inside, and quickly fled the scene.

When Maya reached out to the front desk, they nonchalantly explained that it must be housekeeping coming to clean the hotel room. Maya was incredibly afraid and confused as it was 1 in the morning and that did not make any sense. Maya barricaded the door and was terrified for the rest of the night. She explains that even from the beginning the Cambria hotel stay was nothing short of shady. Maya explains had the inside not been locked and had that doorstopper not been there she may not be alive or here to tell the story. Maya was nothing short of dazed and confused, she ended up spending the rest of the night in the hotel room. The next day Maya asked for a refund which will not be processed for another 7 to 12 days.

It is noted that Maya is beautiful. She has brown skin stands about 5-4inches and is curvy, she wears here hair in different styles, dresses well, and has a soft warm smile. All of this is to say although there should be no prejudice against her looks, people may want to theorize that everything was coincidental: The men in the hallway were appreciating her looks, the stares shouldn’t be surprising. However as Maya made note on Twitter, and a well known fact, human trafficking in Washington DC is a very prevalent issue. Which is what needs to be acknowledged and focused on. This is not the Cambria hotel’s first run in. In fact Maya explained that the very next day after leaving the hotel she received a text from someone claiming to be from the hotel’s housekeeping service — upon a further search, the number was not associated with the hotel at all.

When Maya went down to the front desk at noon, the concierge who was working there seemed shocked that someone told her the man was from housekeeping and said “I wanted to contact you but didn’t want to call your room too early.”

As she was leaving that same afternoon, she saw the same man who was sitting outside on the phone the day before, doing the same thing — pretending to be on the phone and watching her.

After Maya shared her story so many people came forward. The Cambria hotel has a history and reputation of being a place that is unsafe for young black women. Carmensita (@hey_sita on Twitter) tweeted that when she stayed at the same hotel and took a shower during the day, "a man with a blue shirt was in my room when I got out." She recalled

"'Housekeeping,'" they said. With no badge or cleaning supplies," she continued, detailing the harrowing experience and the hassle of getting her money returned.

In fact if you go on Google reviews the results are nothing short of terrifying. Matt Corasanti, who posted a Google review of the hotel saying that he saw “a girl getting dragged unconscious with no shoes or belongings with her into the elevator.” He said that he and his wife were then “evicted” from the Cambria.

Another reviewer, Nikita Purvis wrote that someone “tried to gain entry” into her room after a different person attempted to take her room keys while she was riding in the elevator.

“No one on your staff even attempted to help me,” wrote Purvis.

Hotel reviews also describe different incidences of men running into the hotel and making female guests uncomfortable.

In a statement from the Cambria Hotel, the organization says:

The Cambria Hotel Washington D.C. Capitol Riverfront is focused on the comfort and well-being of our guests. It is always our goal to provide a superb experience. If a situation arises, we work swiftly to address any guest concerns.

We are aware of the recent discussion on social media where a guest had an unfortunate experience. We immediately took action to rectify the situation and used the opportunity to improve our customer service.

The conversation on social media has spiraled to include misinformation or information that is irrelevant to any practices at this hotel. The Cambria Hotel Washington D.C. Capitol Riverfront abides by all local and federal laws. In addition, our employees receive training to help them identify and report any suspicious behavior.

We are committed to guest satisfaction and welcome all guests with respect and dignity."

It isn’t only the Cambria however, the Cambria hotel is owned by Choice Hotels which also owns Wyndham hotels and most people will recognize that resort in Puerto Rico but more recently Wyndham resorts was sued for $10 million due to a child sex trafficking ring. The lawsuit is still pending.

The bigger issue is the fact that most women that have come forward with issues at the Cambria hotel have been black women of color. As Newsweek reports:

Law enforcement continues to arrest high numbers of Black women for sex trafficking compared to the men who actually pay money for the 'service,'" the CBCF reported. "Furthermore, the law needs to protect Black women and girls who are victims of sex trafficking. Despite legislation aimed at decriminalizing victims of sex trafficking, law enforcement does not always enforce the laws in place dealing with decriminalizing sex trafficking."

As Maya Angelique stated “"When black girls go missing no one gives AF about us,"

In 2016, the United States State Department estimated that 57,700 people were trafficked into the country every year. 70% of those were females trafficked for sexual exploitation. The human trafficking facts in 2021 we will be tracking are largely consistent with what we've been carefully observing for years

DoSomething.org reports estimates suggest that, internationally, only about .04% survivors of human trafficking cases are identified, meaning that the vast majority of cases of human trafficking go undetected

In fact, in 2018, over half (51.6%) of the criminal human trafficking cases active in the US were sex trafficking cases involving only children.

It is evident that there's something much spookier than what is going on at the Cambria hotel. But it is also clear that if human trafficking is so prominent in this country, it is not crazy to assume that what was going to happen to Maya could have led to a case of some sort of trafficking or worse. The theory currently is that people in the Cambria hotel are in on it. Regardless though we are happy that Maya is safe the Cambria hotel and the choice hotel organization as a whole is going to have to answer to what is really going on on Q street.