Photo: Twitter
Other women have come forward.
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on Oct 15, 2021
Twitter user, Maya Angelique, created a viral thread on Wednesday talking about her experience at the Cambria Hotel on Q Street in Washington, D.C. over the weekend.
According to her story, she had almost been kidnapped from her hotel room by a strange man who tried to enter at 1 a.m. while she was in the shower.
The Cambria Hotel in D.C. is now being accused of being involved in a human trafficking ring.
On Sunday at around 11 p.m., Angelique checked into her room at the Cambria Hotel after having 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.”
Angelique reiterated that she felt like she had been watched from the moment she pulled into the parking lot for 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.”
When she went into the hotel to check in, get her key, and look at her room, she said that the people in the lobby and the people at the front desk were shady.
Her room key didn’t work, making her feel even more unsafe, and when she finally got into her room after fixing it, she realized that she had to go back down to get the rest of her bags.
Maya Angelique claims a man attempted to break into her room.
“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.”
Angelique further 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.
“I get the rest of my bags and go upstairs. I talk to my friend for the next hour or so until around 1am then go to take a shower,” she continued. “As I am in the shower THAT IS WHEN THE MAN TRIES TO BREAK INTO MY ROOM. If it were not for the door stop, i probably would not be here.”
Her room had been locked, and the doorstop in place. She claims that the man had to have a key to her room that someone gave him.
She claims that he repeatedly hit the door against the doorstop in an attempt to break through it, while yelling “open the f---in door let me in,” before running down the hallway, unsuccessful in his attempt to get in.
When she called the front desk “not even a full minute later,” the woman was “nonchalant” and claimed that the man was housekeeping who mistakenly went to her room instead of the room next to hers.
She asked for a refund — which would not be processed for at least 7-12 days — and was given a new room, where she said she “barricaded the door” and “was afraid for [her] life.”
But wait, it gets weirder.
The next day, Monday morning, 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 Angelique went down to the front desk at noon, the man 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.
Other allegations about the Cambria Hotel are coming to light.
Across social media, some speculated that there may be a human trafficking scheme happening at the hotel.
One user shared a review from another woman who claimed some had attempted to break into her room.
Another woman claims that, while staying at the hotel, a man entered her room without her consent.
According to statistics from the National Human Trafficking Hotline, Washington, D.C. is the #1 city in the country in human trafficking reports.
With 401 calls made between December 7, 2007 and December 31, 2016 per 100,000 people, they beat out Atlanta, GA by 84 calls.
“We are highly concerned about the incident at a franchised property in Washington, DC that we recently learned about, and we are in contact with hotel management to conduct a full review and investigation of that incident and of reports of other guest experiences, ” a spokesperson for Choice Hotels, which manages the Cambria, told the Daily Dot in a statement.
“We take the safety of guests seriously, and it is always top priority for us and for the owners of our independently owned and operated hotels.”
While it hasn’t been confirmed that the hotel has any involvement with human trafficking, the situation is scary enough to draw some attention.
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.