Motel Cortez

We only stayed one night and paid $78 for two rooms. Each had two beds, one queen and one twin, plus a bathroom and a mini fridge. I didn’t use the fridge, so I can’t say if it worked. There’s also a swimming pool, and the rates aren’t too high. It’s not a five-star hotel, but it does the job for a night. My main issue was that smoking was allowed. Two rooms down, some men were smoking marijuana. It didn’t last very long, but with our windows open because of the heat, the smell got into our rooms for a while. As another reviewer mentioned, parents should watch the TV, since some channels are pornographic.

I’d stayed here off and on for business for over 10 years, but in 2023 it suddenly turned into a very noisy refugee camp for around 100 Asian Soviet escapees from Uzbekistan and elsewhere. They were partying every day until midnight and acting very uncivilized, like people in the film Borat. I can’t recommend it to Mexicans, Americans, or Europeans.

After a string of mishaps, the hotel turned out better than my first impression. I paid $40 plus a $10 deposit. The room was clean, apart from hair in the bathroom that trailed out toward the parking space. No bedbugs or roaches, and the water was warm. The old-fashioned furniture photographed surprisingly well. It was January and pouring rain, and I couldn’t figure out which house I’d rented. No one answered my calls or messages, or the doors I pounded on. They thought my phone number was a scam. A neighbor drove me to Motel Cortez, probably just to get rid of the lunatic, though they were very kind. The next morning I walked to Walmart, and by then the host had sent clearer directions. The man helping me fell down the stairs, and the taxi that took me from the border was pulled over by police.

I called to ask about rates, but the woman on the phone wanted my personal details first. When I asked if she could give me the prices before that, she acted like she couldn’t hear me and hung up. I called again, and she did the same thing once she recognized my voice. Then my wife called, and the woman answered her just fine. When my wife asked why she hadn’t answered us earlier, she pretended not to hear and hung up again. Terrible service from the start. Don’t waste your time here.