Motel 6 Albany, NY

The hallway smell is something I won’t forget: old lasagna mixed with cigarettes. If you’ve been there, you know what I mean. At least the room smelled only of cigarettes, without the old lasagna. I also got the impression that some people lived there. I’m not judging since I don’t know the arrangements, but it felt a bit like an apartment doubling as low-income housing, so keep that in mind. I stayed in August 2024 and came back to read the reviews and laugh. They’re funny because it’s all true. People will read them and think, “It can’t be that bad!” I did, too. The man at the desk offered to show me the room before I booked, which should’ve been my first warning. I didn’t bother, but understood why once we got there. The towels were dirty, every surface was sticky and unwiped, and the shower soap had already been opened and left used on its wrapper. There were chips in the windowsill and hair all over the sink and tub. Luckily I had a blanket in my car and draped it over the bed. We slept on top of it without anything to cover us, but that felt better than touching the sheets. I’m sure they hadn’t been changed.

Roaches were so bad they kept us awake. Room 224 on 9/29/25 had blood stains everywhere, even on the more-than-half-used toilet paper roll. The bath towel and washcloth were dirty from the previous guest, and the floors looked like they hadn’t been mopped in months. Housekeeping doesn’t clean or replace tissue. I told the front desk, but they didn’t care and refused a refund. The rooms are nasty, so I’m telling everyone to stay away.

One of the worst places I’ve stayed. It reeks of smoke, things are falling apart, and the service was terrible. There was hair in the shower and on the bed, the floor was dirty, and the towels had dirt and hair on them and hadn’t been properly washed. I couldn’t find a washcloth, so I had to ask for one since the phone didn’t work. The staff member didn’t even apologize. It’s a high price for what you get, and there were roaches, too.

It’s cheap and conveniently located just off the highway, near Amtrak and a grocery store where we could get hot coffee. Our room had a microwave and mini fridge, though the fridge had condensation all over its inside back wall. The room was quiet enough, but we won’t return. The hallway smelled of smoke. The bare floor stayed damp, maybe oily, through both nights even with the AC running and the room at a reasonable temperature. The towels never dried. We were four people and had only two skimpy, dingy towels with an odd feel, one set that seemed to be a bath towel and hand towel. At check-in I asked for more. The staff member said they were in the dryer and he’d call, but he didn’t. I asked again the next day and got two towels. When I asked for three because the others were still damp, he said “later” and never brought more. There was no shampoo, just two small bars of soap. The ice machine didn’t work. The windows wouldn’t open, and the screen wasn’t intact. The bathroom floor wasn’t cleaned well: toilet paper used in the corner behind the door turned black quickly. The walls and tub/shower were worn, the bathroom fan rattled loudly, and the AC filter needed cleaning.