Americas Best Value Inn

The night was quiet, which was nice, and I'd put the stay at about 3.5 stars. I was there for just 24 hours and had to wait 10 minutes outside because the door was locked and the desk clerk hadn't come. I thought paying by credit card meant the deposit would be waived. The area didn't feel especially safe, so I got away from the neighbors for a day to avoid drama. There was only one towel for drying off, no shower curtain, and although a coffee pot was advertised, I couldn't find one.

The price was decent, but the place is in a rougher stretch of Central Avenue, and there were quite a few people who looked sketchy and seemed to be living there long term. One of them was actually very friendly. Stay at your own risk. The unsettling part was water dripping through one section of the ceiling whenever someone upstairs showered.

I regretted choosing this place for a last-minute stay. The blankets had holes, the room wasn't clean, and the hotel is clearly run down. Even at the sale rate, I felt ripped off since other Days Inns around town cost about the same and were infinitely nicer. The front desk was unusually slow, and with no uniforms or name tags, I still don't know whether the people who helped me were staff. I'd heard the area had cleaned up compared with older reviews, and it did seem less bad than I expected. Still not great, though the sketchier-looking people I saw were friendly. I thought there were no bedbugs, but then found one in my car after the stay. Never mind, literally everything was bad.

The fridge and microwave worked, and the bathroom seemed okay, though I didn't look closely at the tub. I checked for bedbugs like I do everywhere and didn't see any. Everything else about the room was a mess. The light switch didn't work until my boyfriend screwed the bulb in, and then we found pillows tossed around with no cases, a huge red-brown stain on the comforter, and clear stains across the sheets. There were crumbs on the poorly swept floor. The outlet behind the bed was hanging out of the wall, the TV wouldn't turn on and we couldn't find its remote, and the heater made a horrible high-pitched noise all night. It was too cold to turn the heat off. We arrived late and had to stand in line for someone to unlock the lobby door and check us in. It was 15 degrees and we waited 20 minutes, probably longer for those ahead of us. The woman who finally came was really friendly and checked us in quickly. The hotel's close to downtown, so the sketchy surroundings were about what we expected. We definitely got what we paid for.