Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham Ames

The location was the only real plus, and even that wasn’t much of a benefit with several other hotels nearby. We checked in Sunday at 4:30 pm, an hour and a half after check-in time, and found our first room had not been cleaned at all since the last guests. There was dirty bedding on the floor, trash, poop on the toilet, an opened half-used travel toothpaste, and a dirty shower. We told the desk, assuming it was a fluke and they’d move us. They did move us, and we quickly looked around before leaving to see family. When we returned, there were odd moldy spots along the outside bottom of the tub. The TV wouldn’t load anything, but we figured we could stream from our phones. Then we found blood and other unidentifiable stains on every bedding layer, from the comforter and sheets down to the mattress pad. The mattress cover had a lot of human head hair on it too. That was my breaking point. This was Room 126. At the desk, the woman was passive-aggressive when we explained the problems. We showed her the TV issue, and her fix was to watch channel 8 because that worked. She moved us to Room 112 and watched us inspect it before agreeing we could switch. The comforter on the bed by the window was stained. As we checked the other bed, she complained that we were pulling back the covers, saying they only deep-clean rooms once a month because they don’t have time, and that we’d find hair if we looked that far. When we asked when this room was last deep-cleaned, she first said this month, then, after we pointed out it was only January 4, changed that to sometime last month. We accepted a few hairs at the foot of the bed. The other bed was sort of okay. The TV still only loaded about a third of the listed channels, and she again told us to use channel 8. We bought a Roku and streamed to the TV using my phone’s Wi-Fi hotspot. Then my husband went to get breakfast and saw a roach run across the counter and under the toaster. When he lifted it, several more scattered in different directions. He told the man at the desk, who laughed and said he had to spray. We didn’t eat anything after seeing that. No one apologized for any of it. We were told it was housekeeping’s fault. The emergency exit was blocked with a piece of wood, and the microwaves and fridges in the rooms didn’t match the equipment shown in the online listings. I’ve stayed at many Microtel locations and never had anything this bad. I could have paid less to stay elsewhere with fewer problems. Dirty, blood-stained bedding, roaches around the breakfast, bad TV access, and unfriendly staff.

For such an inexpensive stay, the breakfast was decent. The rooms were clean, the lobby felt warm and welcoming, and the staff were kind and helpful. Good value for the money.

We were spending evenings at hockey games on the ISU campus, and the room was good and nearby. Historic Downtown Ames was also just a short drive away for things to do after the games. The main drawbacks were how hard it was to communicate with the site staff and that we didn’t feel welcome there.

I travel a lot, and this was the worst hotel I’ve ever stayed in. The staff were incredibly rude, and the room smelled like cigarettes, wet towels, or something along those lines. We woke up to ants all over everything, including in our bed. As we got up to leave the disgusting room, we saw what looked like vomit on the sheets by the side of the bed. It wasn’t from us. I’m horrified. When I asked for a refund, the front desk refused and said I’d have to wait for the owner to return from being out of the country. Do not go there!