Holiday Lodge Appleton

There’s mold in the room and no smoke detectors. The pool is permanently out of order. Coffee is always cold, and the new staff don’t deliver your mail. If you need clean sheets and towels, you can wait as long as seven days.

The photos are edited and very misleading. The hotel looks run down and poorly maintained, with a really strong marijuana and mold smell in the lobby and halls that reached our room. Some guests seem to live here and smoke constantly. Our room wasn’t as bad, but there was still trash in the bin when we arrived, and the bathtub had mold, which made me wonder how well rooms had been cleaned over the years. They did something about the hallway odors the next day, but it seemed like they just covered them up with plug-in scents. One star overall.

My wife and daughter arrived late because they had to go straight to an event. My wife had left a message saying she’d be late, and I’d called the desk to confirm the check-in time wouldn’t matter. But when they got there, the reservation had been canceled and there were no rooms available. Never go here.

I booked online and called two days ahead to make sure my reservation was confirmed. We arrived later than I wanted, at 8 p.m., and found that the room I’d reserved had been given to someone else. Thankfully, I was traveling with my sister and she was okay sharing a bed. There was also a lingering nasty smell of smoke, even though hotels and motels went smoke-free a long time ago.