Days Inn by Wyndham Ashland

We’d stayed here several times before, about four times a year on trips to Florida, and it had been fine. This last night was disappointing. We booked our usual room, but the refrigerator was filthy with melted ice cream left by a previous guest. A very nice staff member moved us to another room, but it clearly hadn’t been cleaned either. It was thick with dust, and I cleaned the filthy AC myself. We were exhausted, so we stayed, but woke in the night to bugs crawling everywhere. A plug near the sink was shorting out, the bathroom light barely worked, and there was no hot water in the shower. The ceiling had brown water stains, the flooring was loose, and the room looked like it may have flooded. It needs a complete overhaul. The downstairs ice machine was unplugged, so my 76-year-old husband had to carry a cooler up the stairs, a safety hazard. The entry doors were all dirty too. Not a good look.

The room was filthy and falling apart. There were roaches, and black gunk was visible in the vents of the moldy AC and heat unit. Breathing that all night felt like a health hazard, not a budget stay. The worn shower and tub looked poorly maintained, the curtain was coming down, and fixtures were literally pulling away from the wall. A gap around the door could let bugs or who knows what else in. There was also a random hole cut for an outlet, as if someone started a repair and quit. At night, the lobby is locked with a bicycle chain because the doors are broken. That says plenty about how the place is run. Stay somewhere else. This isn’t just no-frills, it’s dirty, broken, and unsafe.

Clean, comfortable, and budget friendly, with a great location a few blocks off I-95 at Exit 92, about 20-25 minutes from downtown Richmond, VA. There are restaurants, shopping, and auto and truck services nearby. If you’re expecting everything to be perfect at this price, this might not be the place for you.

The Days Inn in Ashland is behind an abandoned building, next to a construction site. When we entered the room, we found at least five roaches. The door didn’t latch unless you pulled it tight, and homeless people would try to come in. There were cobwebs, and although the room was supposed to be non-smoking, it smelled strongly of cigarettes. A faulty switch by the sink caused the coffee pot to make the microwave lose power. After a major storm, they waited a few days to plow the parking lot, then piled the ice into the parking spaces. Avoid it.