Vagabond Inn Buttonwillow I-5

The room was very clean, especially for a pet room. I’ve updated my rating from one star to three after talking with the manager, Mr. Patel. He was out of town when this happened but got in touch as soon as he returned. We discussed the issue, and he plans to have the whole staff complete Best Western ADA service dog education. I believe Mr. Patel will oversee the training and make sure this doesn’t happen again. I travel with a service dog, which is listed in my Best Western membership account. The front desk woman was extremely rude and told me I had to take a second-floor pet room. I said the ADA doesn’t allow that, but she insisted it was legal because later guests might have dog allergies. I explained that the ADA covers that situation too. I also told her the stairs are difficult with my disability, but she still insisted she was right. I couldn’t travel any farther, so I took the room and hoped I wouldn’t have a medical event. I contacted her manager, told him the policy was illegal, and sent him the ADA page about service animals. I travel often with my service dog and have usually chosen Best Westerns and Holiday Inns because they’ve treated me well.

The grounds were clean, and there was good parking. I slept well, too. I expected highway noise because of the location, but I barely noticed it, which surprised me given the nearby truck stop and highway. I’ve experienced a lot worse.

The breakfast was all cold options and so awful that we didn’t eat anything. For gluten-free food, the only option was a stale packaged chocolate muffin. There was literally nothing else we could eat. The room was bare-bones motel style, and the highway next door made it very noisy. Worst hotel stay since a Motel 6 more than 20 years ago.

It was very noisy, with people hanging outside their rooms and heavy footsteps from the room above. When I raised it with the woman at the front desk, she said I had to give the people returning from the race track time to settle in. The other thing my wife and I noticed right away was the horrific smell of cleaning products. We left the door open for about an hour and ran the ceiling fan when we arrived, but the odor was awful.