Comfort Inn Birmingham - Irondale

The front desk staff were awesome, and I needed somewhere close to the airport for my 6:45am flight, so the location worked well. The bed was comfortable. But the room was hot and smelled musty, maybe moldy, as soon as I walked in. I turned on the AC, but it only blew slightly cool air and kept shutting off every few minutes. The room never cooled down, so I had to sleep on top of the sheets. The room wasn’t cleaned or maintained well. There were scuffs and signs of wear, with mismatched paint and careless repairs that looked like a landlord special. A dead bug was in the ice bucket. The ironing board was stained and covered in mold, and the shower needed a thorough cleaning and repair. The shelf was broken too.

We had a clean and comfortable stay, and breakfast was good before we had to head home. The carpet was still damp from being freshly shampooed, but since we needed an accessible room, we didn’t switch. The manager quickly sorted it out by putting a high-powered fan in the room, and the floor dried fast. My husband and I had booked two nights, but a medical emergency right after we arrived meant we could only stay one and had to go straight back home. It was a really distressing situation. When we explained it to the front desk clerk, she was incredibly kind and made sure we wouldn’t be penalized for canceling the second night. If we get the chance to visit Irondale again, we’d happily stay at this Comfort Inn.

Breakfast was decent, with hot eggs and turkey sausage on the day I was there, and the room itself was nice. I arrived late and got a greeting from the front desk, though despite having a reservation I felt they were unsure I belonged there. I only had time to sleep, shower, and grab breakfast before leaving. It felt like a typical Comfort Inn, in a handy spot and fine for a midrange stay. I’d come back if the prices don’t keep climbing.

The beds and pillows were the best part, genuinely comfortable, and breakfast had a fair number of choices: waffles, eggs, bagels, toast, and sausage. The sausage I got was hard and seemed old, though. The hotel is listed as three stars, but much of it felt closer to two. Floors were dirty, and there were cracks, carpet holes, a missing closet doorknob, doors that didn’t work right, and damage to walls and frames. The pool was closed in mid-July, which disappointed our kids. Service could have been better, though nobody was especially rude. For one night the comfortable bed and okay breakfast earned three stars, but for a longer visit I’d want more attentive staff and cleaner floors.