King Oscar Motel

I almost never leave a bad review, but this is the first hotel where I checked out within minutes of checking in. The woman at the desk in a construction trailer was really nice, understood why I wanted a refund, and gave me one. That was the good part. Three of the four buildings are being renovated, while the fourth hasn't been touched yet. The floor was greasy when I walked in, the furniture was sticky, and someone was smoking right outside my door. I booked another place, Cozy Inn, and it was much nicer. I suspect King Oscar will be a lot nicer once renovations are finished.

I thought the $150 covered a smoke-free room with air conditioning, pool and hot tub access, and an in-room jetted tub. Instead, I got a tiny room that was 85 degrees with no AC, smelled like it had recently been smoked in, and had no pool or tub at all. When I called to complain, they said there was nothing they could do. I was doing the Seattle to Portland bike ride, and sleeping so uncomfortably was awful after riding over 100 miles, especially with another day of the same ahead.

We paid for a queen bed, AC, a pool, and a hot tub, but got none of them. On Saturday I asked to move to a room with working AC and was told every unit was broken. The staff couldn't help and never apologized, saying it wasn't her fault. The room had no phone, and cable and internet worked Friday but not for the rest of the weekend. Easily my worst motel stay. Don't stay here.

After two weeks of paying on time, I was treated terribly. I worked in hospitality, and this was the worst customer service I've experienced. When I asked about compensation for being locked out of the room I'd paid full price for, the desk worker seemed offended and blamed me for not asking for a second key. She said I might not have this problem if I'd returned all my door cards on time. She also brought up not charging a pet fee for my service animal, then said I'd been paying that fee the whole time. When I tried to pay for another night, she added the fee again. I stopped counting the money, laughed, and said I'd go pack. I'll be contacting the Better Business Bureau. The lock batteries died after a late-night trip to the nearby gas station. The night worker said she couldn't fix it until the day shift, but gave me a key to another room so I wouldn't freeze. That room smelled like an empty pickle jar. When I stepped out to smoke and shut the door, its lock was dead too. My keys were in my original room, so I couldn't reach my car. I searched the construction site, found a homemade 2x4 ladder, and climbed up the wall and through my open second-floor window. Other problems were the freeway roar, construction for 16 hours a day, six days a week, Wi-Fi that barely worked, and rooms with smells and broken things. I could put up with those and the other issues with the rooms and their advertising, but the lockout and how staff handled it were too much.