Americas Best Value Inn Historic Clewiston Inn

We’d definitely come back. It’s an older hotel, which gives it some character, but it also gets the basics right: the room was clean, the bed was comfortable, and the shower was great.

The room seemed unfinished and wasn’t ready for guests. There was no mirror in the bathroom, water sitting in the tub, and a springy bed. The mirror in the room had no desk beneath it, which made putting in my contacts difficult. There were hardly any usable outlets: none in the bathroom, one single wall outlet, and a six-plug strip with burn marks powering the fridge, TV, and microwave. The air conditioner used another multi-plug, but I couldn’t reach it to plug in a lamp or our devices. The TV wouldn’t turn on, even though the remote batteries were in backwards, and the room smelled bad. Outside the window was a pile of garbage, and the exit door right by our room didn’t lock. Our entry card also wouldn’t scan, so we had to ask for help. The desk staff spoke Spanish while we were trying to check in, then switched to English when they needed to speak with us. When we asked for help, the woman smirked and said it was the manager’s first day. Later, there was nobody at the desk. A maintenance man was sent, but he couldn’t fix anything. Very unhappy.

I ended up changing my plans for the Florida trail because I couldn’t get the hotel to restore my reservation. I’d booked through Orbitz, then accidentally tapped “cancel” while trying to review my stay. The cancellation was nonrefundable because it was already two hours past the refund cutoff. Orbitz called the hotel to ask them to reverse it, but the front desk agent said a manager would need to decide whether to refund the charge or make a new booking, and that could take 48-72 hours. My stay was only 24 hours away, and they wouldn’t waive the fee or rebook even though I’d already paid and they had my money. Now I’ll have to contact my credit card company, because this should count as fraud. After reading the reviews, maybe it worked out for me in the end: people describe a fleabag motel with bedbugs and roaches. Yuck!

The old building carries sound through its ducts, especially between the upstairs and downstairs rooms. Earplugs made a big difference. The rooms are simple, like another reviewer said, and I got by using the nightstand since there wasn’t a desk.