Travelodge Inn & Suites by Wyndham Albany

I’m not much of an internet person, so I mostly depend on word of mouth. If you need a quiet, inexpensive place with ample parking and friendly, helpful staff, this fits. The staff are glad to point out nearby amenities, which is useful before heading out. There are plenty of places along Wolf Road and Central Avenue, and the hotel is close to Albany Airport with easy access on and off I-87. The nights are quiet, which makes a big difference when you have to get up for work at 5 a.m.

My boyfriend stayed here with his work team and talked to me on FaceTime about what he saw. The staff were great, but he said the hotel was a bad fit and the worst place he’d ever stayed. He complained of a bad smell, an unclean bathroom, loud noise, and a rug in the first-floor hallway that looked awful. He said the place looked like a low-budget hotel, smelled like weed, and he saw a roach. He also saw cleaning staff, but said the room still looked messy and smelled awful. He told me there was a bug problem, including bed bugs and roaches in rooms, and that the room wasn’t worth the money. Based on what I saw on FaceTime, I wouldn’t take the chance. I was worried he could bring bugs home, and I said the health department should check the place. Update: My boyfriend said things were even worse, with mice in rooms as well as bugs. I’ve contacted the people who needed to know about the mice, bed bugs, roaches, and other problems. From what he told me, the place was unlivable and no one should have to stay in those conditions.

My team and I were called to this hotel yesterday for a situation involving a very sick person. I can’t share why they were so ill. We repeatedly urged them to go to the hospital, but they refused because they were worried about an unpaid hotel bill and being kicked out. They kept saying they needed to go to the bank to pay it. I told them they could do that when they got back, but they were convinced they had to pay first. I asked to speak with the manager, but at first they wouldn’t let me. The manager said the bill had to be paid or the person had to leave. My team and I kept advocating as the person got worse and was in and out, not knowing what was happening. The manager repeated that this was an ongoing situation, that the person was always sick, and that if it wasn’t paid they had to go. Eventually the manager came back and said, “Just take them, just take them,” adding that they didn’t want this on their conscience. I understand the manager has a job to do and may have felt their job was on the line, but I couldn’t believe there was so little concern for the person’s health. The manager also said they couldn’t discuss the patient’s details, though the person had given permission for them to talk. We even urged the person to go to urgent care, but they still wouldn’t. We asked how they’d get to the bank, and the manager said they would take them, but their own manager didn’t want them in her car in case they passed out. I stayed quiet. My team member asked the manager to stop discussing the person’s medical situation in front of others. I’ve worked for years and never seen anything like it. I worried all night about whether the person was okay and got proper care. I hope they’re safe. I also called the hotel the next day to ask whether we could pay their bill as a Christmas present. I couldn’t give their name, and nobody answered when I called yesterday. I don’t know whether the bill was paid or if they got treatment or went to the hospital. Could someone at the hotel let us know? We don’t want them out on the street in the cold. I hope no one else gets sick here.

I spent 12 nights in room 147, from 9.2.25 to 9.13.25, and it was a nightmare. The room smelled musty and moldy, gnats kept flying around with no relief, and I saw three roaches during the stay. A plumbing accident in the hallway created such a foul odor that the cleaners tied towels over their faces. The smell reminded me of a decaying corpse and seeped into my room. It was a disaster. The exterior looked run down, the furnishings were old and worn, and there seemed to have been multiple sewage and plumbing problems. The wifi was so bad I wouldn’t count on getting online work done. I’d avoid room 147 and nearby rooms, because the embedded odors seem like they’d take a complete teardown to fix. The front desk staff seemed unprofessional and uninformed. They wore street clothes without name tags and didn’t identify themselves. When I booked at the front desk on Wolf Rd, the woman with short dreads said they didn’t offer AARP discounts. Wyndam told me that wasn’t true, and the travleodge by wyndam site says AARP members save 15%. It seemed they didn’t know how to apply the discount, so they said they didn’t accept it. That same staff never told me about the Wyndam rewards program and its perks and points toward free nights, which would’ve been good to know for a 12-night stay. They also didn’t mention complimentary breakfast or a fitness gym. Another staff member who wears a burqa was rude when I asked for towels and garbage bags, since I’d had no housekeeping for my whole stay. She said, “I’m not walking all the way to get that,” then went to a nearby closet to look for things. I said never mind, went to Hannaford to buy my own garbage bags, and used my own towels. One person who was kind and helpful was the manager, Tara, but she works the day shift, and the other staff come in later. On my last night I called the desk for my confirmation number so I could get retroactive wyndam reward points. The overnight desk worker, a young woman, first said she didn’t have it. I reminded her there had to be a record of the booking, and she did her due diligence and gave me the confirmation number. I hope she sees this and understands why I was impatient by then. I’d had it with travelodge by wyndam. My stay was a nightmare. -g.l