Days Inn by Wyndham East Windsor/Hightstown

This used to be where my family and my buddy's family stayed after a night at Six Flags. On our latest visit, we arrived after midnight following frightfest. I had requested a non-smoking room since neither my wife nor I smoke, but the gentleman put us on the third floor, where the room smelled of old and fresh smoke, plus marijuana. The room number signs made it clear there wasn't a no-smoking symbol there. It was too late to sort out, so we slept and spoke with the front desk the next day. He said smoking wasn't allowed upstairs. When I couldn't get anywhere with him, we went out. My buddy checked in later that night, and I asked again. The woman was more helpful and admitted I'd been assigned a smoking room. She didn't explain why the other two people hadn't fixed the mix-up, but she did correct it and make things right.

The heater wouldn't turn on, though both the wall unit and the thermostat across the room had power. The fridge barely got cold, so I left my pizza in the truck overnight, and there was a dead roach inside it. The bathroom sink handle took several tries to shut off, and one of the room lights was already out when I arrived.

A great spot to get away, though there's no coffee maker and not a thing nearby.

The price was reasonable, and we needed a pet-friendly hotel. There were plenty of places to walk the dog, but people often left messes on the sidewalk, and they weren't cleaned up. The hotel itself was always clean. The ice machine was broken, and one room smelled like someone had been smoking marijuana despite the no-smoking rule. People smoked right by the entrance too, ignoring the sign, and no one enforced it. That made things hard for non-smokers.