La Quinta Inn by Wyndham El Paso Cielo Vista

The room was fine, and they fixed the TV quickly. Still, don’t stay in room 108. The tub was gross, stained and burned by cigarettes, and the faucet was coming off the wall. The water wouldn’t get hot enough to use comfortably. A closet knob was missing, there was nowhere to walk my dog, and the room was hard to find. The other rooms might be great, but this one wasn’t.

This was my third hotel in a week while working in El Paso. I liked my clean, remodeled room at the back of the property, and it was very quiet. It had a fridge, microwave, and hairdryer. The grounds were clean, there were no bugs in the room, and the TV worked with lots of channels, unlike the first two hotels I tried. Breakfast was good, with cereal, eggs, sausage, bagels, toast, yogurt, fruit, coffee, tea, and juice. The fridge door wouldn’t stay shut. A maintenance guy tried to fix it without success, so I wedged my heavy backpack against it and that worked fine. The front desk was superb when the manager was on duty. Otherwise it was run poorly. I understand it’s hard to find good, reliable help these days, and I didn’t mind that a few employees weren’t top notch. The maid who worked was professional and did a fantastic job. Most days she was the only one cleaning rooms, but she worked with a smile and attention to detail.

We used credit card points for one night, slept a few hours, then left right away. I told my wife we should have slept in the car instead. If you have a few extra dollars, book somewhere else, like the avid hotel next door. We had the same problems mentioned in the lower-rated reviews. It made me wonder whether every room was in poor shape, especially since the parking lot looked relatively empty when we arrived. I gave the review 4 stars because I thought it might be seen more easily.

I usually don’t write reviews, but I felt I had to this time. My 90-year-old mom was done with the first room: it had just two lights and still wasn’t bright enough, the plugged-in phone didn’t work, the fridge door wouldn’t open, and there was no microwave. She slowly shuffled to the front desk, and we got a “new” room that was a bit better. The fridge worked, the lighting was better, and there was a microwave with two outlets rigged onto its front. I think tape or plastic was covering the smoke detector. The beds were comfortable and seemed clean, and the woman at the front desk was helpful. But there have been bad reviews about these same troubles for months, so things should be better by now. Get better employees and contractors. It wasn’t worth the total of $80.