Western Motel

I needed an inexpensive place to sleep while waiting for my flight. The personal attention and service went beyond what I expected.

The room was clean, and the location was convenient for the university and bus. I was disappointed there wasn’t a hot breakfast beyond pancakes. The laundry was across a very busy highway.

The breakfast area is also where you check in, and it’s so small that more than one family would have trouble using it at once. The room itself was dirty and smelled like cat. I paid $189, and after seeing it, I couldn’t stay there. The owner/manager knew I had a service animal, but after I checked in he said he didn’t have a queen double room for me. He tried to put me in a different wing where he also houses long-term residents who are down on their luck. I had to pay a $165 cancellation fee. I wouldn’t book ahead, and I’d stay here only as a last resort. The room I was assigned was at the back of the motel, away from the protected courtyard, with people hanging around nearby who made the area feel unsafe. Across Hwy 50, the Wyngate motel was $149 a night and seemed like a much cleaner, safer option, with updated rooms, a larger breakfast room, and a comfortable lounge.

Living in Unit 302 was a month of one complaint after another. Four of the five areas meant to be dorm rooms are 5 ft or less, and the room I stayed in was just over 4 feet tall. Its vent sat halfway up the wall and blew straight at the beds. When I complained, they covered it with a piece of cardboard. We went at least 7 days without water and had to call the landlord to get it fixed. Other times there was water but no hot water, so we had to keep calling. In 10-20°F winter weather, hot water matters. The heat also stopped working. The landlord blamed us, but a pipe turned out to be the problem. We spent a few cold days inside before getting electric heaters as a temporary fix, and the heating was eventually repaired. One bathroom often lost power, and plenty of bulbs around the house were out or missing. When I asked about it, the landlord said, “Why do you need so many lights? There’s enough.” The place wasn’t completely dark, but it could have been lit better. The bedspread was cut, as if a queen one had been altered for a twin, and had marks that looked like cigarette burns. As a J1 participant in Work and Travel, I know we get some of the cheapest housing, but I still expect basic accommodations and to be treated with respect. At the end, the landlord ignored both my contract and my friends’ contracts and tried to charge us $15 more per night. He was imposing prices we hadn’t agreed to and only told us when it was already too late, or after we contacted him.