Rainbow Motel Hastings

For a budget stay at around $45-55 a night, I found it satisfactory. I’ve stayed at Rainbow several times over a few years, in at least four rooms, and they’ve been pretty consistent: each had a refrigerator, microwave, and small widescreen TV. The rooms and bathrooms were sufficiently clean, and I never encountered bedbugs. It’s not high-end, but that would cost at least four to six times as much per night. Within weeks of my last Rainbow stay, I tried a Motel 6 in the same region. It was clean, but cost $20 more and had neither a refrigerator nor microwave, so I thought it was poorer value.

The management was horrible. The man charged different people different prices for the same pay period, rented out rooms while people were still living in them, and booted doors. That ended our stay. On our last rental day, we were out of town when he called and repeatedly showed up demanding money. When we asked to get our things and leave, he wouldn’t open the door unless we paid a $40 fee. He said it was for the overnight stay, even though we’d slept in my car because he had booted the door the night before. We paid just to get our belongings, and we’ll never stay here again. The rooms are disgusting, outdated, and full of bugs, especially bedbugs, and the lot feels shady. Police showed up more than five times while I was there. Drugs, drinking, and illegal activity seem unsurprising in the area. Nobody should stay here. This place should be out of business.

The owner walked me to my room to make sure it was okay, and the hospitality was great. The building’s older, but the bed was comfortable and the furnished room had a welcoming feel you don’t get at chain hotels. At this low price, it was an amazing value.

I was relieved to leave and find somewhere else to stay. The room was filthy, the lights didn’t work, the TV was broken, and the A/C didn’t cool. The towels and pillows were extremely dirty. I didn’t touch the beds, but they looked like mattresses on the floor, without box springs. The showerhead was a broken mouthwash bottle. I’ve never walked into a room and nearly thrown up, but this one almost did it. Next door, men in trash bags and taped-up jeans were clearing out a room, spraying for bugs and pulling up all the carpet. Our room connected to it through a boarded-up doorway with a gap. There was a roach on the desk floor when we spoke to the staff. When I said I wasn’t staying, they asked what they’d done wrong. I said the place was dirty, and the man asked if I’d found bedbugs, then confirmed they had bugs. As I drove away, guests were opening garbage bags to put things in, and I saw a stack of dirty mattresses by the entrance that I hadn’t noticed at check-in. The photos online don’t show what you actually get. I was even debating sleeping in my car. Zero stars.