Quality Inn Lone Pine near Mount Whitney

We arrived after dark on a last-minute road trip from LA to Las Vegas by the scenic route, so we missed the chance to explore the area because we were on a schedule. The room looked out onto a field behind the hotel, where I was surprised to see hundreds of rabbits chasing each other around. The next morning, the snow-capped mountains out front were a real surprise too. I want to come back and see more of the area. The hotel itself was clean and nice for an affordable price. I'd recommend it to anyone staying nearby.

We stopped here for one night on the way to Mammoth over a holiday weekend. The rooms were clean and comfortable enough, but the night-shift guy seemed really uninterested and rude at check-in, which put a damper on things. There was loud upstairs construction, and nobody told us about it beforehand or while we were there. I'd come back if I had to, though I prefer the Best Western farther down the street.

The high-school group was on our floor, aside from our two rooms, and we had no warning or buffer from the noise. The teens were loud around midnight and didn't settle until close to 1 am. When I asked the night-shift staff about contacting the chaperones, I was told that wasn't how it worked; their only solution was to call the students themselves. The staff clearly hadn't been trained for this. After losing sleep, I got a $15 credit. What a joke.

We went two days without hot water. On the first morning, the water heater had broken, so we couldn't take a bath. Nobody kept us updated during the day or showed any concern, and there wasn't even an apology. That afternoon we still had no hot water. The woman at the desk said it was fixed, but staff were doing laundry, so maybe we could shower the next morning. She never said sorry. We'll never stay here again. She also kept asking intrusive questions about watching our children so they wouldn't sneak out of the room. They're 9, 13, 14 and 15. Where would they go in this sleepy town in 30-degree weather?