Comfort Inn Memphis Airport West

The place was very clean, from the parking lot through the lobby and into the rooms. Breakfast was fresh each day with several choices, and the hotel was accommodating when we needed to wait in the lobby for a room. They let us sit there and helped us check in as soon as one became available. Mesha was knowledgeable, patient and went above and beyond. I highly recommend her service. My one disappointment was receptionist Candace, who was rude and snobby. I bought two sodas at the store and was charged $5; the next morning, Management told me the drinks cost only a dollar.

I was happy with the stay overall. The room was clean and comfortable, and the interior rooms and lobby have been kept up to date even though the building itself shows its age. My only complaint was the old AC unit. It did blow cold air, but not much, and it took forever to get the room even halfway comfortable. Everything else looked new and modern. There aren’t restaurants right by the hotel, though there are quite a few restaurants and fast food places nearby. Downtown and Beale St. are about a 15-minute drive away.

The room looked clean, but the place smelled bad. I woke up with no electricity and first thought I’d forgotten to put my key by the door. It turned out the whole place had a brownout, according to the front desk. There’s no vending machine. For drinking water, you have to go to the front desk, get a key to a small room with a fridge, and pay $1. One night here was enough for me.

The room felt dingy and rundown, and there were problems everywhere. We had K-cups but no coffee pot. The mattress was rock-hard, so they’d put an undersized, tacky pillow-top pad beneath the fitted sheet, and it didn’t cover the bed. The king bed had five small throw pillows instead of king-size pillows. Only one bulb worked in the vanity light, making hygiene difficult, and there were visible holes in the wall around the shower grab bar. The room phone gave a fast busy signal every time I tried to call the front desk, so I had to use my cell. Staff seemed unfazed that the internal phones didn’t work. When I brought down the remote for batteries because it had stopped working, they gave me a new remote. The TV picture was stretched, and none of the setup options fixed it. We chose this location for being near downtown Memphis, having stayed at other Choice brand hotels without trouble. That convenience was the only good part. We waited over 10 minutes at the counter for a staff member to show up, just before the 3 p.m. check-in time. We even had time to find and use the restroom and return before anyone came. The hallways were depressing, with stained first-floor carpet that looked years past cleaning or replacement, plus bleach stains outside several rooms. The chemical smell was so strong we found ourselves looking for a pool that wasn’t there. When I asked for local restaurant ideas, the front desk rep offered nothing. There were no vending machines, and the poorly stocked “pantry” had only canned sodas and microwave pizzas. Nobody told us it existed; I found it while looking for a snack. At 6 a.m., the breakfast chairs were still stacked on the tables, so guests apparently had to set up the dining room themselves. The staff clearly don’t care about anything beyond their paychecks. How this franchisee still has a license agreement with Choice Hotels is beyond me. It was miserable from start to finish, and when we return to Memphis, we will NEVER stay here again.