Tru by Hilton Audubon Valley Forge

The mattresses felt too soft and sagged a bit, but the rooms were clean, with nice modern bathrooms. It's a small hotel, and the rooms aren't large. There are a pool and gym, and breakfast comes with the stay. The decor is bright, the staff are polite, and there's a good variety of restaurants and shopping nearby.

After checking out exhausted this morning, I can say this ruined our trip. They gave us some “points” that still haven't appeared, and nobody offered a refund so we could move to a clean hotel with working electricity. The front desk woman shrugged it all off. Please do yourself a favour and don't stay at fawlty towers. Craziest hotel experience I've ever had. We tried two rooms on the second floor before giving up. Both were filthy. In the first room, the bed and pillows were covered in black hair, and there were hair ties, food, a used tissue, and pieces of freeze-dried sweetcorn under the bed. It looked like whoever cleaned hadn't even tried. I've driven through six states in the last two weeks and stayed only with this brand, and this is the only one that hasn't cleaned its rooms. It was so disgusting I wondered whether they change the bedding at all when it looks okay. I didn't even want to touch anything, and it was going to be a rough night. The second room also had curly black hair all over the shower walls. Then I plugged something in, a fuse blew, and half the room lost its lights, power, and TV. The woman at the desk said there was “nothing they can do.” I guess when there's an electrical issue here, they don't call an electrician and guests are expected to sit in the dark. But the power suddenly got fixed after we called corporate and they told the hotel to sort it out.

For a budget hotel aimed at families, especially people traveling with pets, I thought it was a good stay. The rooms and bathrooms were clean, and everything was tidy and well maintained. The decor is simple and modern, with the basics you need for a short visit. Breakfast was decent, not a huge spread, but enough. I mostly eat oatmeal in the morning, and I appreciated that nuts and other add-ins were available. My main issue was the bedding. The sheets aren't cotton, and they built up a lot of static whenever I moved at night. The AC made the room feel very dry, which made that especially annoying and depressing for me. I rated this two-star hotel four out of five. Judged against other two-star hotels or chain motels, I might have rated it closer to five. This is just my honest take on a budget family stay. We did have a good time overall.

The filters in our room's AC were in great shape, which impressed me. I always check them when I arrive, since they're usually dusty enough that I have to clean them and spray the vents with Lysol. This time at Tru, they were already clean. We stayed for two nights, and the place was clean. Kids were running around for sports tournaments, so it felt lively, but people on our floor respected the quiet hours. Breakfast was okay. The rest was great, though hotels could do better with scrambled eggs. Don't hesitate to stay here, it's a great place.