Sonesta Essential Hotels Odessa

The rooms are fine for an overnight stop by the highway, and the location feels pretty safe. The property used to be a Super 8 and only recently changed to the new one. It seems questionably maintained, though. The county health department has shut the pool and hot tub, and the elevator only goes up unless you press the first-floor button to bring it back down.

Please be careful if you stay here. The room was decent, but the sheet had lots of stains and the sheets weren’t changed daily. Breakfast was awful, cold, and the biscuits were rock hard, as if they were being reused to save money. The elevator didn’t work on my floor, there was no fitness center to speak of, and Ector County has closed the pool for health regulation reasons.

The room was average for what felt like an overpriced stay. Check-in was the real problem. They advertise as dog friendly, but the front desk man had never checked someone in with a dog and had to call his manager. The manager wanted to see papers proving my husband’s dog was a service animal and asked why my husband needed one. I’m not sure, but I think that was illegal. We complied with everything they asked, and eventually got a room. I’ve never been asked to prove our dog is a service animal before.

The rate shown probably isn’t what you’ll end up paying. I prepaid for a week, then extended my stay because my job was extended. I agreed to extend because they said they’d honor the prepaid rate, but the charges stayed pending instead of being processed. After checkout, once the payment went through, I’d paid about 25 more per night on average.