Tru By Hilton Omaha I-80 at 72nd Street

There’s plenty nearby, including a bar, coffee, and hot dogs, and the rooms and lobby feel very modern. The service was friendly too. A hidden gem, and it’s connected to homes2 if you’re staying longer.

The beds were clean and really comfortable, and the hotel was nice and quiet. Breakfast was good except on my last day, Sunday, when everything from the eggs to the bacon was cold. I told the clerk, and she said she’d let someone know. Otherwise, I had a great stay.

The breakfast setup was excruciating. The line starts at the far end, where the dishes are, and the ten-person waffle line forms every morning. People kept bumping into each other and maneuvering around. You couldn’t just get a plate and sit down. It took about 15 minutes for food to be restocked piece by piece, so by the time you could put a full breakfast together, it was cold and I didn’t want it. On the second day, I was so stressed that I threw all my food away without taking a bite. There were problems with nearly everything. The English muffins seemed cut with a spoon and fell apart into random bits. The toaster didn’t toast, and the muffin pieces were so broken up that I couldn’t get them out. There was no butter for the pancakes, English muffins, or French toast. The hard-boiled eggs weren’t peeled, there was only one salt and pepper shaker for the whole place, and three-quarters of the oatmeal and yogurt toppings were always gone. Sandwiches couldn’t be made because they were often out of meat, egg, or cheese. When sausage was available, it didn’t look cooked. The ceilings are thin and loud, too. Toddlers upstairs sounded like a herd of buffalo starting at 5 a.m. on both mornings. The alarm clocks turned out to be preset for 6 a.m., and there are no buttons, so you end up ripping them out of the wall. The whole experience felt like it was set up to piss you off.

I liked the modern rooms and the shower, though some areas were poorly lit. Breakfast really wasn’t for me. There wasn’t much to choose from, and I couldn’t understand why food meant to be hot was sitting in pastry display cases.