Best Western Owego Inn

The front desk young man was friendly and helpful, so I went ahead and booked a room even though I’d noticed four employees outside smoking when I arrived. I travel a lot and have stayed in plenty of rough hotels, but the Best Western in Oswego, NY, was among the worst. Seeing the Best Western sign made me think my concerns might be misplaced. They weren’t. The place was absolutely filthy. The room had cracked or broken drywall in several places and walls with chipped or missing paint. The carpet looked as if it had never been cleaned, and many light fixtures were rusty and corroded. Some barely worked. The shower and tub had an alarming amount of black mold, and many tiles were cracked or broken. Noise kept me awake, too. The hotel is beside an Aldi grocery store, and around midnight to 2 a.m. workers were banging, laughing, and yelling on the loading dock for hours. When I asked the front desk, I got a blank stare and an “uh,” then was told nothing could be done. The next morning I drove about a block for fuel. The town looked dirty, decaying, and depressing to me, like a dystopian nightmare in the Allegheny Mountains. I’d say keep driving. There were other hotels about two hours east of Oswego. If Best Western sent someone to inspect this property, I think they’d take their name off it. It doesn’t meet the standards I’ve seen at their other locations.

We couldn’t find anywhere else to stay once we saw the room because the whole area was booked. I still wouldn’t recommend this place, and I’ll never return to BW. The bathroom was grimy: pee and pubes on the toilet, mildew in the shower, and broken, empty soap. We were given partial rolls of used toilet paper. Only one outlet worked. Breakfast ran short on items one day, with an hour of service still left. There was no service sticker in the elevator, and the fire extinguisher was expired. The place felt one small step above sleeping on the ground, with hospitality even worse.

There are plenty of places to eat nearby. Along with the usual fast food, including a short walk to McDonalds, Owego has some good restaurants. MJ’s is one to try. The hotel itself is inexpensive, quiet enough to sleep, and my room was clean. Staff were friendly and helpful. It’s also well placed, a fairly short drive from both Ithaca and Binghamton.

The Aldi loading dock is right beside the hotel, and it made my room on that side pretty noisy. I stayed two nights, and both times they were unloading a trailer around 10:00. It went on what felt like forever. I’d ask for a room on the other side.