La Quinta Inn & Suites Pasadena North

The owners, a couple of young guys, gave me a warm welcome and worked out a great price with me. They were friendly and professional throughout. The rooms are clean, comfortable, and well maintained, and it’s easy to park here. The property has recently been remodeled, and you can see the effort that’s gone into it. A few small finishing details are still being taken care of, but they didn’t affect my comfort. I’m staying at this La Quinta by Wyndham in Pasadena now and have had a great experience. It’s a solid place in Pasadena, Texas, and I’d stay again.

We finally got to our room at 2 AM, and it smelled moldy and had no shower curtain. My husband went down to let the front desk know so we wouldn’t be charged for the missing curtain, and because showering would be inconvenient. The clerk snapped that it wasn’t her fault. Nobody had blamed her. I wasn’t expecting housekeeping in the middle of the night, just for her to note the problem and help us figure it out. She kept arguing instead of trying to solve anything. Getting a room for my daughter was a struggle, too. I asked for another room and was told there were no more queens. I said she’d take whatever was available, but the clerk tried to talk me out of room 218 because it was a handicap room. It was 2 AM, and we needed a room. She quoted $118. While we were still standing right in front of her, my daughter saw she couldn’t move money into checking through her banking app. I offered to move the money for her and turned to confirm the amount, including the $50 incidentals. The clerk confirmed $118, so I moved $170. She charged my card $190 and didn’t tell me. I had to ask for a receipt, but the printer was broken. She took my email address when I asked her to send one, but 13 hours later I still hadn’t received it. I only learned the charge was $190 by asking how much she’d charged. The website listed $94 plus fees, or $118, for the room, so I still don’t know what the extra $20 was for. Our original check-in was a mess as well. We’d prepaid through a third party, but she insisted we hadn’t, even after we showed the receipt. We stepped aside to contact the booking group and let her help the people behind us. I overheard them say they’d expected two queen beds but were assigned one, and that their large family couldn’t fit. Instead of helping, she argued until they suggested extra pillows and blankets to sleep on the floor. They also asked when the elevator would be fixed, saying they stayed there often and it had never worked. She argued that it had only recently broken. She could have given them an estimate or said she’d take it to her manager. By the time my husband got through to a booking representative, she called us back and said the payment issue had fixed itself after she refreshed her screen. I suspect she’d missed the page showing we’d paid. Then she initially refused my card for incidentals because it didn’t match my husband’s ID. I asked if I could show my ID too, and she eventually took both. The other guests said the elevator wasn’t working, and the room smelled of mold. We also had to deal with the missing shower curtain and the unexplained extra charge. Don’t stay here if you need an elevator, are allergic to mold, don’t want to sleep on the floor, or expect the front desk to work through problems.

The whole hotel smelled moldy, and our room had visible mold. We also saw cockroaches in the bathroom and throughout the living area. The elevator was out of order, apparently for years. There was evidence of a leak that hadn’t been fixed, with a poor paint job over it. Even the trash cans were held together with duct tape, and the side doors didn’t lock. The carpets everywhere were very dirty, and the food tasted awful, including watered-down juice. The TV only had the smart channels that came with it. This rundown place doesn’t feel like a La Quinta. I wouldn’t come back with my family.

I found a bed bug in the bed after showering and getting in. I took it to the front desk and asked to check out and get a refund. They said that wouldn’t be a problem, but I spent the next week calling to reach a manager. When I finally did, they refused the refund because the room had been “used.” I’d been there for an hour and showered with my own soap since none was provided. I still don’t understand what counted as used. I just want my money back. The room I was first booked into was on the second floor, but the elevator was broken, so I was moved. The new room smelled of chemicals, which they seemed to cover with a plug-in air freshener. Along with the bed bug, there were smelly rooms and rusty showers. I’d give zero stars if I could. No refund.