OYO Hotel San Antonio East

I booked this place for the pool, but it was empty while they remodeled damage, and the hallways were filthy. The tubs were worse. The first room had mud in the tub, so I asked the front desk for a different room. Management apologized and said she’d been away from work for a month. She said the next room should be clean, but the tub was dirty too. I could rub my finger on it and pick up dirt. I suspect the cleaning chemicals they use may be cheap. There were signs everywhere about rules, round-the-clock surveillance, and getting a website refund verified by phone. You also had to come to the desk within 10 minutes to get the refund. I was calling the website to check whether a refund was possible, because if it wasn’t, I’d have to stay. Management said I shouldn’t have called and could have cleaned the tub for me. I’d already asked them to clean the first room, but I didn’t want to waste either of our time when the room should have been clean to begin with. She authorized a refund for the second night, not the first, and said I couldn’t stay that night because I’d called the website and made her business look bad. She also threatened to bring someone to escort me. I wasn’t disrespectful until she said I couldn’t stay. I didn’t want to waste her time while I waited on the website to say whether I could get a refund. She accused me of lying, though the website could see I hadn’t been in those rooms for more than 10 minutes. I wasn’t going to bathe my toddler in a filthy tub. I thanked her for trying to work with me, but she seemed upset that I contacted the website. If the tub was good enough for management, apparently they thought it should be good enough for me. The place is run by her and her husband, I believe, and this new management is way over their heads. I also paid a $50 deposit. The room was untouched, and I returned the key and control, but I’m not sure I’ll get that money back. Time will tell. I got my full refund after they couldn’t reach the office.

For the money, it was just what I expected, and I’ll stay again. As an OTR driver, I found truck parking easy and plentiful, with lots of food options nearby. The manager was friendly, and the local residents never bothered me. It’s an older place, but clean and inexpensive. The mattress seemed newer, the shower was clean with plenty of hot water, and I never saw bugs. The AC could freeze me out, the TV and remote worked, there were lots of channels, the fridge was already cold, and all the lights and exhaust fan worked. My only real gripe was a cat pee smell.

The price was good and the staff were friendly. The guy who helped me was understanding, and I got a refund. The pool looked clean, though I didn’t stay to use it. The room, though, was tiny, dated, and had gnats. It was meant to have queen beds, but I don’t think both were queen sized. There were six of us and we couldn’t fit. The sheets and blankets were stained too. It might suit one person, a couple, or maybe a single night, but we needed it for three days.

We drove five hours to San Antonio and arrived around 2 a.m. The front desk attendant was unprofessional and rude, and didn’t know how to check me in or explain the OYO hotel cancellation policy. I was charged $20 for the TV remote, and as of 02/12/2022 it still hadn’t been refunded, despite many calls and promises from the front desk that it would be. The room was dirty, and the sheets smelled unwashed. I couldn’t imagine sleeping there, so I went across the freeway to ECONOLODGE and paid for another room. It was clean and neat, and the staff there were professional and helpful. I would not recommend OYO HOTEL to my family or friends. I gave it one star only because the screen wouldn’t let me move on without selecting a rating.