Hotel Inn Santa Fe

I lost the $80 for my non-refundable reservation and was glad to do so, because I was afraid to get out of my car. From where I sat, the neighborhood felt scary. I’m from a large urban area and consider myself pretty good at judging whether an urban area is safe, but I chose to leave and stay somewhere else. When I first arrived, I thought the property had been abandoned. There were weeds everywhere, the outside doors looked rusted shut, and I couldn’t find any sign showing where to register. As I sat in the car deciding whether to risk staying, I saw two people on bikes who appeared to be drug addicts pull up, then disappear, bikes and all, through a door at the back.

The room was stained, dirty, and smelled bad, and the property felt unsanitary. Outside, people were urinating beside the building, and there were drug users and other suspicious people around. We felt unsafe the whole time. When we asked for a refund, the front desk attendant didn’t seem surprised. I don’t understand the high rating, and we wouldn’t risk our family or belongings here.

The new owners seem like nice people and did what they could to make us comfortable. The rooms were reasonably clean and comfortable, though there’s no fridge, and the exterior is a little rough. It’s perfectly adequate for sleeping and showering, about on par with motels rated 3.5 to 3.8 in my view. I’m giving it five stars to raise the average, which was 2.9 when I wrote this. I hope the owners do well!

We booked one night at Hotel Inn Santa Fe at the last minute, knowing and expecting it to be a low-priced budget stay. Even so, this was far below what we expected. The hallway and room smelled like stale beer, a musty basement, weed, and yesterday’s goat curry. The listing photos may be from when this place was reasonable 30 years ago, but now it’s in serious disrepair and badly needs cleaning and basic maintenance. Stay somewhere else. Anywhere else. The room was listed as a standard queen, but the bed was full-sized. The sink and vanity counter and toilet looked shiny and new, but the tub was stained and rusty, and dripped all night. There was a wad of toilet paper behind the bathroom door, a clear sign it hadn’t been thoroughly cleaned. We were next to both the noisy ice machine and an exterior door to the parking lot that slammed all night. Before we even got to the room, the line of unhappy people in the lobby should have been a warning. They were asking for new rooms because of noise, and one person had been handed keys to a room that was already occupied. With few other options, we tried to be optimistic and took our keys. I’m not sure where people were going at 2, 3, and 4 a.m., but perhaps it was the same people who unsuccessfully tried to steal our bikes from the back of our vehicle in the parking lot.