Best Western Shelbyville Lodge

We booked four nights in a king room. At the desk, the woman handed us keys without mentioning that all their king rooms were upstairs. It was the end of June, the hallway was hot, and our room was at the far end of the second floor. There was no elevator, and my husband has back and ankle problems that make stairs difficult. The room smelled musty, the floors were VERY uneven, and a bathroom bulb flickered. The bed was one of the hardest I've ever lain on. We were tired from the drive and it was too late to change plans, so we tried to make it work. A $50 egg mattress from Walmart didn't help. We got only about an hour of sleep in four hours, and my back hurt so much I could barely walk. I had to walk outside for a few minutes to feel better. We decided to find another hotel and check out before 10:30am so we'd only pay for one night. When we asked about changing rooms, the woman said there were no king beds on the ground floor, only on the second floor. She didn't say none were available downstairs, which mattered later. In the morning, we told the man at the desk what was wrong. He said they did have a king room on the ground floor and went to check if it was ready. My husband and I looked at each other, remembering what the woman had said. He returned and invited us to see the room. It was a complete 180, much nicer than the dump we'd been in, but the bed wasn't much better, and I was already upset, so we checked out. For the unused nights, the man said the computer system updated everything at 4am, so he'd have to charge us for two nights instead of one, even though checkout was 10:30 and we'd left before then. We didn't have the energy to argue, so we accepted the loss and left. We now joke that it's the Crappy Western, not the Best Western. I rated the hotel one star and service two. I would've given service one, because the man still only refunded two nights instead of three and kind of creeped me out, but he was trying to help somewhat, and the woman's lie wasn't his fault. A few hours after arriving at our new hotel, we went outside to dry off after using its indoor pool, which really helped our backs recover. We saw the man we'd spoken with at the desk drive around the hotel and leave without stopping. I have no idea why he drove by, especially as our hotel was tucked into its own little area off the main road, but it was definitely creepy.

After being out all day, my partner and I came back and found bedbugs in our room. We went to the front desk to raise it discreetly, but the person working became combative and said, “Well, you guys have been in there all day.” The bedding also had stains when we got the room; we took pictures, but when we showed the woman, she acted like we'd made them. She gave us a weird attitude. We had moved the bed to check and found bedbugs, so they should be very concerned. I tour for a living and have stayed at hotel after hotel without bedbug issues. My apartment building is bedbug-free too. How could I suddenly have brought them in? I think I would've noticed by now, and I don't have much luggage. Just rude and weird. My partner booked the hotel for $83, but they made him pay $150 in cash to stay in the room. A very weird, shady place. It sucks because this was one of my only days off work until March.

We asked for a change through the third-party site while the change window was still open. The hotel ignored its communications, then waited until the window had closed to contact the site and say they wouldn't make the change. The hotel is greedy and doesn't put that money back into the property. If they don't understand that travel plans can change, they're in the wrong business. I'll look for better hotels for my four rooms next time. I attached the third-party site's email as proof the hotel ignored its messages.

Getting to and from the highway was easy, and there was a gas station nearby ⛽️. The staff were friendly, the place was extremely clean, and breakfast was hot and decent. I'd definitely stay here again.