La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Terre Haute

The rooms are clean and spacious, and the toilet is the taller kind, so you're not sitting down near the floor. There are plenty of hand rails. Breakfast was basic but good, and coffee is available around the clock.

The place is nice, clean, and well cared for, and the staff are helpful and friendly. Even the pool and gym areas, which often get overlooked in hotels, have always been really clean. The last few times, though, I've noticed some dust on the walls and nightstands. Most of the room is spotless, so I think those are just small spots that can get missed. The other recurring issue is the elevator. There are two, but only one works, and the other still hasn't been fixed on any of my visits. When the hotel has big sports groups, the wait can be long. To their credit, they keep the working elevator clean throughout the day, something other places often overlook.

The room looked fine when I walked in, but I would check it carefully. My sheets had nasty bodily fluids and hair stuck to them. It was late and the hotel had no other rooms. A very nice front desk clerk changed the sheets and apologized, then asked me to contact the manager Monday. I called that day, was told Destiny, the General Manager at the Terra Haute Indiana location, was in a meeting, and left a message. No one called back. When I tried again, she answered and argued with me. She said she wouldn't do anything and that I should have checked out if I didn't want to sleep there. I was traveling away from home and asked where I was supposed to go. I'm beside myself that the owner of this franchise thinks this is acceptable and wouldn't offer any credit. I travel all the time and haven't had an experience like this. I don't mind paying for the room, though as a business owner I wouldn't have charged my customer. That's not really the point. The standards seem very low and there's no accountability.

The staff were friendly, and the free breakfast was the best I've had in a while. Still, if the owner wants to earn more excellence awards, they need to put money into upkeep. Details matter. The room had a deadbolt that wouldn't engage and a flip lock with a loose screw. I haven't felt unsafe in a room for a while, but I did here. The mini fridge wobbled whenever I touched it, and its hinges were on the wrong side, so I had to mostly close the bathroom door to reach it. In the spacious corner room, the desk was right in front of the HVAC unit. I tried moving it, then realized there were no outlets where it would fit better. At first the hotel looked clean and modern, but broken things started to stand out. An exterior door was marked out of order, and only one of the two elevators worked. In the lobby I noticed their excellence trophies, but the dates on them were all several years old. The property isn't being maintained as it should be.