Ramada Topeka Downtown Hotel and Convention Center

The whole hotel smelled like smoke and mold, and our room stayed around 80 degrees all weekend because there’s no AC in any of the rooms. Another family on our team left over the same problem. We stuck it out, which was a mistake. The place is old and rundown, and the elevator was terrifying. There’s even a sign warning people not to move or it could break down. They keep replying to reviews that renovations are underway, but I didn’t see any work happening. I’ve never been this unhappy with a stay. You can’t charge people to sleep in those conditions. Don’t stay here.

The room was comfortable, the bed was good, and the bathroom was clean. Breakfast was great, too. But the building feels forgotten. There were leaks and a water-damage smell, mold on the laundry-room Sheetrock, and missing panels with Sheetrock leaned against the openings and screws left on the floor where a child could pick them up. The exercise room was a joke, and the awning by check-in was sagging and leaking. The North tower elevators didn’t work, so we had to use the service elevator. I heard someone say they’d been that way for three years. See my pictures for proof.

The location is great if you’re comfortable with homelessness and a generally sketchy area. The rooms were awful, with terribly uncomfortable beds, mediocre breakfast, and AC that didn’t work. They gave us a box fan, then moved us after the room got above 80 degrees on the second day. The elevators were also janky and under modernization.

The new construction in the lobby looks nice, but everything else feels old. Our room, 449, was very dated and didn’t match the reviews on their website. I woke up and found a lot of black mold around the window. Since the building is being modernized, we had to take the service elevator to get upstairs.