Residence Inn by Marriott Topeka

We got the room for $100, so it was a great value. The location isn’t great, and the $100 pet fee is above the $50-70 I usually pay. But the studio king was clean, with no stains or smells, and had a sofa that was actually a full sectional. There was a full kitchen, a small dining table, and a full-size desk, with plenty of room for comfort and multiple guests.

The internet is through a third-party company that asks for your room number and last name. Laptops don’t automatically take you to the page to enter those details, so bringing a laptop or Surface Pro is useless. The rooms are spacious, and there’s a hot tub in the pool area, which was the best part. The decorations could use an update. Staff and location were great.

I’m enjoying my stay, and the employees at Residence Inns are excellent as always. There are lots of places to eat and shop nearby. You can tell the property is older, and the room doors could definitely use some paint, lol.

For $175 a night, I walked into a rundown room with a bad smell and disgusting carpet. The couch had a lot of questionable stains, and the rollout bed had no mattress cover and a very dirty blanket. I went to the front desk, and the man said he’d have to find another clean blanket and bring it to our room. He never came. The pool had way too much chlorine, the hot tub didn’t work right, and the shower stream was so weak I could spit harder. Nasty!