La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Tulare

We had a confirmed Booking.com reservation for Christmas night, with our credit card details included and no check-in time specified. We arrived around 8 PM with my parents, tired and on a fully booked holiday night, only to be told there was no room and no card on file. That wasn't true: they later charged the card even though we never stayed. The first employee, a woman, claimed she'd called us, but we had no missed calls or voicemails, and she never apologized. A man came out afterward and was even ruder. When I explained my parents were tired, he repeated that there was “no card on file” and made no effort to speak politely or help us find another hotel on such a busy night. The staff were rude and unprofessional, and the hotel treated us terribly. I absolutely don't recommend staying here.

Outside, the building looks pretty normal, but the hallways on the way to the room were extremely dirty and worn down. The rooms and showers are dated and worn too. The “gym” has just two old machines, and the breakfast was the worst I've had at any stay. I don't know how this is a “3 star” hotel. It was worse than a motel, and a terrible experience. I don't know how La Quinta lets this building use its name. Whoever manages it needs to be fired. Read reviews and think twice before booking. Do yourself a favor and stay somewhere else.

There's a heavy foul odor as soon as you enter the lobby, and the exterior has some sketchy loitering by people who aren't guests. The hotel is being remodeled, but the mattresses in use right now are old and heavily stained. The front desk moved us to a different room, where the mattresses were even worse. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

The breakfast was very limited, and I couldn't get an answer about whether the spa worked. We brought our cat and got a pet room, but the platform bed had a gap underneath. She got stuck there, and when I freed her I found food and trash under and around the bed. I had to keep her harnessed and leashed on the bed all night so she wouldn't get back underneath. The room was dirty and worn, with broken things, stains on the chair and lampshade, and no wheels on the only desk chair, which was small, dirty, and worn out. The whole hotel felt tired and dirty. The staff were nice, but we canceled our return reservation. LaQuinta isn't what it used to be.