This place is sketchy. So, so sketchy. My girlfriend and I were incredibly uncomfortable the entire time we stayed here - partly because they put us in the furthest back, smallest, darkest building on the lot. We requested a location nearer the lights and office, but - even though the place appeared mostly deserted except for some questionable folks hanging out on the rails all day - management refused. That should have been our first clue.
We booked through priceline and, upon checkin, management didn't have us sign anything, fill out anything, and they didn't give us any hotel information beyond what we received in our priceline email. That should have been our second clue.
Finally, when we arrived in our room, it was like something out of a horror movie. The stairs leading up to it were dark, crumbling, and littered with broken furniture. The door had dark red rust splotches all over it, and was installed in a weird way so that the lock would be useless (you could open it about 8" with the lock on, enough to slip your hand in and unlock it yourself). The curtains had a curious pattern of holes and red splotches - blood? We tried not to think about it. The AC didn't work, but emitted an awful grinding sound, and the bathroom light/fan combination squealed incessantly, a violent metallic sound. We ended up using our phone flashlights to light the bathroom to avoid it.
We received a confirmation email on booking that told us to check out by 1pm - which was, basically, the only good thing we'd learned about this motel. That's a late-enough checkout time for us to sleep in after 7 hours of driving the day before!
The next morning, we had housekeeping bang on our door at 11, and we shouted "come back later" several times as they kept banging. Eventually they heard us, I guess, and left.
Shortly after, housekeeping came banging again. They opened the door - it was locked, but as I said, you could still open it - and we tried to cover ourselves while shouting "come back later!" Then, the phone rang, I answered it - bewildered at all the attention - and the person on the other end asked, "will you be checking out today?" "Yes!" "Okay." And then hung up.
Shrugging, I got back in bed, only to be woken up again twenty minutes later by more banging.
My girlfriend picked up the next phone call - the manager. "Why haven't you left yet?" "...because we have another hour until checkout?" "Checkout was at 11." "Well - what? I have an email right here that clearly says 1pm." (we double checked. Yep, 1pm) "Get out of the room." "You just woke us up, we'll be out as soon as we can but we still need to pack." "If you don't leave the room, I'm calling the police." "Why would you call the police? There was no way for us to know that your email was incorrect." "There are placards in the room." (we looked around) "No... there aren't." "There are placards in the room. I'm calling the police."
Yep - our very first interaction with the manager was trying to figure out why he would call the police on a couple to whom he'd sent an inaccurate email, who were packing up to leave after his threats. He never did, but when we went to the office to talk to him he refused to give us his name. When we asked him how we should have known that his email was inaccurate, he said we should have read about checkout. We asked him to show us where, in the office or in our room, there was any notice of the checkout time - and he couldn't find one. He showed us a receipt from another customer, sitting on his printer, that said 11 (is this even legal, showing us another customer's personal information?). We pointed out that we had never gotten such a receipt, and he said, "of course not, you booked through a third party."
I was furious at this treatment, but Amanda made me leave. He wasn't worth our time arguing. But how could they not see how ridiculous they were being?
Anyway, we're permanent travelers. We both work remotely for SF-based startups and don't have an apartment - we live in hotels, motels, airbnb's, etc. In all of this time, we've never had a hostile experience with a property owner until our stay in Hays, Kansas. Never again will we make the mistake of booking with an America's Best Value Inn.
There's a Motel 6 just down the street. It's a few dollars cheaper and we've never had a bad experience with any of the dozens at which we've stayed. If you want cheap and clean, that's a much safer bet. read more