My stay at Bluebird Spa City Motor Lodge in August 2026 was one of the worst hotel stays I have…read moreexperienced.
First, the positive--the staff was friendly. They were not always as helpful or forthcoming as I would have preferred, but at least they were friendly. The motel is also within walking distance of at least one museum and park, as well as lots of good-quality restaurants. So that was a plus.
Now for the bad:
1. Check-in: Check-in was scheduled for 4 p.m. We got there around 2:45 and were told our room would be available in about 15-20 minutes. We returned around 3:30. It was not ready then, and we were again told it would be ready soon. However, it was not ready until about 4:30. While they were under no obligation to provide early check-in, they should have given us accurate information. In addition, no explanation or apology was given for the delayed check-in.
2. Parking: We were charged for parking without this being disclosed beforehand, and much of the parking was in a lot in another building. As best I could tell, the website was silent on whether parking was provided, so I should have asked, and they should have disclosed the charge up front. When I raised this at the front desk, I basically got a shrug and a "sorry." Also, since one point of a "Motor Lodge" is that you can drive up to your room and park, it seems incongruous that you would (a) have to pay to park and (b) have to park in a garage in another building.
3. Cleaning chemicals: The room really stank of cleaning chemicals. It gave my wife and me headaches and triggered what I think was an asthma attack that lasted over a week. While we could open a window, there were no screens, so this was not a good option, especially when we left the room. It still smelled of cleaning chemicals later that evening when we got back from dinner, although the smell had somewhat dissipated by the following day. (In anticipation of a response that I should have mentioned this to management, I would say that the people I spoke to were not helpful. It didn't seem like they had any spare rooms, since they could not get ours ready on time, and I had no confidence that they would give us a room that didn't have the same issue.) Edit: I stayed at another hotel a few weeks later, without an ill effects, so I don't think I ajm especially sensitive to chemical smells
4. Noise: The roof in the atrium was really loud, as was our room. Someone (I think Staff) told me the reason for the noise in the atrium was that it had a plastic roof and that the noise was caused by the wind. I'm not sure if that was the issue in the room, which sounded like it had a broken refrigerator running.
5. Wi-Fi: The Wi-Fi was horrible. I could connect, but I never got a decent signal, so it was not usable. I tried this on multiple devices, including wiping out the prior connection and starting over. Although some hotels give you a welcome screen where you need to accept their terms and conditions to get the Wi-Fi to work, nothing like this popped up.
6. Room amenities: The place has cheap plastic cups in the washroom. Considering how much they charge, they should use something nicer, such as real glass. The water pressure in the shower was also pretty weak.
7. Coffee: The first morning I stayed there, they had two nearly empty carafes of coffee and no hot coffee. This was about 7 or 7:30 a.m. Attention to detail, folks! They did have a carafe of decaf, but I didn't try that.
8. 4:30 a.m. wake-up: I received a text around 4:30 a.m. welcoming me to the motel. Apparently, this was a system error, but it was annoying, especially given the other issues.
9. No spa and no bluebirds--only kidding about that being an issue.