On Sept. 3, 2020, I stopped at the Regency Inn on State Street in Iola, KS. I had been traveling and it was late. I was tired, so I decided to stop for the night. The man that was running the front desk that night acted like I was an inconvenience rather than a welcome guest and a paying customer.
He talked like he would match the price shown on the internet ad that I found on my phone, but then he didn't. He charged me $57.00 for a one night stay which didn't seem too bad until he told me that my room was upstairs at the back of the motel. That meant my truck was going to be sitting unprotected next to the street because they don't have any fences or other safety barriers.
It was very apparent that he was NOT in the least concerned for my safety. I wasn't pleased, but I thought at least I would be on the 2nd floor. Then again, I didn't want to have to carry all my stuff up a flight of stairs. There was no elevator. When I got to the room, the key worked, but the door wouldn't open. I tried twice to get into "my room". Then I went back to the front desk and told the man what happened. He didn't seem surprised.
As a woman traveling alone, I felt like I had been scammed into paying more for a decent, safe motel room!!! If I hadn't already paid for the room, I would have left!!! I asked if he had a room on the bottom floor inside the hotel courtyard area which was well light, and appeared to be a safe place. He said that it would cost me another $11.00 which I went ahead and paid.
The room seemed nice, but it smelled funny (maybe paint?) and was a bit smaller than normal. The King-sized bed filled the room. I was pleased to find that the air conditioner worked very well, and was wonderfully cold. It cooled the room very quickly!!!
I was so thankful to find that the bedding was clean when I checked. That's very important to me. The chairs looked stained, and could have used some slip covers, so I didn't sit in them. The table was sturdy, but needed some touching up to make it look nice.
Most of the rest of the room looked nice; however, even though there was a deadbolt on the door, there wasn't a security latch on it!!! That bothered me.
Unfortunately, the small (dorm-sized) frig wasn't plugged in and neither was the microwave. The one in the picture is twice as large as the one in the room. I needed the frig, and if it had been placed on a stand instead of setting on the floor, I would have been pleased!!! It did get cold, but it did NOT freeze my freezer packs after almost 12 hours. So, I had to ice my stuff down. I was very pleased to find that their ice machine worked very well!!!
The room had recently been remodeled, but it looked as if someone had done a poor job on the installation. The owners had obviously bought nice countertops, and matching pieces for their showers, but they did NOT look professionally installed. The sealant they used in the shower was cloudy looking, and took away from the appearance of the room. You could see where the pieces had been glued. There were 3 stains of some sort on the lower part of the long countertop, but they didn't wipe away easily.
The bedspread in the room was very nice and elegant. It looked much nicer than the one shown in the picture. Overall, everything seemed to look nice, except for the stains on the chairs, and the countertops. The flooring shown in the pics is correct, and it was nice and looked good. It had a wood-like appearance. The bathroom was nice. The deep tub was spotless and very appealing. If I had had time, I would have loved taking a soak in that tub!!!
I was pleased with how clean most of the room was until I took my shower the next morning. When I pulled the shower curtain across the tub, I saw that the shower curtain was horribly mildewed. It looked awful. I would have requested a new shower curtain, but I didn't have time. I felt like if I stayed past the 11am check out time, I would find an extra charge on my credit card.
Before I took my shower that morning, I had to call the front desk and ask for the WiFi password. Fortunately, I had been too tired to use my laptop the night before.
I can NOT recommend staying at this motel, if you are a woman traveling alone or if you expect friendly customer service.
However, if all you're interested in is a cheap motel room, and don't care which room you are in, then go for it!!! ***Note: One thing that I did notice was that this seemed to be an extended stay facility, but it was a quiet, and pleasant. read more