After a long, late-night flight to Billings, followed by a long, weary drive to Hardin, I was more than anxious to get to my room at the Western Motel. I had booked a room there a month before on Priceline.com. Well, when I finally arrived there at around 12:30 - 1:00 am, I discovered, much to my anguish and annoyance, that the motel office was entirely closed. Closed! No doorbell, no point of contact, nobody around, nothing. All that greeted me when I arrived at the Western Motel at 12:45 that morning was a dark and vacant front office. I was sore irked. Consequently, I found myself driving through Hardin at 1:00 in the morning, looking here and there for a place to sleep. I soon came upon a Motel 8. In contrast to the Western Motel, Motel 8 had someone in their office all night. They straightaway hooked me up with a room, and I didn't even have a reservation. It cost me $90, but I was very tired and desperately in need of a shower and a place to sleep.
Day the next, I drove back over to the Western Motel. The office was open (it was about 10:00 in the morn). I talked to the fellow working there, and I asked him why no one was in the office last night. He told me that the Western Motel's business hours stop at midnight. I told him that I had made reservations for 4 nights, beginning last night, but my flight to Billings was a late one. In response he told me that if you do have a late night flight, the best thing to do is to call the motel and let them know about it. I did not know this, of course; I assumed most motels run 24/7. In short, if you have reservations at this motel, and you are ARRIVING AFTER MIDNIGHT, CALL AHEAD OF TIME.
In any event, while checking-in, I asked this fellow if I was going to be charged for my room last night, a room which I never used because the motel office was closed. He told me, yes, I would be charged because I had already pre-paid for it. He cut me no slack, nor did he have any consideration for the additional $90 I had to spend last night for the room over at Motel 8. So be it.
Anyway, that was my introduction to the Western Motel. Now, as far as the rooms are concerned, they are not too bad. They aren't the cleanest, but they are spacious - as are the bathrooms. The biggest problem with the rooms are the insects. The rooms at the Western Motel all face outside; in other words, the motel is not enclosed. This is not an issue in itself; in fact, I prefer motels like this. Be that as it may, right on the outside of each room's door there is a light and, at night, during the warm months of the year, each of these lights have scores of insects flying and fluttering about them. Thus, whenever you enter your room at night, no matter how hard you try to prevent it, you will inevitably get a number of flying insects entering your room with you. The Western Motel staff should supply each room with a can of bug spray. Since they do not, I found myself swatting the flying intruders with a rolled-up newspaper. In the act of doing this, I noticed on the walls of my room the remnants of other long-dead insects doubtless done in by previous guests who had the same idea as me. Another mute testimony to the amount of insects that invade these rooms is the overhead ceiling light. The dome covering the overhead light in my room had its bottom almost completely covered with the dark remains of moths and who knows what other kind of bugs.
One other issue with these rooms are the thin walls and ceilings. The Western Motel has rooms on two levels. I had the misfortune of staying on the bottom level; and it was misfortunate because the bumping and thumping of the guests above was a good imitation of thunder.
But now I'll get to the worst part about my stay at the Western Motel. Funny thing is, I did not discover the worst of it until I was back home a few days later. Upon checking my credit card statements, I noticed Western Motel charged me for my four days there. Thing is, my room was already PRE-PAID. I booked reservations for my stay at the Western a month before through Priceline, and my credit card balance reveals this payment on 10 August. But lo, there it was again...Western Motel charged me for 4 days on 9 September. I GOT CHARGED TWICE, and my four day stay cost me nearly $540 when it should have been about $265.
I won't stay here again. It's not worth all the trouble. Granted, some of the problems I encountered were singular issues that probably wouldn't happen if I did stay at this motel again some time in the future...but there were those damned insects. No, I'm done with this place. I just hope I get my money back for their double-charge gaffe. read more
