Sara R.
Yelp
Whenever we come to town my sweet family likes to book me, my husband, and my 2 kids a room in this hotel. The location is good, it's centrally located on a VERY busy road in a nice neighborhood. The staff is friendly, the pool area is good, though the locals often stop in so it's very crowded at times with non guests.
That is where my praise ends. In 3 separate stays, in 3 different rooms (but we have been in 5 rooms, seeing family members rooms also staying here) I must impress upon you, the reader of this review, that the rooms pictured on the website are NOT typical. It is a very old hotel and it shows, even through the minor cosmetic updates. Every room we've had has had plumbing issues, from the flow of the shower, to the plate behind the knob falling off and causing a leak that flowed out of the wall and toward the toilet behind, to a cracked sink. I took a bath during our most recent stay and I had to manually hold open the tub stopper to get the water to drain. The tile floors tend to hold dirt so, even if mopped well by staff, your feet will still look dirty.
The furniture often has various layers of paint, some of which is peeling, and the walls show where the building has settled and cracked over the years and been poorly patched up. Each room is a little different, so some are nicer than others, not sure why the extreme variation in quality, maybe depending on their original state...
I'm not sure if the walls are just really thin or if people are just REALLY loud, but on our 2 previous stays our rooms were near the pool and the noise from people talking in the stairs and in the breezways and moving around and in and out of rooms was awful. This time we stayed in the area over the lobby so it wasn't an issue.
The most recent room we stayed in was a suite with a kitchenette. It had a white fridge and a stainless steel and black microwave, an unattractive combination. The cabinets haven't been repainted recently and looked a bit dingy and dated. The contents of the cabinets was 3 mis-matched wine glasses, no cups or plates, which is usually standard for a kitchenette. There was shampoo and conditioner in the bathroom, but no soap, and the towels are teeny tiny. My skinny little 7 year old had no trouble, but us grownups were left wanting.
The beds in all 3 of the rooms we have slept in have left me tossing and turning all night. I usually sleep quite deeply and don't move around much, so for me to wake up 4 or 5 times a night and have to shift to find comfort is rare. My lower back hurts so much each time that I end up awake at 5 or 6am sitting in a chair waiting for the spasms to subside.
The price you pay for the quality is really hit or miss. Some rooms are a bit nicer, but on the whole, do you really want to take that chance? It seems vastly overpriced for the general motel quality of most of the spaces you will inhabit.
Again, the staff is great and the pool and tiki area is generally pretty good, though crowded with non-guests. Food in the restaurant is pretty good. Parking is ok, and the central location is excellent, though I recommend using GPS to navigate the back roads as Dale Mabry is THE main thoroughfare and is very very VERY high traffic.
I wish I could give this place a better review. It's been here for decades and I know they have tried to make it great, it just misses the mark every time and this was strike 3 for us.
