We had a second floor room for a one night stayover on return from Orlando to Chicago. We monitored on TV a set of two tornadoes in the area. At 1am, they reported one of the tornadoes heading directly for Ashburn. We took our two frightened young children downstairs to the lobby for shelter from the tornado. They wouldn't open the door to allow us access to shelter. We begged to allow us to hole up in the lobby for 15 minutes until the storm passed, but they refused. We were forced to return to our second floor room in the middle of a tornado. Fortunately, no one was injured, but it was very disheartening.

Good sized rooms and clean. Fine if you just need to lay down your head at night and want something inexpensive. One problem: there was no hot water in the morning so I could not take a shower. Normally we would bring this to management's attention but we only needed a bed to sleep at night and we were just passing through.

the towels like trash, they were so dirty, a lot of flyes inside the room, some lights out of order, the carpet was dirty, the toilet paper was used before. we just left the room and asked money back. The front desk guy didn't even apologize otherewise he looked pissed off because we left the hotel.

I initially made my reservation for 1/31/02. I gave my credit card information to guarantee the room. I was also asked to call earlier on the day of my reservation to confirm I would be coming because they fill up fast. I agreed. Later, (12/20/2002) I called to change my reservation to Friday, January 3rd since my travel plans had changed. I again said I would call earlier in the day to confirm I would be coming. I ran into traffic on my way from Michigan to the hotel and called not only to confirm that I would still be coming, but that I would most likely be arriving really late - around midnight. I was told no problem. When I got there, I gave my name and was told that there was no room that would accommodate my dogs. (They only allowed dogs in the smoking rooms. The room I had reserved was a smoking room.) I explained that I not only had guaranteed my reservation with a credit card, but that I had called earlier that same day to confirm I was coming and was told everything was okay. The man just shrugged. I asked if I could use the phone to call the 800 number to arrange for another room somewhere else and he refused. I asked if other hotels in the area took pets and he said he didn't know. So, at 12:30 AM, I am without a place to stay.

Luckily, the man at the Super 8 off exit 62A (from I75) had room for me. And it didn't need to be a smoking room (I don't smoke). He was very nice and that night he was my savior. My anger at the incompetence in Ashburn was still fresh, however, and I cannot believe that someone as inept as that man can be left in charge of an otherwise very decent discount hotel. His handling of the situation was completely unacceptable and he should not be allowed to represent the chain.