I was inbetween apartments a few years ago and needed a place to stay for a few weeks and decided that motel 6 would be alright. It was only $200 a week and close to work. Big mistake. The lowest of the low lifes live there. Drug dealers, prostitutes and criminals were my neighbors. I have since moved into a nice place down the street and drive by it occasionaly and I must say it hasn't changed much in the last 4 years. If you need a nice secure place to stay head further east down bell road closer to scottsdale. This is a bad place

I have a few general rules about traveling. One is "be flexible." Another is "never stay at a Motel 6." While I am sure there are nice Motel 6's out there, I have never had the good fortune to stay at one. So, when my husband informed me that he had booked us into a Motel 6 for a one-night stay on our recent road trip, I was pretty scared. Motel 6? Yikes! But remembering my first rule, I figured, let's get there and see what it's like. My husband sent me the website listing from Motel 6's corporate website and it looked like the hotel was fairly new, so I decided to reserve judgment.

Well, we pulled into the parking lot and at first thought we'd gotten lost. The motel looks nothing, and I mean NOTHING, like the picture on the website. The picture on the website shows a newer chain hotel with nice landscaping, etc. The actual Motel 6 we stood in front of looks more like run-down project housing than a motel. There was trash in the parking lot, numerous shady characters hanging out in the doorways of the rooms, chipped and peeling paint, in the five minutes we were there we got to hear a loud argument between hotel "guests" that was seemingly about illegal substances, etc. etc. etc. The place looks like it is serving as cheap pseudo-temporary housing for the poor instead of a hotel. We have a toddler son and took one look inside one of the rooms (it was unoccupied but conveniently, the lock was broken so we could take a peek) and said "no way." I don't really want to describe what one of the rooms looked like - and probably don't have to. Between the horrific condition of the room and the surroundings there was no way we were going to stay at this dump. We hightailed it down the road to a Comfort Inn where we had a nice stay for only slightly more money than the Motel 6 was charging.

So. If my husband had checked TripAdvisor we would never have been hoodwinked by the blatantly deceptive photograph on the Motel 6 website. STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE! It is NOT the same place pictured on the Motel 6 website. By FAR. And I do not think it would be safe for anyone staying there - forget actually having an enjoyable experience.

Half the place is being renovated and the other half should have been 10 years ago. Lots of long term welfare lodgers who shout and hang out at all hours. Was eating take out on the "desk" and had a cockroach appear from behind the desk counter. Was the first and last time here. I stay happily at 10 to 20 Motel 6's a year and this was the absolute worst. Sleep in your car!!

During my stay this 59 buck hotel room was adjacent to this young guys who stayed up most of the night, played loud music on and off, (No fan of rap here), and they had company the whole night. I assume that was a drug dealer, I feared for my safety, and am glad to have survived. I just remembered the door would only unlock once, then northing. The manager showed me you had to roughly shake the door to make the lock work. Jeez. And in the parking lot, this dude tells me (I'm in a car I just picked up), that the adjacent pickup has 3 !! babies in it, and no one else. After a little discussion on how bad that is (as I clench my gym bag against me, I suggest he tells the desk clerk. He then walks to a corner and waits for awhile. He finally leaves. Surprisingly my car is there in the morning. I did check the pickup from the second floor, no babies that I could see.