I don't know about older reviews but I stayed there recently and was extremely happy. Carpets were new and atmosphere was very inviting. Loved the camp fire and included breakfast and was very satisfied with our overall experience. Would recommend.

Very funky retro style neon sign .and 60's style motel ..... but that's where the fun stops.The carpets were filthy and overall musty old closed open type smell in the room.I would never stay there again .

At first I wasn't going to review because I'm told this is the only hotel with vacancies when events come. :) I was in Eureeka Springs for my first time for the Fat Tire festival, Eureeka Springs is awesome! There were only about 5 other rooms taken, all by other mountian bikers. Joy motel had just hired a new manager I thought she was the owner at first because of how invested she was, she was super sweet, nice, and helpful. Well after reading the reviews I was half expecting to find a dead hooker in my bed when I opened my hotel door...what I did find was your typical older motel. There was a TV with cable, a bed with some old but clean sheets, a clean old bathroom, so to sum it up it's an old Motel. From what I gather talking to the manager some of the lower floors had a mold issue and that led to allot of the reviews, I thought the room was fine. Would I stay at the Joy again HELL YEAH! If you're trying to impress a girl on a romantic weekend not the best option, otherwise it's a cool Motel.

I am pretty sure like the person from Hot Springs said every good review was written by the owner. The rude girl(Laura) who checked us in looked like she was on some kind of drugs and was bobbling her head and crossing her eyes.The pool was green and we were told they had an agreement w/ Inn of Ozarks across the street. I asked the Inn before swimming and this was NOT true. We pulled back the sheets to find a big black spider and crickets in the bed. We were in a 'suite' that had rotten baseboards, but the bugs were the final straw. We ended up checking in across the street. We should have been clued in when we saw the tarps on several buildings. There were also MANY caged exotic birds squaking in this house(w/tarp on the roof) you could smell them when you walked by. I was curious, so I took a look in there...VERY nasty conditions. We were told they were the owners and for sale, but he lived in Texas. How does someone take care of birds that far away? I wish I had taken pictures to post