our room was filthy, with dirt on the carpet and the floor in the bathroom; dirty tissue under the bathroom sink, all surfaces covered in dust; broken window on our room, cigarette burns in the sheets and bedspread; we only stayed one night of our three night reservation; I understand why they make you pay in advance.

Hotels like people have bad days. I have traveled enough to know that you never know when you are going to hit that bad day.

So when we arrived on the Friday before Labor Day to a mumbling desk clerk who was asking too many questions and not giving us any service, I was irritated. We got into the room and there was a large sticky spot on the floor. I mean very sticky, as in pull your socks off sticky. It was probably spilled soda but why didn’t the maid find it and clean it. We left the desk chair over the sticky spot.

There was some sort of noise that sounded like a squeak that was continuous from somewhere that seemed to be over head (on the second floor). It woke us up early the next day so we went to take a shower and found that there was no or very little hot water. We muddled through somehow.

We discovered that there was no information about the high speed internet and by accident I found a CAT-5 plug, however I never was able to connect. Every night we had to run the vent fan as someone was smoking near our room. Running the vent was the only way to prevent the smell. (I wish hotels would buy systems that allow the fan to run continuously and inject hot or cold as needed.) The room was always a bit cool in the morning.

The next day the shower was fine. In the middle of the night I awoke and when I went back to bed my foot found some sort of crusty patch on the lower corner of the bottom sheet, it was bigger than my foot! Well that put me right off sleeping and when exhaustion was about to overtake me, the squeaking took off.

It was like rolling thunder. Every day it was something else and seemingly worse than the one before. This was not a bad day, it is a bad hotel. Despite its convenient location to our family, I doubt we will ever stay there again.

We'd been given on-campus rooms for a seminar, but they were terrible beyond belief, so I fled to this nearby motel and was happy with my choice. Mary checked me in with friendly courtesy and the room, although basic, was faultlessly clean. Very convenient to the Colorado College campus, two blocks away.

This Econo Lodge in downtown Colorado Springs is a great value. There is a small pool, a parking lot, free light breakfast available, and two HBO channels. It is on the edge of a college campus, and there is a laundromat and dry cleaner around the corner and several restaurants within walking distance. The spacious corner room I was in had a microwave and small fridge, and there is free wi-fi. The bathroom was small but clean, with a new vanity. The rooms are set back from the road so you don't hear the traffic.

But there are some drawbacks. The structure is two stories, and there is no elevator. (I have a disability and had requested a ground-level room and was very grateful that they saved one for me.) The property is showing its age, both in terms of decor and upkeep. The toilet in my room kept running. It was the victim of a bad repair job. When I fixed it so it wouldn't run, I then sometimes had to lift the lid and jiggle the wires so it would flush. The light in the bathroom was inadequate. There were lots of ants. The carpet desperately needed to be shampooed. It turned the bottoms of my feet black. I could hear the people upstairs stomping about.

But even though there were these drawbacks, my one-week stay there was fine. I could easily put up with these things, especially at the price I paid.