I recently planned my wedding in the Mount Vernon area. Naturally, I advised my guests to stay at the Sleep Inn in Mount Vernon so that they would be VERY close to all of the festivities. I reserved a block of rooms WAY in advance to assure that my guests would have a place to stay. Unfortunately, when I would speak with my friends and family and inquire about where they would be staying I heard the same answer over and over again. “We tried to book at the Sleep Inn but they are full” I would then call the Sleep Inn myself and ask about my block of rooms. Time and time again, staff would inform me that I had plenty of space available. I ended up calling the hotel 3 or 4 times pleading with them to PLEASE stop telling my guests that the rooms were booked. My mother and father law who came from Ames ended up having to stay at the shabby motel in Ames  The final straw came when my husband’s best friend traveling all the way from California was told she could not stay at the Sleep Inn because it was all booked. I immediately phoned the Sleep Inn and asked about availability. I was told there were in fact still rooms available for the whole weekend from my block of rooms. In the end, if I wanted to make sure my friends and family had a place to stay I had to reserve rooms for my guests myself and then call my guests and have them contact the Sleep Inn with credit card info to insure that they were not given false information. It was very frustrating and infuriating to have the extra stress that Sleep Inn caused while I was so busy planning the big event. It isn’t a very difficult concept and I am still bewildered that a functioning hotel had such a hard time with what should be a fairly routine scenario. It was too bad that many of my guests who already made long trips from California, Colorado, Nebraska, Tennessee, Georgia, Illinois, etc. had to travel additional miles to stay in Cedar Rapids due to the disorganization, unprofessionalism and incompetency of the employees at the Sleep Inn. I felt terrible that my guests had to make other arrangements and I am still upset about the way Sleep Inn continuously messed up my accommodations for my guests. If you have another option besides Sleep Inn and you are planning a similar event steer clear of the Sleep Inn in Mount Vernon, Iowa!!!