not only is this place a terrible mess, our vehicles were broken into, the staff and the front desk clerk are rude terrible people. check the sex offender registry for iowa and you will notice that most of the residents of this hotel are on the list. i would never recommend my worst enemy stay in a place like this. the staff there doesnt clean they just look through your belongings when you leave and let their family members have keys to your room. i had to stay here for a couple of months and was afraid to leave my room and afraid to be in the parking lot. other reviews are right, the parking lot is dangerous and the men around the front desk are homeless. run from here, run fast. its not a good place at all.

we went there because it was a convinient location and price. The rooms feel like potential murder scenes. Anyways were laying there and we start to itch...my boyfriend and I pull back the sheets and low and behold 2 bedbugs one little and the other the size of a dime....we put them in a bowl took em to front desk and demanded a refund...never again!

I spent a day driving around Des Moines recently trying to find a reasonably-priced hotel. I did this because over the next two years, I will need to stay overnight in the Des Moines area over 40 separate nights for work-related reasons and I was looking for something clean, comfortable, quiet, and affordable. Of course, this took me to some of the lower-end places in town. All I can say about the Villa Lodge is that I was scared, even in the middle of the day. The place seemed more like a homeless shelter than a hotel. At about 2 in the afternoon, there were a half-dozen grown men who obviously hadn't showered in a while and looked like they had just rolled out of bed just standing at the front desk "B.S.'ing" with the lady behind the desk. I asked if I could see a room and she said that housekeeping hadn't been in yet that day (again, this was 2 p.m.) so she didn't have any rooms to show me, but I could pay for a room right now and come back later. I double-checked to be sure that my wallet was still in my pocket and hit the road.

No, I didn't actually stay there and no, I didn't ever see a room -- but I feel like I need to pass this information on so others don't have to repeat this experience.

The sheets were clean. The guy at the front desk was friendly and helpful. The place is conveniently located about 30 seconds off I-80. That's the good.

The property is a run-down mess, both outside and in. They could star in a new reality TV show; "Can You Clean Better Than a 5th Grader". Pubic hairs (not mine) in the bathroom, splatter on the walls, crud caked behind the faucet and around the exhaust vent. Don't accidentally touch the inside of the moldy shower curtain either! The air conditioner didn't work, no screens on the windows, and noisy outside; all contributing to a poor nights sleep.

Seriously, raise the rates $5 per night, and hire someone to clean the place up.