We stayed here one night during our 20 day road trip.

I had some of the reviews on tripadvisor, and was a bit worried about this place, but the hotel was pretty good.

Room was comfortable, air worked fine, and the free WIFI was strong.

Hotel staff was very pleasant, and recommended a local eatery.

One reviewer in 2008 described this part of town as seedy, but I would say that it's improved a lot since then. It definitely seems to be a part of town that is more vibrant in the day time, but we walked several blocks from the hotel and never felt unsafe.

We ate dinner at Doughy Joey's which had several people (including families) there from about 7 to 9pm. There is a Gentleman's Club across the street from Doughy Joey's, but even that wasn't seedy.

We stayed here two nights as it was close to the hotel our friends were at and we had a couple free night's through the Choice Hotels program. We often stay at Choice Hotels and this is the first disappointment we've had. It felt like entering a time warp with the run down smoke-filled lobby, the out of date decor, and the gold framed mauve and blue paintings. All the dining room chairs had stains on them and housekeeping is off the dining room so breakfast always contained a few maids wheeling their carts through. We were to be on a smoke free floor but our room smelled strongly of smoke. I found it odd that housekeeping "stocked" our bathroom with just two bath towels; especially since we had a 2-room suite. On the upside -- our bed and pillows were comfortable. Choice Hotels needs to reconsider including this particular hotel in their program.

This was the only hotel available when my family was passing through Waterloo. From the website, it sounded all right. It was not.

We stayed one night, and left first thing in the morning. My wife and I agreed this was not a good place for us or the children, but it was the only hotel available.

I have one good thing to say so I will put that up front. The staff was courteous and helpful. They are the only reason I gave this "hotel" two stars instead of one.

The building is old, run down, and smells of must, mold, and smoke and possibly...urine??? The rumors of this place being renonvated in 2007 are greatly exaggerated. The carpets are worn out and stained. The walls appear recently painted, but the tan coloring with the dim lighting and exposed rusty water pipes, give the appearance of a grimy slum tenement. Picture this with the smells mentioned earlier. The elevator is very small, creaky, slow, and smelly.

The room smelled the same as the rest of the building, which was not good. The bedding appeared clean. The furniture in the room was not new, but was scratched, scuffed and worn. The bathroom seemed clean, but was run down and the lights did not work in there. All night we could here noise from the parking lot, car alarms, engines running, drunks. At 4am a garbage truck drug a dumpster across the parking lot, dumped it, and dropped it with a thunderous BOOM outside of our seond floor window. This was not a good night's sleep.

The neighborhood surrounding the hotel appears to be pretty terrible. I was not crazy enough to go walking those streets at night in order to verify this impression. The hotel is surrounded by condemned buildings with boarded over windows which furthers the impression that you are in an inner city slum. At the end of the block is a "gentleman's club" which did not favorably add to my impression of the neighborhood. The night we checked in there were a number of "customers" in the street and I was grateful there was one more slot availble in the hotel parking lot. I can't imagine parking on the street in this neighborhood. In the morning, we found an empty beer can setting on our car in the hotel parking lot.

The breakfast area was run down and smelled...bad. We chose to get out of the hotel and eat somewhere else.

If this is the only place available in Waterloo, keep driving.

We booked this hotel for weekend getaway and were not familiar to the area. Before our trip I had reviewed some past guests opinions, and decided to proceed with an open mind as reviews were mixed.

We were able to check-in early which was a bonus as we wanted to "settle-in" before taking in the local attractions.

The hotel staff was generally curtious and friendly, and the rooms are clean and cheap. That, however, is where the compliments end. The rooms smell was of must and mold, but could not mask the underlying stench of cigarette smoke. We are not smokers, but only smoking rooms were available. The overall general condition was that of an old hotel in definite need of updating,(ie. exposed water pipes, torn carpeting, 1 very rickety elevator and the other out of order, broken smoke detectors and rusted metal windows that were bolted shut.) We mostly used the stairs due to fear of claustrophobia in the cramped elevator.

The next time we visit the Waterloo area we will not hesitate to spend extra money to stay in a safer part of town in a hotel that offers better amenities and where surrounding structures are not condemned, vacant or seedy bars that have drunken patrons yelling in the streets til the wee hours of the morning. Though not the hotels fault, this is a very run down part of town.

This is not a family hotel, but rather a cheap place to lay your head for the night and be on your way.

I offer this hotel an okay rating due to the politeness of the staff.