We happened to be going to St. Paul the same weekend as the marathon & luckily, everything was booked at the downtown hotels. "Luckily" because we chose the Inver Grove Heights Country Inn & Suites, at a much lower cost, and only 7 miles from downtown. Our room was clean, nicely decorated, & had comfortable bedding. The lobby is attractive & I appreciated their "library." Breakfast was a nice surprise, with hot items. Based on price, location, and the pleasant experience we had during our stay, we'd consider choosing this property again.

NO phone service in entire hotel; outgoing phone service had been out for a week. Soiled carpeting, general cleanliness suspect because of appearance. Except for hot oatmeal, breakfast choices not fresh. Airport shuttle service ends at 10pm, so we had a $40 cab ride from airport at 11pm.

I don't have 5 star expectations when I stay at a hotel, but I DO have a few prerequisites. The first room I got had a broken shower curtain and the fridge appeared not to work properly. The second room I was assigned smells of smoke, has a broken dresser, the fridge doesn't work unless I keep the desk light switch on, and the carpet is filthy and stained. Also I turned on the a/c sometime early evening last night and it didn't come on till sometime in the middle of the night while I was sleeping.

When I had to change rooms yesterday the front desk lady kept apologizing, telling me this is an older hotel and things don't work as well. YA THINK??? I have stayed in older hotels and they're not all this crappy. DO NOT STAY HERE. You will regret it.

I was really disappointed in this Country Inn and Suites. The general feel of the hotel was that it was outdated and dirty. The carpet looked dirty (with several semi-large stains), the phones didn't work at all (in ANY of the rooms - which I was told when I checked out and brought it to their attention that the phone in my room didn't work...not when I checked in... is that safe??), and a number of the outlets didn't work (again I was told when I checked out that the reason for this is that they are connected to the light switches). At least the bed was comfortable and the TV was decent. When I went to buy a soda out of the machine it took my money but didn't give me the soda. When I reported it to the front desk, the girl said she didn't know how to help me because she was new...that all she could do was write a note. Probably won't stay here again when I am in the area.... I was just so disappointed.