I hate to say it but I'm a little bit of a hotel snob. I don't have the budget to stay at the priciest places but I have come to prefer the Marriott brand over the years and enjoy earning points for "free" stays. I rarely stay at "budget" type places because we usually travel for relaxation and spend a lot of time in the room, and we want to make sure the room will be up to our standards and nothign shocking (e.g. Marriott mattresses seem pretty standard, slightly firm).

We were traveling to St. Louis for a wedding in downtown Clayton and we arrived late Thursday night. We figured why pay for a full night at the fancier hotel in Clayton when we could just stop here, sleep and check in early at the other hotel. I must say, after a full day of driving, we were quite disappointed at this place. We stopped at a rest stop and made the reservations just about an hour before we arrived on our laptop. The pictures look different than the property of course. I was shocked at the rate of $40 per night. I didn't think it could be really bad - we were staying in Westport, after all, which I heard was pretty ritzy.

Driving up to the hotel, it looked scary. The lot was dark, and there were a few guys randomly walking around the lot and one guy standing in front of the front door just "waiting". I went in and the front desk was merely a small window with an open part, as if she was a bank teller at a very impersonal credit union. The clerk was rude, as if I was obviously interrupting her internet surfing. We could even pay in cash and she didn't even ask for a credit card. Not good, that's a red flag.

We had a lot of stuff, including gifts for the wedding that we were a part of. The lot was so dark considering the guys standing around, the obvious signs saying they were NOT responsible for lost/stolen items, and the fact that we drive a soft-top Jeep - these were all signs saying we should unpack EVERYthing just for this 10 hour stay. Normally we're not that concerned but this didn't feel right. After we got everything out, we realized we were on the 2nd floor and there were no elevators. Doh! Well, the nice guys who were talking on their cell phones in another language held the doors open for us so we could lug our way up to the 2nd floor...I don't think they understood much English for when we thanked them, but I'm sure they figured it out. My husband had just had minor surgery and stitches 2 days prior so he couldn't carry anything very heavy....so it was my job to carry most of the luggage.

The room was small and had a full kitchen but our initial shock at how very plain and dirty the room felt made us uncomfortable - we didn't dare use the kitchen, especially the utensils. The room just felt dirty, that's all I could say. It felt dusty, smelled like Play-doh and there were dead little bugs in the bathroom sink. The bathroom and all furniture was very chintzy and cheap as we expected but I just hate the initial "dirty" feeling. The room had obviously been smoked in recently. We didn't unpack anything that we didn't need to. I inspected the bed for bugs immediately. There was a very thin blanket and the bed was extremely soft. The latch on the door was broken, as if someone had recently broken in. We didn't bother to try to get another room because a) that would mean we'd have to lug everything around again, and also, how much better could the next room have been at 10pm?

We walked to the gas station that was very close for water, milk and cereal and we went to bed. Another concern that I had was the front desk called our room as we were trying to get a few minutes more rest asking us if we would be checking out at 11am or if we needed to extend our stay. Why would they bother us to call us an hour and 15 minutes before checkout to ask us if we wanted to stay another night? Wouldn't we call them for that? I find that a major distraction because the time we pay for the room is ours.

I am still going to say that I recommend this hotel only because it's cheap and it's not worth any more than $40 a night. I wouldn't go there for romance, relaxation or anything but just a place to sleep while traveling through.



The stay in general was very mediocre but hey - $40 is a rate that I would expect to have mediocre, can't really complain. I can't say I'd stay there again, but I have seen worse at a higher rate. For the approximate 12 hours that we stayed there, I'd say it was fair.