Sorry to hear of the demise of the Tucumcari TraveLodge. It used to be one of our mainstays on trips on Route 66 and convenient to Del's Restaurant, which I hope have maintained their standards. Last time visited a few years ago, the TraveLodge was OK except swimming pool in need of some maintenance and the office had a strong odor...smelled like some cooking with strong spices or something by the manager and his family.

While in Cheyenne, I booked this hotel through Hotwire.com (which I might add, was the first time I used that service) so that I'd know where I was spending the night after another long day of driving.

First, I was very disappointed in the Hotwire.com service because they claimed this property was a 2 star place. I do not consider Travelodge motels to be in the same category as La Quinta and Days Inn, but evidently Hotwire.com does. Just a warning for anyone that hasn't used this service before.

Upon arriving in this tiny little town of Tucumcari, New Mexico, I was HORRIFIED at the site of this hotel. This is probably the dirtiest, most run down motels I've ever seen.

As you enter the room, you will notice that the light switch beside the door was literally CAKED with dirt & grime. Covered in brown stuff.

Next up, the ceiling had black mold growing around the entire perimeter of the room. There were cracks in the ceiling and the "popcorn" stuff looked like it was barely hanging on.

The wallpaper was peeling off of the walls, had been patched together in spots and was in disrepair.

The bathroom -- oh my god. I just can't even tell you how disgusting it was. Okay, I'll *try* to tell you how disgusting it was. First of all, the wallpaper was peeling off of the walls. The baseboards were covered in dirt and dust. The shower had black mold growing around the door and on the floor/walls. The toilet had obviously not been cleaned in months. It had brown rings around the bowl. And finally, the washcloth/towels were stained with brown spots.

The entire room stunk like curry or something. It was nasty!

The next morning as I was checking out (minus a shower, because I'd rather just wait until that afternoon that to risk showering in that filthy shower!!) I found that the front desk was still locked up and there was no one around. It was 9:00 in the morning so it's not like I was trying to check out at an unreasonable time. There was a sign on the door that said to just drop the key in the slot.

The "free breakfast" consisted of one box of cereal and a loaf of bread. Seriously. And the "breakfast room" was actually an old guest room. I had no intentions on eating ANYTHING from this motel, but I wanted to check it out so I could report back.

Unfortunately, I arrived in town too late to get another place but I can assure you that I fired off a very nasty email to Hotwire.com as soon as I could. I did receive a response within a day which was nice. I also emailed the Wyndham Resort corporation, which owns the Travelodge chain of motels and complained to them as well. I received an email back from the Wyndham people stating that one of the general managers of this particular Travelodge would be in contact with me within 2 weeks of our emails and I never heard back so I contacted the Wyndham representative again and will be receiving a refund in the mail.

Whatever you do, DO NOT STAY at the Tucumcari Travelodge. I seriously have no idea how they can stay in business. Seems like tons of health code violations. Plus, there are other mom & pop motels near this Travelodge and they have better prices and the places don't look like they need to be condemned!!

Arrived to find the woman at the front desk unfriendly and incompetent. Once I finally had my key I found the a/c off in my room, in August. I immediately went back and asked for a different room and was told that they leave the a/c off on purpose. She told me that "it would cool off in a few minutes" which it did not. The room itself was substandard. All I wanted was a clean room and a clean bed. The bed was clean, but not the room. I returned to the front desk with one of the many dead flies I found in the bathroom and gave it to the desk clerk. She was not impressed. I would have left, but it was late. The breakfast in the morning was a box of generic cereal and milk. No bread, toaster, juice, anything. The office is locked in the morning with a small sign that states you can ring the bell for assistance. You can ring the bell, but no one ever comes. Please do yourself a favor, stay somewhere else.

I called this hotel to made our reservation with a woman named Alice. Our room was to be a King size smoking suite. We arrived earlier than expected and decided to take a chance to see if our room could possibly be ready. It took 4 times to ring the service bell to get someone to come out (according to their website, they were manned 24 hrs). An East Indian lady clerk said our room wasn't ready, we were okay with that, after all it was 4am, but did ask if there was a room available that we could freshen up. She did have one, but said we couldn't use anything. So, what is the point? I told my husband and then she was okay, we could use it. I told her thank you and we'd be back to check into our room at 11am. We walked into the room she provided and instantly I was hit with this very gross smell. While my husband took a quick shower in which the door would not close all the way, (he used one towel) and I could barely sit down, because the room stank and had bugs all over in it. I decided then that we would not come back to this hotel. I used one piece of kleenx and he used one towel. We were out of the room less than 15 minutes. They wanted to charge us a full nights stay in it. I got it to $20 and cancelled our reservation. I would not recommend this hotel for ANYONE. We ended up at a Super 8 hotel in Tucumcari. See the review on that one!