Largely because my wife insists on it, our family of four travels on a tight budget. Even though I argued for the $89.99 posh Comfort Inn close by, we clipped a coupon from a rest area and stayed at the Hilltop Inn (formerly Econo Lodge) for $55.00 and that included tax! It’s off the beaten path from the highway, which was nice. Off a patio one can see a meadow, trees, and hills. They did have working Wi-Fi, which helped offset some of the frustrations.

Our family seemed to have the place to ourselves. We saw no other guests during our one-night stay. I thought, “Ghost hotel?”

The hotel has five separate buildings and upstairs from the lobby are a pool table (75 cents) and electronic dart board (25 cents). The four of us had a spirited game of pool soon after arrival and I shot one myself at seven the next morning. The only drawback was that the pool room was a bit hot (no AC) that night, even though it was cool outside.

Be forewarned: If you are looking for any sense of posh or a comfortable lobby, this is not the place! The hallways smelled bad, some junk was scattered about, and a huge pile of trashbags (with a rummaging skunk at night) was set out in front of our building without a dumpster. Bizarre. Though they had a pool in a nice location, it wasn’t working, so if you need the pool, call first and find out its status.

The room: clean and comfortable and no bad smell. No microwave or refrigerator but it did have a small coffee maker. Service was friendly. If you can put up with a few bad smells and some junk lying around, and enjoy playing pool, this may be the place for you if you want to keep costs down. And you may end up having the place virtually to yourself.

This place felt like a ski lodge a little bit. High ceilings in the room. The room was quite large, too. I liked it quite a bit. On one downside, they said they had free wireless internet, but I couldn't get a signal in our room (which I think was in building 5?). For travelers looking for a stop-off on the Thruway, it's fine. Use one of the RoomSaver coupons and you can stay there for about $50-$60, which is the range in which we paid, I think.

I told myself last year that I would give this Econo Lodge another try. It's at a central location just off the NY Thruway, and we generally really enjoy staying at that chain. It was again a mistake. First, there is no heat to Building 1 where our room was unless the temp drops below 45. We barely slept the first night, reported the problem, and the staff provided a space heater for the next two nights. Next, it rained on our second day...the room was on the lower level, and the walkway to the rooms was standing water/mud...there was no way to clean the mud off your feet before/after entering the room. Next, the complimentary breakfast was upstairs where elderly people could not possibly get to. There was no elevator. Breakfast was quite sparce, with no fruit. There was a waffle maker, but no larger plates for the waffles, so the first day, I used a cereal bowl...On a bright note, the staff was wonderful, very helpful and friendly. They tried their best, but we will not stay there again and pay $89.99/night.

This hotel consists of six different buildings arranged on top of a hill. The view is lovely. The bad part is that the continental breakfast is in the main building and you must walk outside to get to it -- not so good in winter. The room I had was fine. It had all the normal amenities and the price was very reasonable, probably because the property is a little worn. The motel is not difficult to find in daylight, but at night it's easy to miss the road when getting off the New York Thruway.