My husband and I were just passing through Utica on our way to Maine, and needed a cheap place to stay. Days Inn fit the bill. They were easily $50 cheaper than any other hotel in the area. It's definitely not the nicest hotel, but it's a place to sleep for the night. Our room was clean and fit our needs just fine.

I am a frequent traveler and I have never had an experience like this. The room was so bad that I would not have my kids sleep in it. The odor was terrible and the hotel was dirty. The GM laughed at me when I asked for refund and lied saying he held the room turning others away, but I was in the lobby while others came in and asked for a room and they said they had some available. Go to any other hotel in Utica.

I stayed at this hotel in early October for 2 nights. The hotel was reasonably price and all seemed well. However 5 days after our stay my family started to have bites break out on their skin. After taking them to the Doctor's office, I learned bed bug bites take 5 to 7 days to appear. I contacted the Days Inn and received a full refund. However, I was told they found no sign of bed bugs. This is concerning and I sure other guests will be calling the hotel as we ended up with 15 to 33 bites each. If visiting Utica, I would recommend bucking up and staying at the over price Holiday Inn or Hampton Inn, and avoid the bug bed infested Days Inn.

I planned a last-minute trip to Utica to attend a concert at the War Memorial on 9/17/11 and booked a room at the Days Inn. Cheap. Decent reviews. Free parking. Why not?

Check-in was relatively painless. I had to give them a credit card to swipe, for incidentals and sign a waiver for our non-smoking room. They're very strict about this... if they smell smoke or find butts in your room, they'll fine you $150! (The Days Inn also offers smoking rooms.) I asked the desk clerk if there were refrigerators in the rooms and he replied no, only in the suites. Refrigerators cannot be rented for the regular rooms. Nor are there microwaves.

Our room was 225. No elevators, so we had to drag our bags up the stairs. Which is fine, but make a note of this if you are handicapped, as you'll need to specify that you require a first floor room. The room was small, but clean and tastefully decorated. It contained two queen sized beds, a nightstand, a comfy chair, a very nice, large writing desk with a comfortable office chair, three drawer dresser, bulky old TV set, wardrobe style closet and no shortage of lamps of all shapes and sizes. Bathroom was clean with a great big tub, adequate towels and toiletries and a hair dryer that worked fine.

My husband repeatedly remarked throughout the course of our stay that "these rooms were definitely smoking rooms at one time." He is an ex-smoker and is sensitive to cigarette smoke odor. I personally couldn't smell it.

Other than that, the beds were comfortable. I got a good night's sleep. The hotel isn't the quietest; I could hear neighbor noise through the walls.

High speed internet was free and extremely fast and reliable.

Things this hotel could improve on: guest communications. When we checked in, the host never told us where the vending machines were, whether there was a pool or fitness room, or what hours breakfast is served. And there was no booklet in our room to answer these questions, either. We had to explore the hotel on our own to find out. That being my only complaint, not a bad place to stay. Conveniently located next to Denny's and across from McDonalds and next to a Hess gas station/ convenience store.

Total cost for our room with tax was $115.87.