We lived in the Whitaker neighborhood between 2004 and 2006, and our apartment was too small for guests; so to accommodate our guests, I visited and examined all the cheap motels between Whitaker and the university. The Express Inn was the best. It was the cleanest, least dingy, most spacious, and, fairly newly renovated, it was in satisfactory shape. Guests appreciated the A/C on hot summer days. Rooms were reliably available. Sometimes our guests tried staying at other motels to see if they could get a better deal at the price, but they always came back to the Express Inn. I found that if you got a quote from another hotel, you could negotiate a more reasonable rate with the Express Inn; but by now there may be more collusion among motel-owners in Eugene. 6th and 7th St.s are car-funnelling eyesores, but despite the big homeless and tweaker presence, they're very safe, and really only a block off of nice residential neighborhoods with little parks, great cafes like Sweet Life, and Sam Bond's, a superlative pub. It's close to downtown too.

Clean, but too many other issues. Not good value for the money - it was as expensive as any other place we stayed but only about one quarter as pleasant. First of all it's in a so-so area on a very noisy street and the doors and windows open to the street. We couldn't get the key to open the door at first. The front desk guy showed us that you have to pull on the door just so to get the key to work. The room smelled strongly like insecticide - not what you want to smell when entering a motel room. There was a fly in the room so apparently it didn't work. The weirdest thing was that the toilet paper dispenser was about 4 feet from the toilet, so unless your arms are 4 feet long you have to get off the toilet to tear off the paper. The shower temperature settings were reversed - the hot water was where it was marked cold. The complimentary coffee was not in the room, it was in the front office. There was no breakfast apart from teeny tiny plastic-wrapped muffins. We won't stay here again.

The Express Inn is only a few years old, the property is small, neat and clean, with flowers planted where they can. It is a basic travelers hotel, with a small office check in area. The rooms are a decent size and very clean. My only problem was the area had quite a few folks wandering around who didn't seem to have jobs. This concerned me a bit, until we talked with some ladies in the shops downtown who assured us that they might ask for some spare change (and we did get one very polite request) but wouldn't cause any problems. They were right. Tho I probably wouldn't wander around at night here, everything worked out well. There are quite a few small motels in this neighborhood, this seems to be hotel row for Eugene.

Other reviews are correct when they say that the property is newer-- 2 - 3 years old. Our room was larger than a standard room but far from a "suite." One bed had several questionable stains on the blanket and when we requested extra blankets they had none without stripping a bed in another room. They washed the dirty bedding and returned it to us. The air conditioner smelled of urine when turned to vent, but the ac worked. The 6th street people traffic are shady/scary. We were unable to find name brand stores/resturants close. I would NOT stay here again.