My husband, daughter and I were recently on a road trip up to Tennessee over the 4th of July holiday weekend. Before we left, we figured we needed a place to stay for the night and after looking at the different hotels available online, we went with the Days Inn as it was within our budget and we had stayed at Days Inn on other road trips and had always found them to be clean and a good value. We paid $60 for this room and I was utterly disgusted by this hotel.

First off, the photo on the Day's Inn website is misleading, as it looks like the entrances to the rooms are on the interior and not in the older, exterior door motel style. I wasn't happy about that, as it is a safety issue and also would have let me know that there was no need to book a smoking room, as I could have just stepped outside my door to smoke. When we arrived it was 10:00 at night, the front desk clerk was neither good not bad...she just was. Not friendly, welcoming. Nada. She told me where my room was and when we walked in, it smelled like a smoking room. A smoking room inhabited by 100 chain smokers for 50 years. There were flies buzzing around, the walls looked dirty, like someone had wiped their filthy hands all over them, and the bathroom looked like it hadn't been cleaned since 1977. The corner of the wall that leads to the "bathroom area" was stripped of paint in about a 3 feet long stretch and you could see the aging drywall.

Although the beds and pillows were comfortable, the cigarette burn holes in the blanket were off putting and I had to seriously try not to think about the number of illicit truck stop rendevous that had probably occurred in the same bed. I would not walk barefoot on the carpet, nor allow my daughter to do so, as it could only be described as dingy at best. The A/C unit kept going on and off throughout the night and the curtains did not shut properly so I had to clip them together with a hair clip so they would not allow people to see in. However, they curtains weren't wide enough on the rod, so there was still 3 inches of opening for people to see us sleeping if they desired to look into our window.

The next morning I went to take a shower (not by choice, but because I felt I NEEDED to after being in that room) and the tub was filled with small bugs (gnats, I believe). The shampoo was the cheapest dollar store reject brand, no conditioner. The hair dryer had all the power of a gentle wind and our highlight of our trip was the bagel in the morning. When I checked out, the front desk clerk was neither rude or friendly because that would mean she had to say more than 2 words to me. No "So how was your stay" or "Can I get you anything else?". Customer service is not their strong suit, I guess.

To top it all off, nothing says "safe place to stay" than to look out the front door and see a homeless camp right behind the Hardee's and about 30 feet from the motel parking lot. Needless to say, the next time we feel we have to stop in Clinton, SC we will be staying at the new Hampton Suites a few doors down and in the future I will rethink any future stays at a Days Inn establishment. To sum it all up, it was a disgusting place to stay worth no more than $35 a night and even that is a stretch. Unless you travel with and enjoy sleeping in a full on Haz-Mat suit, I suggest you avoid this place at all costs.