We decided to go find snow one winter evening, and decided to stay in the Chehalis/Centralia area because of the random snow accumulation. We have passed Americas Best Value Inn many times while driving down Interstate 5 and we have wanted to stay there for a long time due to the view of the lake. Call us crazy, but we enjoy the sound of the interstate traffic in the background while we sleep. This looked like the perfect place.
Upon arrival we met with the night clerk who was very friendly. He matched our price from an online travel site, which made the room $43 and change. He gave us our key cards and we headed off to our room.
The key cards took some "jimmying" to get the door to properly read the key, but we eventually got in. The room was okay, nothing special, but decent enough. The back door leads to a public balcony with a nice view of the lake. We found out later that the back door does not actually lock properly, but we weren't too worried about it because the door does not actually have a door handle. This would make it very difficult for any bad guys to actually get in.
One of our initial complaints was the strange color of the lighting in the room. Each lamp had the "daylight" colored compact florescent bulbs in them which created a not-so-cozy ambiance. The bathroom bulbs were the "warm" color compact florescent, so we quickly swapped the bulbs out of the bathroom and into the bedroom area. The TV was small and old, and the volume buttons on the remote needed to be pushed very hard to operate. The sheets were clean and the bed was comfortable.
The bathroom didn't seem that clean.... sticky floors, smelly towel, and a strange nasty odor when flushing the toilet (it wasn't me I swear), even after multiple flushes! We were provided with 1 towel, which we weren't certain if it was clean or not.... had a weird smell and stains. We also noticed that there was no tissue in the box.
Overall this was a slightly below average motel. We will not stay here again anytime soon, even though the property itself is in a great location. King Oscar Motel has comparable prices and a much nicer room (despite the lack of a lake view). This could be a really nice place if they just stepped up their cleaning practices a little.... maybe we will try again in a few years....
