Everyone deserves a second chance, so the saying goes. Sometimes that is done to your peril. That was the case here.

Based on past experiences with Days Inns, I called the morning of our (planned late) arrival to ensure that we got a ground floor room, preferably handicapped accessible, but ground floor was absolutely essential. That was specified on the internet reservation made months before, and the clerk said Sure, no problem, but got quarrelsome about a handicapped room. Not a good sign.

So of course, when we showed up late at night at the start of a holiday weekend, we were given keys to a second floor room. I showed the non-English speaking clerk a copy of the reservation and mentioned the phone conversation of that very morning. They refused to budge - apparently they wanted all the guests in one building to make it easier on their too-few housekeeping staff. Things could have gotten very ugly, with the clerk yelling and whatnot, but apparently one of the owners called down to the desk to ask what the racket was about and the clerk was told to give us what we wanted just to shut us up.

The place has supposedly been updated at Days Inn's behest, but it appears the updating consisted mostly of one thin coat of paint. Same worn out carpeting and bedding as the last time, but one of the mattresses in our room appeared to be newer. The room was not dirty, but neither was it what I would call clean. There was a refrigerator and microwave, stacked one on top of the other on the floor in a corner of the bathroom area, very difficult to get at and use. Internet, as others have mentioned, was spotty at best.

The breakfast was, in a word, grudgingly provided and nothing to raise any flags over. The whole premise seems to be to do the absolute bare minimum to avoid losing their Days Inn franchise. Case in point, even though it was a holiday weekend, the pool was not filled up until Sunday. And of course the heater was still broken, so the water was just a tad icy. But at least they filled it up.