I was drawn to staying at this motel by its price. It's so cheap. Nowhere will you find something cheaper in the San Antonio region.

However, with the low price comes huge compromises. The staff is very mediocre. Some individuals are very helpful, and some really don't care. You really have to pester some of them to do SOMETHING. Some of the doors don't have functional locks. (A basic, you would think.) The towels are a bit ratty. The bath products feel funny when you use them. The wireless internet cuts out for days at a time. They don't have the rooms that you reserve. Some of the guests seem to be long-term residents. One guest seemed to be living there, as I smelled food being cooked from inside the room on a regular basis.

On the flip side of that. It is cheap, it has a fridge and microwave in every room. The rooms are relatively clean. It's a decent value, if you're penny-pinching. But if you want decent quality, spend a bit more and stay elsewhere.

We stayed 2 nights April 12&13 at the Travelodge San Antonio ATT center area on I35 to attend a graduation at Ft Sam Houston. I had booked the hotel with a travel card that I use which gave us an exceptional rate, then read the reviews on this and other sites and got a bit worried since most were negative to very negative. I looked at other hotels in the area Holiday Inn, Howard Johnsons, Microtel all were more expensive and reviews that described the neighborhood differently (everything from good to bad), and had differing satisfaction levels. Since I was pre-paid for the hotel I was stuck with the Travelodge. Imagine my surprise when I got to San Antonio and found that Mirotel, Holiday Inn, Travelodge, and Howard Johnsons were all literally next door neighbors, you could not have told that by the reviews. The neighborhood is what you would expect around an army base a bit run down, but for the most part I found that most of San Antonio appeared to be a bit run down. But downtown is making a nice come back. Access to the hotel can be a bit difficult with the frontage roads if you haven’t used them before, you have to plan ahead to exit. If you miss the exit just catch the next one and take the next crossover and go back past the hotel and hit a crossover to go back to it. Yes you drive out of the way a lot, but that is how frontage roads work. The hotel was close to Ft. Sam Houston (5 minutes), downtown (Riverwalk and Alamo 10-15 minutes), and Quarry Market (I35 west to I37 north 10 minutes) which my son wanted to go to, a place they frequented while he was stationed there which had good entertainment and shopping.

The Travelodge had a clean room, with fresh bedding, clean towels and no defects that I could find. The building is a bit older so there were some areas where there were cracks, and places it could have used a bit of paint. On the plus side the older buildings have bigger rooms no complains there. The back parking lot may concern some, so park on the side or in the Howard Johnsons parking lot, they share parking and a pool. The only downside I found was the Continental Breakfast, which consisted of small rolls, cereal, milk, juice, and coffee and the smallest coffee cups that exist on the planet. Shame they didn’t serve espresso, the cups would have worked. This seems to be a trend in the Interstate roadside hotels, that the breakfast uses small cups, plates, etc. to keep portions down. I don’t know why they bother; we went down the street for breakfast. All in all the Travelodge served its purpose, a safe secure, clean place to sleep. I found the staff friendly and helpful but don’t count on a bunch of help with directions unless it is in their book, but they did know where Ft Sam and the Alamo are. All in all I give them an average to a bit above average for the stay.

This hotel smelled funny. A combination of a musty mildewy smell, with re-circulated air from the AC, and cleaning sprays to try to cover it up. I felt queasy after our one day stay there.

There are other, better budget hotels on the same strip of I-35. For the price, $86, his hotel may be worth it for large families or people with pets. Not for 2 young people on a budget.

The rooms had cracked paint, the bathroom was small and grungy. This hotel needs a renovation. And did I mention the smell? Service was average.