We booked this hotel based on it’s price and location as we had an overnight layover in Phoenix. I figured that we couldn’t go wrong with a Choice brand hotel as we have never stayed in a bad one. Well, this one was the worst so far. Definitely not the worst hotel/motel I’ve ever stayed in, but certainly the worst in the Choice family. The lobby was nice and made me think that we had made a good decision upon arrival, but as soon as we hit the front desk, things took a turn for the worse. While checking in, my wife asked the young lady who was helping us a question about something. She did not understand the question and my wife therefore did not understand the answer, so that made my wife ask a further question, and the clerk defensive and started getting an attitude with us. I had to step in and explain to both of them when one was asking and the other was trying to answer. My wife left the desk steaming, because she felt like she had been given incorrect information. Right or wrong, the attitude really bothered me.

So, we proceeded to the elevator as instructed. For the love of God, could the fire marshal please come inspect this building? My wife walked into the elevator and the door VERY quickly closed behind her before I could get in. She tried to catch the door with her hand as you normally can do with the elevator but it kept on closing. She pulled her hand out and the door smashed shut on her suitcase – with pretty good force. It did not reopen. Had that been a child, or even an arm or leg, I could only imagine the injury that would have happened. She finally got the door to reopen by hitting various buttons inside the elevator and I quickly dashed in. She tried pushing our floor number and nothing happened. The door snapped shut again and we feared that we were going to be sealed inside, perhaps forever. After a few brief second of panic, the lights came back on on the panel and it allowed us to push our floor number. When we arrived at the second floor and the door opened, I dashed out the door and left her to fend for herself as the door snapped shut behind me. Fearing getting stuck in again, she waited for everything to light back up and hit the “Door Open” button and made a run for it. “We’re taking the stairs from now on.”

Upon entering the room, we were greeted by an unpleasant smell. “Aw, man, they gave us a smoking room,” I thought out loud. She replied, “this whole hotel is supposedly smoke free.” Hmm, so is that old smoke, or just some other kind of funk lingering in the room? It smelled kind of like my grandma’s house who smoked Virginia Slims and sold Avon. The décor was laughable, mint toothpaste colored faux marble sinks, a little sitting area with furniture that looked like it came from “That 70’s Show.” There was a hole in the bathroom door the size of a golf ball and all the caulking, tiling and paneling were separating from the drywall. The thing that concerned me the most was the large mass of electrical wires and tape and clips dangling down from the bottom of the A/C. I had to think that was some kind of fire hazard, and if we had been traveling with kids, I would have thought that they could have electrocuted themselves on it. The A/C did work fine though and did eventually clear out the smell (or I got used to it). The bed was very springy and not that comfortable so I tossed and turned a lot and my wife felt all of it so she didn’t sleep much either.

The morning staff was wonderful and saved some face for the hotel and the continental breakfast was a lot better than I was expecting. By now we had figured out the trick of holding the “Door Open” button down in the elevator and were pros at dodging the elevator doors one at a time, even with suitcases. We didn’t use the shuttle because we had to rent a car to run a couple of errands while we were in Phoenix. Overall, the price (through hotels.com – much cheaper than their standard rates) was good and the location was good. The hotel just needs a serious facelift and needs to address what appeared to me as some serious safety issues. I give it a two instead of a one because I’ve seen worse.