Comfort Inn Emporia, Emporia

This is one of the worst looking Comfort Inns I have ever stayed at. For such a new hotel it is not nice. The towels are not clean, the linens have stains...just gross. The hotel seems to have fallen into disrepair. The exterior doors do not lock so anyone can come in. Also, this hotel has no elevator so you have to lug your stuff up stairs. The hotel smells like cigarette smoke. They say it is non-smoking but it really stinks. There are a lot of hotels in this area. Stay somewhere else.

We booked our room at the Comfort Inn in Emporia in February for a stay on a weekend we knew would be very busy in April. We arrived at the hotel at 4 p.m. for check in --- only to find that the room we had been given was in the process of being cleaned and the cleaning crew was very friendly . We did notice that the room was freezing ( I later figured out that all the rooms on that floor were freezing because they were trying to get rid of the smoke smell.). We really did not like the room - the first floor - had to drag bags down a half a flight of stairs and the floor reminded me of a dungeon. But we were only going to be there one night, and we had stayed at this hotel before and it had been okay. This stay was NOT okay! When we returned about 10 p.m. and went downstairs the smoke was horrible. The hallway smelled like an ashtray and it was penetrating into the room. At that point the hotel was sold out and there was no other room to be had either here or probably anywhere in Emporia. I had requested a NON smoking room not a room surrounded by smoke. When I checked out, I told the desk clerk about the problem and her respons: " Well, you were in room 112 that is right next to the smoking rooms" - Okay, I did not ask for that. I asked why they would put someone who requested non smoking there -- her response " you were probably late checking in and that was the only room" -- No I told her we checked in at 4 p.m. - her response "They should have told you!" --- none of these answers really satisfied me, so I asked to talk to the manager - who, which was no surprise was not in. I have since called for the manager 4 different times and each time - the manager is not in. I left a number for her to please call --- She never called. In addition, the breakfast was not great, - the bread was stale and they did not have much fruit and the biscuits and gravy uneatable. AND the hairdryer in the room did not work. All in all, our stay was not very pleasurable. And it should not be amoung the "Choice Hotel Group".

We booked this hotel because it was one of two hotels with openings during the week we needed to stay. I knew the hotel was fairly new so I assumed it would be fresh and nice. I also had read some good reviews. Let me tell you, the current management has let it go to pot. First off, the hotel is in poor shape. Every wall in our room including the bathroom had marks on it and just looked run down. The granite counter in our room was cut incorrectly and just looked awful. They had taped over the lock for the swimming pool and any person (or CHILD!!) could lightly press that door and there was the pool, 4 feet away. The outside door did not lock, anyone could walk right in the hotel at anytime. The breakfast room was very narrow and only had 5 tables, which was not nearly enough for the amount of rooms they have. The breakfast was the worst I have encountered in any hotel in recent times. They did have a hot waffle maker, but other than that you had two choices of cereal, some stale bread, or overprocessed muffins. Such a small room made it very hard for me to feed my children, you felt like you were dancing around the other patrons since there was such limited room. Everytime we asked the staff something we received an "I don't know." The only staff that treated us with a smile and were respectful were the housekeeping staff. They were very nice. The manager was just plain rude. The icing on the cake with him was during my check out. I was wrangling three small children and a cart filled with luggage through the lobby as he was sitting on the lobby computer. He looked up right at me, then turned away and let me struggle to get my children and luggage out the door (my 8 year old had to hold the door for me.) This was at the beginning of the ice storm, and the wind gusts were terrible. He sat there and watched as luggage was blown over, never once offering to help one bit. For me that summed up the stay. Unfriendly staff, dirty run down facilities, overall a frustrating stay. We booked thru Travelocity and were not able to switch to another hotel. If all you need in a quick stop and a place to sleep, this hotel is probably adequate. I would recommend going down the road to the holiday inn express or fairfield inn however, much better accomodations.

The beds in the hotel were very nice pillow top with extra padded mattress pads. The staff was very courteous and the hotel was clean. I will definately use this hotel again in the future.

As a member of Choice privileges you are entitled to late checkout. When I requested this at this hotel the manager said this was not available at her hotel. After making calls to their customer relations department they said it was not true and said they would work to resolve my complaint. After following up several times they said they were not able to get the manager to respond. If all this wasn’t enough they gave me the room right next to the breakfast area with what appeared to have zero sound proofing. I could hear what every person had to eat all morning. All in all a poor experience and I would NEVER stay in this hotel again. In fact I have given up Choice hotels all together as they cannot even get a local manager to admit lying or even respond to a complaint.