Comfort Inn St Marys, St Marys

First, I will start by saying that we have stayed in this hotel every September over the past 10+ years. The big tourist attraction is the PA Elk Herd and the area is flooded with people each year over a two-three week period in the fall. This hotel used to be nice, used to be clean, used to be friendly. Because it is the only hotel in the immediate area with an indoor pool I think mgmt has decided it doesn't matter what the hotel looks like. First: The rooms are seriously overdue for renovation. The carpets are disgusting. The corridors have uneven spots where concrete has shifted. I touched the corner of the dresser and the trim piece fell off in my hand. The air conditioner barely kept the room cool and it was only 55 degrees outside. Second: as mentioned, we have been coming here for 10+ years to see the elk. This means you are up and out of the hotel room between 5:30 and 6:00 am to get up on the mountain for sunrise. Breakfast hours are posted as 7-10am on weekends, but every other year the breakfast has been available early. Usually not the hot items, but cereal, coffee, juice, pastries, etc, for more of a grab and go for the early risers. Not this year. The breakfast area was dark, but there were cereal bars, coffee, juice and some hot item out on the counter. As we walked in, one of the employees came running up behind us screaming "you can't be in here, breakfast isn't served until 7am" I said we only wanted some cereal bars, she (loudly) stated again, "we have established breafast hours, you can't take food now". When I (tried very politely) to tell her that we had been coming here for over ten years and that management had always made an effort to accomodate the early risers she had no response other than breakfast was not available. While we were in the area this year we scouted out a few new lodging possibilities - we won't be back.

As soon as we got off the elevator, you could detect a strong unpleasant odor in the hallway. Although I requested a non-smoking, we were given a smoking room, which had a very heavy odor. The pool which was suppossed to be heated was very cold. There was only one computer situated right next to the elevator, in public view. Overall, the entire hotel appeared to be worn and in need of updating and major clearning. I would go elsewhere next time.

The poor reviews must have worked, because we had a very nice stay here in Elk country. The breakfast was very nice, (we would have liked a choice of turkey bacon or beef gravy instead of the pork offered, but there was more than enough offered, including waffles to choose from) We had the jacuzzi room and it was clean and comfortable. Most important, there were no bed bugs! The pool was very nice also. You can't beat the location as a base for sightseeing in the area.

Whoever is managing this hotel is not doing a very good job. I had stayed there a couple of years ago, and was not able to reserve last year and had to go to the Best Western, well I'm sorry to say I wished that would have happened to me again. The Comfort Inn was dirty, there were cockle burrs on the carpet in our room, and we also booked a non-smoking room and were given a smoking room. It smelled so bad, I did not ask for another room, because people in front of us were told they were all booked for the night and had no rooms available. My clothes in my suitcase smelled like smoke, and my husband and I were congested in the morning from having to breath that all night - horrible. Besides booking a non-smoking room, we were given a room with a connecting door to a couple that was smoking - someone definately did not pay attention to my requests. We always make a trip to St. Mary's in the fall and I will not book at the Comfort Inn again, I will travel the extra to find a cleaner hotel.