El Rey Motel, Globe

Like: Room, Covered Parking, WIFI, Guest Laundry, convenience store across the street, close to downtown, and 5 minutes to casino, pet friendly. Dislike: NONE

We left a rave review last year. We returned this May to find Gerald, the manager,had gone and standards had dropped. We stayed for three nights. The carpet in our room was filthy but everything else was clean and worked well. The other guests appeared to be workers (rather than tourists as before) with trucks, some filthy. Guests left at various times through the night, often running their engines for about ten minutes. The lovely sign was not illuminated one of the nights and the "no vacancy" sign was always on the office door, although there appeared to be empty rooms. The internet had a sign saying "mail only". Circle K still does excellent coffee, nearby Chalos is still an excellent Mexican restaurant, but Jerry's with its new chef has deteriorated to the point of avoiding at all cost. We will still stay at El Rey next time we are in Globe and hope that standards improve again.

What's to like? Absolutely nothing. I booked this motel for seven nights sight-unseen - I only relied on all the rave reviews it got on this yahoo travel site!! I will never do that again! I arrived in the daylight to the office, hesitantly walked into it and asked to actually see the room before staying there. On the outside there were cars with their hoods up and guys working on their engines, the outside of the building was delapidated; everything was very sketchy and so were the people that were staying there. I walked into the room and was absolutely appalled at what I saw. I did not touch anything in fear of contaminating myself!! My mouth dropped open and I was shocked at what I saw. It was filthy and rundown on the inside, too. The guy that gave me the key so I could look at the room came over and said he gave me the wrong key and gave me another key to another room. I'm thinking that this one had to be better than the one I just looked at, and it was, but not by much. I went back to the office and nicely said that I would not be staying there for the week or even one night. I'm not sure why everyone has given this place a good rating; that is beyond my comprehension!!! The price is right, but the place is SO wrong!! The woman who runs it is very nice and helpful, however. That is the only good thing about this place.

Recommended by "Rough Guide" we decided to try El Rey. We were delighted at the period setting, great rooms, fantastically friendly service, views and five-star-plus value for money. We only intended to stay in Globe for one night, but liked El Rey so much we stayed for three nights and then came back later in the trip for another night. Highly recommended for those who don't want standardised multi-chain sameness. We note other reviews say there is a restaurant but this seems to have gone. There are restaurants close by and coffee is great at Circle K opposite - as are their donuts!