Motel 6, Petaluma

I hope my review saves someone from the trouble we had at this location. My husband, our two daughters ages 7 and 5, and I arrived at the Motel 6 in Petaluma after a long day of driving from L.A. County and briefly visiting the San Francisco area. We had previously called and had made reservations for a non-smoking bottom floor room. We arrived at about 8pm and checked in. They told us that they did not have any more bottom floor rooms available. No big deal. So we get the key to our now 2nd floor non-smoking room and head up. We open the door and are greeted by a very strong, stale, foul smelling, cigarette odor! Plus there is an ash tray in the room. Ugh! So back down we went to ask for a non-smoking room in which we had reserved. They said they did not have any more rooms and that was a non-smoking room, and offered to spray air freshener in there. Like that is really going to help a room that has smoke smell clinging to every surface. We asked her, well, if it is a non-smoking room, why do you put an ash tray in there? She claimed that they will let smokers have the room if there are no more smoking rooms left and that they should smoke outside. What smoker is going to give a hoot about going outside when there is an ash tray in the room with them? Shouldn't they provide an outdoor ash tray in this case? WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A NON-SMOKING ROOM? So we got a refund and called Santa Rosa's two Motel 6s. One had no vacancy and the other claimed that they couldn't guarantee that their non-smoking rooms would be smoke free. We tried a nearby higher class looking, more expensive motel (can't remember the name) in Petaluma and they were fully occupied. So, desperate by now as it was late and we hadn't eaten and it was nearing 10pm, we settled in a DUMP nearby called Dollar Inn. At least it didn't stink, but after that place I am not sure which one was the lesser of the two evils...I have definitely learned not to go to cheap motels to save a little money! I will never step foot inside a Motel 6 again.