New Owner plans refurbishing (April 2006)
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 06/28/06
We had a fine time here for a weekend. Because of the new owner (see below), most of the complaints about this place won't be valid in the future. But I'll first report what I found in April 2006. It is not a luxury place, but it was nice with decent amenities and we were very comfortable there. The prices here were more reasonable than the greatly inflated resort prices we found elsewhere (this could change with refurbishment).
Because of prior bad reviews, I looked for bugs and dirtiness in the kitchenette area, but didn't find it, and the bathrooms were very clean also. However, carpets were very dark and I felt they were concealing lots of dirt. Also we had no problem being on the second floor (no third floor noise, I guess we lucked out with upstairs neighbors). Thanks to the comments about road noise, we knew to request rooms on the back side against the hills, and again that was fine. We found the rooms perfectly comfortable, but like so many places that call themselves "suites" they were just big rooms with well defined areas (I think they had singles and multi-rooms available too, so check). Our room had a sitting area with a loveseat (fold out bed) and tv, a kitchenette with small refrig, microwave, coffee maker, table & chairs, a bed area separated by a 4" high wall with another tv, a closet area and a bathroom. The pool was not giant, but was very little used so there was no crowding.
The breakfast bar had make-it-yourself hot waffles as well as the usual contintental breakfast items, but I would have liked some protein for breakfast (e.g. the Prescott Comfort Suites has hard boiled eggs in their breakfast).
The afternoon clerks were pretty sluggish about helping, very pleasantly doing what needed to be done but nothing more (e.g. the lobby coffee pot was empty, so rather than telling me they would make more, they told me I could make some myself in my room).
There is nothing special in the immediate area, a Dennys, a Carl's Junior, a movie theater up the street, a big car dealership across the street, a trailer park and hills behind (hikable?). But this community is all spread out across Coachella valley so you're driving a lot anyway and it is centrally located for that.
Because of the complaints about this place in prior reviews, I talked to the manager one morning. He told me that the place had been on the market for about 6 months, and that the prior owners had simply neglected it. The new owner (April 2006) already owns a few other hotels in other cities, and planned to put a lot of money into the place, completely redoing it, e.g. energy efficient windows, new air conditioning, new interiors, etc. If you consider booking here, you might want to check on the timetable for these improvements, or whether or not they have been done at all. My biggest complaint about spending time in the rooms is that you have to have the curtains closed all the way for privacy (else passerbys look in) so you don't get any natural light. Supposedly the new windows will let you see out but passerbys won't see in.
I would be happy to stay here again.