Super 8 by Wyndham Black Mountain — Hotel in Black Mountain

We are on a very quick 10 day cliff notes version tour a few of the southern states: Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. Our second must see was Asheville. On entering the city a little later than planned we were slightly overwhelmed by the bustle and busy of the downtown core. We had not preplanned a place to stay so we opted to stay outside of the city for the night and venture back in to take a tour in the morning when we had some bearings in the light. We found a very economically priced accommodation about 14 miles outside of Asheville in a quaint little town called Black Mountain. We booked a room at the Super 8 by Wyndam Black Mountain. What a mistake – never again.

We have stayed at a lot of hotels… A lot. This includes high-end $400 a night right down to the typical rat motel. You don’t always have the luxury to choose when you travel on the fly like we do. Plus it can be an interesting journey to see if places are really as bad as they look or as people say.

On the exterior Super 8 by Wyndam Black Mountain was totally fine. Once inside it smelled damp. We are fairly forgiving when it comes to accommodations and we HATE giving bad reviews but we will if we find nothing redeeming. The one thing that will solidify a bad review from us is bad customer service. We don’t care if your sheets are Egyptian cotton and if we have a personal butler. If your front desk staff suck we will never some back.

Where to start… PROS: Located in the super cute historic town of Black Mountain, beds were comfortable, close to Asheville, cheap. CONS: smelled damp on entry, heater was set to 84 degrees but never really got warm, front desk does not have a corkscrew, fridge froze our water and vegetables, bottom of tub was slimey, hotel needs to be reno’d in a bad way – falling into disrepair, unfriendly front desk staff. Do smiles and kind words cost extra Super 8 by Wyndam Black Mountain?

In the morning at 10:20am housekeeping banged on the door to remind us to check out on time – Well that would be a first. When I asked about this being common practice the front desk lady in the morning was rude and confrontational. Until she discovered I’m a travel writer and would be writing a review. Then she explained that you know, housekeeping starts at 9am, Ummm so….

The couple with her appeared to be the owners and super polite and friendly. But that front desk lady clearly wears the pants in that relationship.

Our lesson was that in this case, it wasn’t a good deal – we got what we paid for. It was $73 CDN so about $60 USD – cheap. But smiles and friendliness don’t really cost anything so that would have been nice. Note to hotel owners- rethink your front desk staff. They are the faces of your business and when they are disrespectful and rude, or even just not friendly it can kill your business. If you don’t want to invest in fixing up your hotel fair enough, but don’t pay for bad help that’s just insane and bad business.

1 Canadian Beaver rating – only because the bed was super comfy. If the bed wasn’t good it would be a zero!

We have posted good pictures of our room that show the pretty bed and the disrepair. Don’t waste your money. Pay the extra $25 and stay anywhere else.

This is a bad example of a super 8 and the chain should honestly take their name back. It makes us nervous to stay at any super 8...

Ok service, the counter person was fast and courteous, at first glance the hotel is older sitting in the beautiful town of black mountain. We checked in and paid extra 5 dollar on top of our online reservation because of we had a pet. We entered the room and it was nothing like it was advertised on their website. The first thing we saw was a chunk missing out of the dresser. There were stains on the walls and the ceiling. It looked like someone had attempted to paint the ceiling, however they also managed to get paint all over the wallpaper border. The microwave was very old & not properly cleaned, I was afraid to use it. There was only one cup by the ice bucket for a room with two beds. The microwave, tv, fridge, and something else was all plugged into one power strip leaving only one plug open. There were only two other plugs in the room. One was by the air conditioner and nothing would stay plugged in. The charger actually fell out of the wall with no one touching it. The last one was behind the nightstand and you had to unplug the clock to use it. Walking around the room barefoot turned the bottom of our feet black even though they display a certificate with a score of 96 for sanitation. The stains continued into the bathroom, but that's not all. The wall in the bathroom was cracked extensively from ceiling to floor. The door handle did not have a lock. The solution apparently was to put a small hook near the top of the door, however there was nothing to hook to. There was also a large hole in the door. The bathroom garbage can had holes burnt in it. The tub was sunken in the middle making the bottom curved. It was impossible to get a truly hot shower, even without turning on the cold water. The tub didn't drain well leaving you standing in about 4 inches of water while showering. The curtain rod looked like it was coming loose causing the bottom of the curtain to lay in the tub. Toilet was hard to flush and the entire bathroom smelled like cigarette smoke. This smell got worse several times making us think someone was smoking in the room below us. It was also difficult to get any restful sleep. Any time one of the neighboring rooms turned off water or flushed the toilet, it sounded like the pipes were banging into the wall LOUDLY. Due to the gaps around the door frame as well as the gaps between the door and the frame, any time the room next to us opened and shut the door, the whole wall and our door would rattle. The gaps around the door were wide enough to see daylight through and the door rattled even when the wind blew. We travel several times during the year and stay in hotels often. This room was one of the most expensive, but it was the worst quality of room that we have stayed in. We chose this hotel because of price and because it is supposed to be associated with Wyndham. If this is the quality to be expected from a Wyndham hotel, I will be avoiding that franchise in the future. I wanted to let the manager know at checkout, but they rushed me through the checkout. I wish that there was a Laquinta near there. We've never had a problem...

For each of the three Topix highlighted above, I will describe the reasons I am giving the number of stars I contributed for each one...

Motel rooms: The pros of my motel room include... A ceiling with plenty of space, plus no ceiling lights Two double or queen size beds with plenty of pillows for both A fair amount of table and cabinet space A very nice powder room with a sink right next to its toilet, plus a bathtub and shower A refrigerator and microwave right near each other in the main cabinet And of course, a functional air conditioning and heater combination unit Room cons include... Temperatures on the air and heating condition unit only go up or down to a certain numeric value.* *For instance, the heat can only be turned up to a value of 72. However, for persons like me who have a high tolerance of the cold, this is usually fine except for on the coldest of nights. The mini refrigerator does not seem to have a freezer or a freezer setting. However, this is only a minor issue. The bathtub has not been fully tested, yet, however, it does not seem to have a drain plug which can be opened or closed. When using the sink, there is a chance for water to splash all over the floor. So please be careful when using it!

Motel service: The pros of reserving a spot at super 8 in Black mountain include very low, competitive pricing, access to relatively low cost laundry facilities, and of course, optional access to the free breakfast bar, which is located in their lobby. In addition to this, the staff members are kind enough to print stuff out for you, if you ask them to. The cons of this motel's service include a less than friendly attitude when dealing with customers. It could also be me which they don't like for some reason. In addition to this, the breakfast bar is only open from 6:00 a.m. up until 9:00 a.m. each morning. Gaining access to it may prove problematic for those who are not early risers.

Location pros include: A nearby Mexican restaurant for dining A top notch area specific hardware supply store A Dollar general store A moving truck rental stop And, a convenience store 🏪/fueling ⛽ station, all within walking distance from this motel! Location cons include spotty Wi-Fi, unappealing flat roof buildings for this motel, and a lack of restaurants and other major businesses within walking distance. ... Fortunately, the lack of major businesses in this area can be offsetted by placing orders online using certain websites or applications... As long as the Wi-Fi isn't so spotty as to prevent a reliable internet connection from being maintained.

Overall, the super 8 motel, here in Black mountain is not a bad place to stay for a short while. However, eventually, one will certainly wish to have a much better place to...