Econo Lodge — Hotel in Blair Township

I work at another Choice Hotel brand a few hours south of Traverse City, I will be writing a review on every aspect of my stay. When making my reservation, I used my choice privilege points for a free stay at the Econolodge in Traverse City, MI. When I made my reservation, I put on there that I needed an early check in and a late check out. As a choice privileges member, any guest at any hotel can request a late check out as late as 2pm! I went on this trip with my hubby as a mini vacation away from our two year old son. When arriving to this hotel, I walked up to the front desk, I stood for about two minutes, before an employee even looked at me, she was standing right by the door way of the office. I did not get a hello how are you, I got “uh you can’t check in yet.” I know they had rooms cleaned already since it was only 40 min before check in. I proceeded to tell the front desk employee that I worked at another Choice Hotel and requested an early check in and late check out. She told me there was nothing on the special request section, so that means on of the employees or the GM erased it. She then still proceeded to tell me that I could not check in early. I felt like she didn’t take me seriously due to how young I look, I am in my mid twenties, I don’t need to be spoken to like I am a teenager. Again I told her I was an employee at another hotel and that I knew there were rooms cleaned, then she finally turned around and started speaking to me a little more respectfully. After about ten minutes she finally gave me the keys to my room and told me about breakfast which you are supposed to do. I was very happy that we were able to park right outside our bedroom window and that there was a door right by our room to make going back and forth convenient. When we got into the room, was very pleasantly surprised that the bedding and tv were updated from what the pictures online showed. It made the room feel newer. I was also very happy that the mini fridge was about twice the size of the ones at the hotel I work at. I went into the bathroom to put some of my things in there and there was a used towel hanging on the back of the door from the previous guest, I just left it there. Other than that the room was very clean! Before leaving for the day, we got a chance to use the pool and hot tub, very relaxing, just a little small, it only went to 4ft and my hubby is over 6ft tall, still enjoyable though. After finally getting back to the hotel after an exhausting day, I went to the front desk to check on my late check out. The front desk clerk was very nice and told me to ask the lady in the morning and that she would leave a note. I went back to my room and laid in bed, very comfortable! I was also shocked at how quiet the hotel was considering how booked they were. We slept like babies! In the morning I got up and noticed there was an orange light blinking on the phone. I tried calling the front desk and it wouldn’t call out. I went to the front desk to ask about it and my late check out. It was the same lady that checked me in, no hello good morning, nothing. Just a hey you can’t check out late my GM won’t allow it since we are so busy and the housekeepers don’t work past 2pm. Ok I understand that then, so I asked if I could get a 1pm checkout, no. I couldn’t even get an 11:30 check out, I am 100% positive that the housekeepers can clean many other rooms before they clean mine, and they weren’t even at my end of the hall! They definitely could have worked with me a little bit and let me stay until even noon. That is so unacceptable. You can not do that. If I told a guest they could not check in even though there is a room ready for them or told them they couldn’t have any extended check out, I know there would be many complaints and I’d probably get fired! I did not want to spend my only vacation in two years arguing with the front desk clerk so I am going to let choice handle it. I used my hard earned points on this stay and work at a Choice Hotel, I think I deserved a little more respect and cooperation than what I was getting. After giving up, we went to breakfast, which I was already assumed wouldn’t be like what you get at a Sleep Inn, but I was happy about the hot waffles, YUM! Also the housekeeper that was helping with breakfast was so nice and helpful, maybe she should be working...

Location is about the only thing this place has going for it. I'm not even sure where to start, so I'll guess I start with the app and reservation. My wife we're in TC to do some wine tastings and color tour around the Leelanau Penninsula and needed a place to stay. She is an advice Hotels.com app user and noticed this place listed for $199, which was on of the cheapest prices around, as TC is generally expensive to stay at this time of year. She then went to their home app and it was listed for $139, great!! After booking and with "taxes" the price pumped to $259!! Which is fine as long as they put someone that extra money into the rooms and building....not the case here. Upon arrival I pulled up to the front entrance to check in. There was screens hanging off two front windows, which I assumed was part of the lobby. 1st impressions mean a lot. After a 10 minute check in process, we finally got our room, #110, 1st room off the lobby. We entered our room, which was dark and proceeded to turn on the light as we entered. The light switch was located on a wall to the right, switched in on...nothing, switched it off again...nothing. I eventually was able to turn the bathroom light on at the same time my wife was able to to a lamp on above the dresser/tv stand. Turning our attention to the beds now. There were two full size beds, and the were LOW to the ground. Im 6' and the top of the mattress didn't come to the bottom of my knee. I guess they didn't want the liability of people falling out of bed and injuring themselves. IDK. I will give it to them the bed coverings and pillows were ok at best. The floors were updated to a click-lock vinyl plank, which was nice...if they did THE ENTIRE floor. Seems they didn't want to move the beds, which were on an aluminum frame and easy to move. There was a very notable 3'x4' section under each bed that was not finished and had either the old floor or concrete showing. It was like this under both beds. Also, the new plank flooring was showing noticeable gaps against the wall were they didn't use any type of trim to cover as they should have. The walls were painted fairly recently. I'd say when the remodel of the room happened. However, there were noticeable scuffs and what not in many places. The furniture was dated, probably from the 90s maybe early 2000s if your lucky. There was a coffee pot, but no coffee was offered and fridge which was off upon arrival I assume did to save money, which I understand. Beware of the coffee pot. My wife ended up making some hot tea in the morning and it leaked and shot out plenty of steam to burn if your not careful. Moving to the bathroom. My belief is that this is where most of any remodel went. New tile on the shower walls (notice i said walls and not the floor.) The vanity was nice with a decent faucet and the mirror was updated to and large one with a built in light around the edges of it and heated mirror (which might not work) we could get it to work at least. The tiles on the floor and shower pan did not look newer or were not cleaned very well. I would lean toward not cleaned well as there was alot of sand/dirt on the floor in the other areas of the room. The "stainless steel" shampoo shelf in the shower also seems to have black mold growing in it. This hotel is not quiet either. Lots of road noise and other noises all night long. Haunted?? Lol! Free continents breakfast. As long and you like prepackaged mini muffins, cheerios, granola bars (two flavors), coffee and apple juice (had something inside the container like it wasn't washed well), this is the breakfast for you. They could have done much better if they would have not been so cheap and lazy. And I say cheap and lazy based off of the quality of work done in the room itself. I didnt personally interact with the staff, but my wife said they were "meh" If your looking for a place to stay I would look elsewhere. Spend a few more dollars to get cleaner, more updated rooms and better breakfast options. Maybe better yet, check on a vrbo or airbnb and get an...

My boyfriend and I stayed here 8 nights for our Traverse City Vacation. We had a hard time choosing between 2 or 3 stars. We re-read previous reviews right before we arrived, so we knew what red flags to look for when we checked in. These reviews mentioned bed bugs, needles, and hair. Our overall stay here provided us everything we needed. A place to sleep, shower, and get ready... not much else. It’s not that we expected tons of amenities, but I did expect more out of a hotel. Especially one that we paid $1,100 for. Upon arrival, we left our luggage in the car to go inspect the room. As soon as we walked in, the hotel had a distinct smell. The closest thing it reminded us of is stale smelling smoke. The lady at the front desk was nice, nothing off putting happened. We walked up to our room on the second floor, and the carpeted hallways / staircases were not very new looking or well kept. The window in the specific staircase we were using to go in and out of the building was open the entire week and the screen was letting all kinds of bugs in. The smell never went away, in fact, our room was almost worse. We actually went to Meijer and got an air freshener, which didn’t help much because the stale smell seemed to just be the norm there, like it had been smelling like this for years. We took the sheets and mattress protector off the bed, looked over the mattress for bed bugs, and needles, and checked the corners of the room for anything or any bugs piled up. Thankfully, nothing looked unusual, and the sheets seemed clean. The best thing I can say about the hotel is that the sheets we were given were surprisingly very soft. We then went to the sink (which is outside of the bathroom) the counter top seemed decently clean, although it wasn’t shiny or anything. The bowl of the sink, however, was not clean at all. It wasn’t anything that looked nasty, but there was some hair and lots of built up soap residue in different spots of the sink bowl. There was also stains from the hard water coming out the faucet, which was not a big of a deal, but still something we noticed. The bathroom check was next, the toilet appeared clean. When my boyfriend lifted up the seat to use it, the lid would not stay up, which got annoying for him. The “jacuzzi” tub was nasty looking. More hard water stains, which again, I understand that being an issue out of their control, but still something to pick up on. The drain area was not clean and looked like it hadn’t been in awhile. The sides of the tub looked dingy and like they needed to be scrubbed. I was very tempted to do it myself. Next we checked the microwave and the mini-fridge, which were both clean looking. No problems there. We decided to go get our luggage and start to settle in. I ended up cleaning out the vanity sink and lysol sprayed the entire room just as a precaution. Like I said before, the sheets were very soft and we both had mentioned that to each other, the bed wasn’t super comfortable, but it didn’t bother me much. The bed squeaked and made all sorts of noises. It didn’t affect how we slept because we are both heavier sleepers but we did laugh at how noisy it was just to move around. In the morning, we both took showers and the water pressure was not good at all. It was hard to even wash soap off of my body because it seems as if the water didn’t hit it much. The shower curtain was an off-white with some stains. (I’m guessing it used to be fully white) I would not soak in the tub and turn on the jacuzzi jets. I would not even use the toilet or shower without wearing shoes. Since the sink wasn’t clean, I figured they didn’t clean the floors. No signs pointed to the floors not being properly cleaned, but I was not taking any chances. I did notice the hotel was quiet, we didn’t hear other guests, even though the hotel had no vacancies. Although our experience was not terrible, it wasn’t very enjoyable. I would have paid more to feel...