Budget Inn Motel — Hotel in Bourbon

I try to use local businesses when I can, so when I just needed a comfortable place to stay for an evening, I booked this hotel- it was affordable and other reviews and photos made it look nice.

In retrospect though, it looks like those reviews were made several years ago, and my experience was not good, so I'm leaving this updated review (and will be posting updated photos as well, to corroborate my review and provide a more contemporary overview of the place).

I do need to say that the family that runs the front desk was very nice, and you can tell that they have made an effort to make the rooms look more like the chain brands (faux wood floors, painted accent wall, curved shower rod, flat screen, etc). HOWEVER, the amount of neglect towards maintenance and cleanliness was astounding.

First, although ostensibly a nonsmoking room, the room reeked of cigarette smoke. There were no burns or ashtrays, so I didn't think that people were smoking in the room. The intensity of this smell also varied throughout the evening, and I eventually discovered that a good deal of the weatherstripping around the door, window, and AC unit was missing, so when neighbors smoked in the parking lot, it entered the room pretty easily. I hope that nobody is actually smoking in their rooms, considering that my smoke detector was literally held up with masking tape, as shown in the photo.

Second, the missing weatherstripping made the room even louder than it should have been- all of the parking lot and highway noises were quite loud. Normally this isn't a big deal for me, since I just crank up the climate control unit to get some white noise, but in this case, the climate unit didn't work. At all. The knobs for both the function and the thermostat just spun around freely, since they had long ago separated from the spindle. So no white noise fan for me, and I'm glad it was a pleasant day, and I didn't actually need the AC or heat.

Third, security isn't the greatest. I like the retro charm of having a real hotel room key over a keycard, but the rooms are locked with standard residential lock units on a nonsecured keychain. No "do not duplicate" or anything like that---just a standard Kwikset KW1 key that anyone can self-duplicate at one of those key copy kiosks for a couple of bucks. I would NOT leave anything of value in the room, and did the old "chair under the doorknob" trick in addition to the chain when I was in my room.

Fourth, it went beyond unclean. It looked like it had been a while since the bathroom/main room floors had been mopped, and there were multiple stains on the linens. Some of the stains looked like ink pen stains (ie, not too gross, but something someone should have bleached at least), but some looked like mouldering (maybe from not having climate control working in a humid environment?). And on the ceiling above my bed, a large cobweb (and not just an "overnight" cobweb, either- this had been their for a while).

Finally, the wifi could not be picked up most of the time. When it could be, I couldn't use it because I kept getting error messages about the router using ports not associated with browsing. Note that these errors occurred across multiple devices, and I confirmed the network name, PW, etc with the desk to make sure someone wasn't deliberately "phishing."

In summary, I can't recommend anyone stay here, as any one of the above major problems would be a deal-breaker for most people, suggest more significant systemic and safety issues rather than just "something getting overlooked that day," and because you can get a room at a competitor's chain for the same price.

If you do go, however, be aware that according to a sign in the lobby they offer refunds for up to 15 minutes after check-in (if I am interpreting the sign correctly, which literally says, "no refunds after 15 minutes.") you should IMMEDIATELY check your room for problems, rather than getting surprised by them throughout the...

This was adequate for our 1 night stay, but likely would not choose again. Motel has rundown outdated appearance but the room was simple,clean and orderly and included several tables and armchairs which were helpful to us. ||There was no access to hot water to make my tea other than the hot tap- no coffee maker in the room and no coffee or hot water in the office area. Our room must have been directly below the owner's living quarters as we heard much noise till late in the evening: heavy footsteps, voices, much conversation, washer and dryer noises, etc. ||Check-in was difficult with a language barrier and they were not interested in seeing my priceline.com reservation information. They just wanted to state their (slightly higher) price and charge our credit card. A day or two later, I was surprised to get an email from Priceline said that the motel had cancelled our reservation, saying that we "never checked in".||||I likely would not stay there again-not a great value, and poor customer service. We paid the same as we did for much nicer places later in our trip, and communication/integrity...

I was optimistic when I first arrived. The exterior is a little aged, but that's to be expected. When I first walked in, the room looked clean, and it didn't smell too bad (even though it was a smoking room, because they were out of non-smoking).

Unfortunately, I wasn't in the room five minutes before I saw my first roach. And that was only the first of many. The whole room is infested with bugs, bugs, and more bugs. So gross.

The wifi DID work, at least, so I was able to get my work call successfully.

Still, I think I would have been better off sleeping in my car and Skyping from the Lowe's parking lot down the street. The only thing this room has over sleeping in my car is a shower. :/

I really am not picky about hotels. I expect the cheaper ones to be run down. It doesn't even bother me if I see one or two bugs here or there (though I know it would bother some people). But this wasn't one or two bugs. This was an...