Apple Inn Motel — Hotel in Chelan

This management tries to make this motel look or appear more classy than it is, but its actually low budget and with many items in my room damaged, not working, or lacking compared to other hotels where I have stayed. I have been a frequent traveler in the past, but never at this place which will not be repeated. Others in my party who also stayed agreed with me, and/or stated the same thing as in my first sentence. I told the front desk at the end of my stay that that was definitely not a $300.00 room I stayed in. Besides that, is it even legal to be overcharged to extent that I was from the usual $119.00? My arrival night was on the 31st, not Labor Day. I had a broken lamp that would not stand straight, and many very quirky things found in my stay. The huge shower head would not stay in whatever position you tried to put it in, and with lots of plumbers tape wrapped around it. It just hung down and sprayed down the drain unless you wanted to try to hold it and get clean at the same time. The second bed in a separate room, I found only a regular fan and an open window on the hottest south side of the building when the temperature was at about 100 degrees after the first day. My safety was jeapordized also. I was on the main level. It was about 100 degrees the 2nd day also. There was A/C but because of it being such an old unit, the motel staff had to turn it on for me as it didn't work right. It only worked marginally to cool, and was so old, it frequently made a very loud unpleasant noises about every 5 minutes or so, and throughout the night. There was not even one comfortable chair to sit in in this room. You had 2 beds, but one bed without any A/C, and your other option was one of 4 wooden hard ice cream shop style chairs. Because of pet issues to deal with, I could not make any reservations sooner than I did which ended up being on 8/30/25 for 8/31/25. The normal room rate for the available room was $119.00, and I was charged $299.00 for the one night. Highway robbery in my book, but I was to meet with a relative who was currently staying at that location. I indicated I may possibly stay another night. I was told at that time that the rate would be at the rate of $109.00. The following morning, I called the front desk to say I would be planning to stay another night. I was told I would need to change rooms, and the cost would be $139.00 instead. I could not use any of the usual discounts such as AAA when asked for both days. When I told him he just told me the cost would be $109.00 for the second night yesterday, and no indication of needing to change rooms, there was no flexibility whatsoever. The first night I had also been told I could not use and of the usual motel discounts. At the end of the check out time, I received a message that I could not use my room card, but instead would have to utilize the digital message on my phone to get into my room instead. When I called the front desk l was told I could come to the office for reactivation which I did and my AAA discount was applied to my 2nd day only, for a credit of only $20.00.

I would certainly appreciate getting any additional credit possible from the first night I stayed.

If not, I have the option of filing a dispute with my credit...

This place gets half a star for super friendly staff (and cat), and another half star for proximity to downtown, cleanliness (well, as clean as they can get it, considering), hot shower, and flushing toilet. The rest would get negative stars from me, if it were an option. My husband and I had the misfortune of staying here for two nights in mid-September because pretty much everywhere else was sold out.

Let's begin: this place is old and dated with much deferred maintenance throughout. The wood paneling on the ceiling with exposed beams was a modern-romantic touch, but the orangey fence-top planks on the upper two feet of walls all around was a definite 70's overkill. Linoleum was peeling on the bathroom floors in our unit, shower constantly dripped and had a good deal of calcium buildup to impair water flow, shower drain cover was cracked and falling into the drain, and the caulk between floor and wall tiles was dried out and crumbling. The entry door is hollow and provides zero noise dampening from the outside parking lot and busy road. We could hear cars zipping by and people talking and arguing in the parking lot all night long, both nights. The office closed at 11pm sharp, so there was no one to complain to about it.

And then the bed... WORST.BED.EVER Where there are firm and extra firm mattresses, this one was ultra rock hard on one side of the full size mattress (clearly never slept on due to being on the window side and away from the night stand), and had only marginal give on the other side. The literal pain of sharing this mattress with another person and waking up on top of each other because it was physically impossible to sleep on the ultra rock hard side is unimaginable, unless you've experienced it on your own back.

I don't understand all the positive reviews of this place. You couldn't pay us enough to ever stay here again. We would rather sleep in the car or on the ground and shower at the nearby state park than ever stay here in the future. The pain is just...

I don't even know where to begin. Would give 0 stars if I could. We pulled into the driveway and were greeted by scruffy old men peering in our car window with flashlights asking if we had reservations. Off the bat it seemed like they had a problem with anyone who wanted to stay at their dingy establishment. What kind of a hotel makes you feel like the criminal on Live PD before you step out of your vehicle (literally shinning a flashlight in our eyes).

Once parked, we made our way to the front desk to check in. Instead of a welcoming smile, we were greeted with attitude like I've never experienced before from the front desk attendant. It seemed she did not want to be bothered while on the clock. The front desk attendant was apparently suppose to give us wrist bands (according to their parking lot thugs), but we were never told about wrist bands, nor were we given any during our check in process. These parking lot guys (I honestly don't know what their job was other than to shine flashlights in your eyes upon entry/argue with you) became combative and told us there is no way we wouldn't have gotten wristbands at check in. When we contested that statement, they started arguing with the front desk attendant about their policies right in front of us (Very unprofessional... Take that BS to the back room and take care of your customers).

At this point we don't feel comfortable staying here. We didn't even enter the room, and decide to find another place to say. We were refused a refund and told "there are plenty of people who would gladly take your room for the night".

I would rather camp than have to deal with an experience like this again and hope that whoever is reading this doesn't make the same mistake we did in booking with this sorry excuse for a motel. The only positive is that we were forced to find another hotel for the night (20 miles away). Howard's On the River gave us the check in experience you would expect when traveling and took care of us the entire weekend with...