La Quinta Inn & Suites by Wyndham Des Moines West Clive — Hotel in Clive

I visit Des Moines frequently and almost always stay at a La Quinta property when I do. My stay this weekend was one of the most disappointing stays I’ve had. Check in was smooth and the woman working the front desk was friendly and efficient. Upon arriving on the 3rd floor, I was greeted with an unpleasant musty odor. We entered the king executive suite and were disappointed to find that it was not set up like other hotel suites with a separate living area. The only things that differentiated this room from standard rooms was the addition of a kitchenette and a sofa sleeper. The way the room was arranged made it hard to use the desk without the chair bumping into the sofa sleeper. The addition of the kitchenette resulted in the loss of a dresser which meant nowhere to store my clothes other than my suitcase on the luggage rack. The closet was very small with only two hangers. The throw pillows on the sofa sleeper had visible stains. The artwork featured photos of families doing various activities, it was off putting and some of the strangest art I’ve seen in a room. The bathroom sink was badly cracked and in need of replacement. The floors were filthy and had a sticky feel to them. The bottoms of my husband and I’s feet were black within an hour! There were also children running up and down the hallways within our first hour of arrival. We went out to dinner with friends and returned to place our leftovers in the fridge before heading out for the night. When we returned we were looking forward to enjoying the dessert we had ordered to go only to find that our slice of pie had turned into soup! The refrigerator was not keeping things cool and resulted in the loss of our dessert and leftovers. I also found the kitchenette to be useless as it did not contain any sort of silverware, dishes or pots/pans to actually use the kitchenette. What is the point of having a hot plate if you have no pots to cook with? We spent most of the night tossing and turning due to the terrible pillows. These pillows were so small and unsupportive, I don’t know how anyone gets a restful sleep on them. At 6AM we were woken up to the sounds of children running the halls, alarms going off in other rooms and what sounded like guests slamming things around in their rooms. These walls are some of the thinnest walls I’ve encountered in a hotel. I’m grateful that this stay was paid for with points because it definitely wouldn’t have been...

This hotel was one of the best I've stayed at in a long while. The room was average, food was good, everything was clean (entry, room, hallways, sitting area, lounge area, etc), pool was big enough for my soccer team to enjoy and the seating area was large enough to enjoy with some of the soccer parents. There was no TV outside which the manager said was being replaced which was fine. The 'fireplace' was all for show and didn't put out any warmth but I didn't expect it to push heat.

Hotel rules were that no running in the hallways and everything had to wind down at 10pm local time. This wasn't a problem because my players were in their rooms earlier than that. The manager welcomed us on the Friday evening and sat with us while we enjoyed the nice weather on the patio by the pool.

Saturday was a different story with some 'Karen' that wouldn't stop being a 'Karen'. The pool rules said no 'jumping' so that was her first visit to the manager. The second visit was 10 min later about too much splashing but that wasn't in the rules. I talked with my team and they agreed no more jumping in the pool. The lady proceeded to follow my team around with her child on the side so she could complain they were getting her kid wet. It's a pool; either you get wet or don't go in. When my players went to the hot tub she followed them there so they went to the pool then she followed them there. She visited the manager two other times and the manager talked with us about what she was saying and noted that we weren't doing anything wrong. The straw that broke the camel's back was that when this 'Karen' took pictures/video of my players without their parent's consent so I reported her. The manager couldn't locate the lady so we could verify the removal of the pictures/videos on her phone so we called the police to report the incident. The following day, the lady showed up to breakfast and the parents of the kids called the police to follow-up on the incident. The lady was very confrontational while the police and the manager handled the situation very very well.

I would absolutely recommend this hotel for a stay solely based on the how the manager welcomed us and handled the 'Karen' in the above situation. If there is a negative review about how splashing in the pool and the manager, don't take that to heart because the hotel is wonder as well...

Parking lot had lots of random people just hanging around, but not staying there, so there was concern over keeping our luggage in the car. Lobby was dirty, and there was no one at the front desk when we arrived. When the manager, Mary, finally came to the front desk she was efficient and quick to get us to our room. The reason we chose this hotel is because we stayed at a la quinta in North Platte, Nebraska, which was amazing, I would give that one 5 stars. Our room was obviously never vacuumed as there were wrappers on the floor. The bathroom was not clean as there was hair in the bathtub, and pubic hairs on the bathroom floor. The ceiling in the bathroom had plaster patching, but nothing was painted over or fixed. There was boogers wiped on the door, the walls of the room had obviously been wiped clean so many times that paint was noticeably lighter on some spots. The TV only had basic channels. This all may not have seemed like a big deal if the room was not $145 a night. We went down and told Mary we did not want to stay there because it was so disgusting, and people were coming in and out of the room across slamming the door so it was hard for my son to sleep. She stated that she was coming in and out of the room across the hall from us and she has a new cleaning lady. She was very helpful in not charging us for the room, but it was inconvenient that we had to drive the rest of the way home that night instead of getting a good nights rest as planned. Instead we got home at 4:30am because we had nowhere to stay. Mary was nice, but I would NEVER recommend staying here as this town has many other hotels that charge...