Dinner Bell Motel — Hotel in Dunnellon

I wish I could ignore what is somewhat beyond the control of management, but I can't. If it weren't for the other guests I could probably rate this motel a 5, they've made a lot progress from the other reviews I've read about them. But the other guests - who seemed to live there - were very problematic.

The Good: The room was clean and didn't smell and was much better than anticipated. Only complaint was that the paint job seemed incomplete in the bathroom (old blue paint still visible under new white paint) but that's not a problem for us. The staff are polite and friendly and I have no complaints about them. The location is great it has 2 great restaurants to eat at (one next door and one across the street on the river). Our favorite, Swampy's on the river, is just a 5 minute drive. It's also across the street from the Seafood Market which sells a great seafood salad and bait if you're there to fish. Pennsylvania Ave is just 2 blocks away lined with more dinning options and is a great walk to see historic old Florida. It's central to everything Dunnellon has to offer, KP Hole, Rainbow River Headsprings State Park, Blue Run Park, Withlacoochee kayak launch site.

The Bad: The other guests seemed to be more than just guests - they seemed to live in the motel and were too comfortable staying there, to the point where they don't consider that other guests are there for quiet time near the river. They loitered outside our window, walking up and down the place drinking (I assumed beer, but I didn't explicitly see) and blasting music from their car. If you try to talk to them to turn it down they will be indignant to you and say they have the right to play their music as loud as they want until 10pm (as if it's their home and not a shared space that everyone paid to use). One even "called" their relative who they claimed was a Sheriff and held up the phone to me as if I was in the wrong - so don't bother even confronting them on your own. If you complain to management they will tell them to leave - but they come back and will be more indignant to you if they know you are the one that complained.

The Really Bad: Aside from the seemingly live-in clientele having bad attitudes towards other guests - we're pretty sure they are all crack or meth addicts too. They literally put our lives in danger when a fire broke out in room 212 during our stay. While we were watching TV we over heard someone CASUALLY mention "fire" and that piqued my interest to look outside, just to be sure. When I saw smoke billowing out from the opened door, and the management staff fiddling with a fire extinguisher trying to figure out how to use it, we promptly started throwing our belongings in our car before it spread. Thankfully, the fire department arrived and it never spread beyond that room (the fire department is on Pennsylvania Ave just 30 seconds away from the motel if that makes anyone feel even remotely better). Other than that panic, after the fire department showed up, we were not inconvenienced by it further. When the police arrived I overheard one of them mention that it was a meth lab that was left unattended. I still don't know if this was them speculating or if this was their definitive assessment of the scene, but it's enough for me to really weigh whether the savings we got from this motel is worth...

They did not clean any of the rooms available. They sheets had pubic hair in it and pieces of ripped cardboard (trash). They obviously didn't change the bed sheets because they were wrinkled too as if someone had slept on them. The bed cover had white crust on it too (also unchanged and dirty). The mattress protector was literal plastic so the bed - just by touching it —was uncomfortable and noisy. The bathtub has someone else's hair on the floor (they didn't clean it). There was literal dead bugs and dirt all over the floor showing they didn't sweep it. If it couldn't get any worse, the TV remote didn't work, and after getting my hands dusty trying to turn it on, the Samsung TVs were terrible because of how low quality and pixelated it was... I couldn't even see the face of the people on the TV because the resolution was that bad. It also wasn't a smart TV and didn't have a good variety of channels. On top of that there were some sketchy people standing neg around outside. Needless to say I did not feel comfortable staying there. Upon the lady at the front desk seeing the unclean room, she said she would clean it if we left for thirty minutes to an hour ... mind you we arrived at 8:30pm. We asked her if we could just go to the upstairs room that she said was also available and she insisted she would clean it fast... which makes me assume she knew that one was unclean too... hm must happen often (especially seeing the reviews). We left and went to The Gator Den motel-less than a minute away drive and MUCH cleaner with an amazing big smart TV. When I requested a full refund through booking.com and shared with them what I experienced ... they didn't apologize. They didn't take accountability. It's as if they were lot surprised at all. They just told me they approved it … that should...

I'm Judy Mel and Jaybird run among the most Pleasant people that I've ever had a chance to stay with their Motel which is quite unexpected was a safe haven for my wife and I when we were displaced quickly one night while visiting in Rainbow River in Dunnellon. It's local it's close to everything it's right downtown you can walk to restaurants and shops in the hospitalities absolutely something to brag about even though they never would. The room rates run about $100 and it's money well-spent you can walk across the street grab a boat to go on the River Tubing have some fun have eats there's a store across the street with food and drinks and liquor and anything else you could want this even a restaurant next door that has Indian food American food and Italian food so you can plan your whole vacation run this one spot and never spend too much money I left after on Judy gave me a Bible in my hand and said that she would continue to pray for me and bless me for the rest of my life and I can't wait to go back honestly she really touched me thank you so much folks. When I'm not Finding Gem hotels like this Backwater towns in Florida with 1700 people I'm running my own restaurant called Island Breeze soups in Lakeland Florida and I'm also the chef for the Detroit Tigers Major League Baseball team during their spring training months here in...