Econo Lodge Elkhart North — Hotel in Elkhart

This is thee WORST place ever. Before I made the reservation through Choice, I called the hotel to make sure I would be able to check in at 7:30am or 8:00am. I was told twice that I could so I made my reservation online. Upon checking in, I was poorly greeted by the owner (Anahlee I believe her name is). She was ABSOLUTELY rude. She then questioned if in the future I would need to check in early again (but she asked in a rude way). After driving 3 hours and working 12 hours, I left the situation alone and walked into my room. I fell asleep and woke up at 4am because my skin was itching and burning. I looked in the mirror and saw there were HUGE bite marks on my arms, side, and back. I looked a little closer and saw this HUGE BED BUG on my night shirt and a roach on the wall near the door. I called the office where I spoke to Wyatt and he merely changed my room. I asked him if he'd been aware of a bug issue at this establishment. He informed me that he hadn't. The only thing he could offer me was speaking to the owner (Anahlee) in the morning. I enter the new room and in the bathroom I see a roach (I stepped on it) and a light FULL of bugs. The room smells heavily saturated in liquor. I asked for a refund at 5am in the morning so that I could go to another hotel. I was told that he couldn't do anything until the owner came in at 9am. So here I am, waiting up until then so I can leave. I'm convinced these "good" reviews are from shell accounts because this place is terrible. If I knew how to add pics of my bite marks and the bugs I would. Don't walk but RUN from this place.

UPDATE: At 8am, I went to the front desk and low and behold Ana was there. She was ABSOLUTELY rude. She charged my card TWICE and said she didn't. We got into an agreement which led me to calling my bank. My back reversed the charges and now I'm sleeping PEACEFULLY at another CLEAN hotel... She had the nerve to ask me to go up to the room and show her the bug even AFTER I showed her my body with the bite marks.... Please don't stay here.. If you can, spend and extra 10 bucks to stay...

I stayed over at this Econo Lodge at the last minute when I was traveling to spend Thanksgiving with family and was road weary. The surrounding area was an asteroid belt of Apple Bees, Cracker Barrels, and Seven-11s: Just the sort of place you would expect minutes off the highway.

Behind the building itself was a pile of rubble – a cardboard fort that looked like it was housing a homeless commune, condom boxes, beer cans, cigarette butts – that made the place look even more hopeless in the dismal light. The bathroom smelled badly of cigarette smoke and blew stale air throughout the room when the overhead fan was on, but I just needed a place to crash.

I left early in the morning after poor sleep on the stiff bed and forgot my suitcase. Even though I had made my reservation only for the one night and given the desk clerk my phone number, the manager decided to charge me for a second night without contacting me. When I got home and noticed that I didn’t have the suitcase, I called and asked the manager to please give me a price of sending my belongings back, but she told me she could charge my card, but not give me an estimate.

Although the hotel was nearly empty, the staff had my number and knew that I had indicated I was only staying the night, and I had left a tip and comment card, the manager would not waive the regular room fee for the second night. I should have called the hotel on the road, she told me, and she didn’t care that I didn’t even notice that I was missing my luggage until I was on my way home.

I understand. A place like this doesn’t operate on return customers anyhow (who would choose to stay at a place like this?) so why should they care if people are unhappy? In hindsight, I should have just camped out in my car. If you are in the vicinity of this Econo Lodge, please learn...

Terrible little East Indian man owns this dump.. the very large woman at the front desk was just awful.. traveling from the West coast you lose an hour each time zone so I call the front desk when I woke up around 10:40 and she was just so nice and gives me a whopping extra 30 mins to shower shave and get my retired and also decorated military search and rescue K-9 packed up in to my P71.. then at 11:29:45 on the dot, the tiny little East Indian man if you want to call him that comes down while I am loading my car and starts hastling me in front of my k9 who wanted to chew him like one stinky toy, apparently dogs just have that 6th Sense because this shepherd loves everybody.. I put my k9 in my car and he stands there while I am loading and watched me .. then when I am done goes immediately in and checks the place out apparently to make sure I did not damage anything ya know because I am a 50 year old man traveling alone with a military service k9 .. lucky for me I always take photos before I leave just for people like him trying to make any buck he can.. DO NOT STAY AT THIS ECONOLODGE.. GO TO THE BEST WESTERN 2 DOORS DOWN IF YOU WANT A Good Night's rest and some decent hospitality.. just awful awful people at this place.. they will also be reviewed on yelp, travelocity, and other 3rd party...