Comfort Inn & Suites Sequoia Kings Canyon — Hotel in Exeter

Here is the most objective review of the Comfort Inn I can muster. It is a basic hotel. The room was comfortable, clean, and maintained to reasonably basic expectations. We stayed in a room with a king bed, which included a very basic spring mattress and clean bedding. You’ll notice the thematic word of this review is “basic”. The grounds appear to be well kept, as does the pool and the jacuzzi. For those complaining of bugs or critters, I may point out that you are surrounded by large river beds and a forest. Try to lower your expectations to meet your surroundings. It’s worth mentioning that there is only one other hotel/motel in the village that appears to be remotely on par with The Comfort Inn. Likely the other venue will be booked up as it was for us. The other motels available were simply not an option. I’m not sure who patronizes those alternative establishments, but after eye witnessing the grounds of those aforementioned motels, I would speculate personally that they are not even an option. I would rather sleep in the car. Some of those places appear as though not renovated since the 60’s. Ugh. The hotel was quiet, the view from our room was of a dilapidated building. But, I suppose you’re not staying here for the direct view of the scenery, but the close access to Sequoia national park, which is right down the road. There was a basic continental breakfast. Lots of carbohydrates and microwaveable options. It’s about what you would expect for a Comfort Inn. Though, you are in close proximity to a grocery store with reasonably priced barbecue take out. There are a few restaurant options that I didn’t utilize. The employee demeanor was on par with the amount of financial compensation they were likely receiving. Treat them like fellow human beings and you’ll likely receive the same courtesy in return. You typically get what you give in most cases. I would certainly stay here again. The rest of this review is for my fellow fitness enthusiasts. I would estimate that 95% of the people staying here came for the access to the national park (with a 5% margin of error). But, if you were expecting to use the “fitness center” at the Comfort Inn, you may be better off bringing some resistance bands or your own training equipment. The “fitness center” consisted of; one treadmill missing the safety switch key that I was unable to use (though maybe the key was at the front desk, I didn’t ask), one non-commercial recumbent bike, one elliptical that felt as if every fastener holding it together was loose, 6 sets of dumbbells with weights ranging from 5-30 pounds, and an articulating weight bench. Needless to say, you won’t get much of a workout in there. Again, lower your expectations to avoid disappointment. There was a sauna that did not appear to be in operation, though I didn’t...

Our stay at this resort was an uncomfortable one at best. Mostly to management along with an outdated room. When we arrived in the afternoon our room was 80 degrees + because the air conditioner had been turned on 78 and along with the outside temperature and a closed up room, it was very hot and uncomfortable. As we turned the temp down on the air conditioner, the temp didn't change because it kept shutting off. Management shrugged their shoulders and told us that house keeping must have neglected to turn the air down after cleaning the room and unfortunately as the air conditioner was shutting down at intervals, it probably was working at it's full capacity and they would provide us with a box fan to push all the hot air around. Trying to make the best of things, i retreated to the bathroom for a bath and discovered that the tub drain was missing. Nearly in tears now and sweating profusely, i opened the bathroom door as the doorknob retainer was afloat and pinched my my fingers. i went down to the front desk to ask for a plug and another room key card since only one had been issued to us. Finally maintenance arrived to install the drain plug and reiterated to us that although the room was very hot, the air conditioner would eventually cool the room down. I'm guessing that others had an issue as well, because I overheard a conversation in the lobby about a new system was being put into another unit because of a cooling failure and broken air conditioner sat outside our door for our entire stay. It took most of the night for the room to cool down enough for us to sleep comfortably and then we awoke to an ant infested bathroom. Again down at the desk the management told us that others had an issue with ants as well. At that time I had our keys re-programmed as neither one worked. We had the latter down several times over the 4 day stay that we had, for failure to open our door. I guess the last straw was on our last night there, we had no towels in our room after housekeeping had cleaned our room. Again down at the desk, I asked for clean towels and was given a song and dance about conserving energy like I had already used up my quota of towels for our stay. A manager asked "Is this going to be your last night here?" I answered yes and said that we were going out for an afternoon ride and would expect towels to be in our room when we returned. Guess what ? None were there when we returned. My husband went to the desk and asked for towels and was given a hard time about also getting face cloths. Does this sound like a wonderful vacation place to stay. I was very disappointed and left thinking that i could never stay with this...

We stayed in Choice Hotels for 5 consecutive nights during our recent vacation to Northern California. Two nights in an Econolodge, one night in a Quality Inn, one night in a Rodeway Inn, and one night at this Comfort Inn. The Rodeway Inn in Eureka was delightful in every way! The Econolodge nights at OAK were pleasant and the staff was extremely helpful in shuttling us to and from the rental car desk and the airport terminal. The Quality Inn staff was very accommodating at the last minute when our reservation in Mariposa was cancelled due to wild fires.

This brings us to the Comfort Inn in Three Rivers. The price of this "higher end" Choice Hotel was twice that of the Rodeway Inn. The Rodeway Inn experience was flawless and the Comfort Inn experience was disaster after disaster. And of all the hotels, this one processed the charge on my credit card in the early afternoon, around seven hours before we arrived, while the others waited until check-in. I'll list the deficiencies:

All room door handles open upward. Put the key in and the turn the handle down - no entry. When I went to the desk, there was another gentleman asking the same question.

No refrigerator or microwave in the room. We had just traveled 11 hours and had our food with us for some special diets. I cannot remember the last hotel room I stayed in that did not have these amenities and certainly expected them in the higher level Choice Hotel that was priced higher than all the others. The gentleman at the front desk was very pleasant, obviously trying to be positive as he delivered frequent excuses and tried to be helpful. He told me that roughly 5 of 10 customers were surprised to find these amenities missing!

At 11pm, we started to fill coolers with ice. Guess what. The ice machine didn't work! Gentleman at desk gave me some small bags of ice that were prepared for guests who needed ice.

Mattresses were terribly uncomfortable.

Internet didn't work.

Regular cell service wasn't available.

And to top it all off, the Manager never returned my request for a phone call.

It is of no consolation that, as the gentleman at the desk informed me, this hotel is under new management and trying to address many known issues. This being our first visit to the area, we relied upon the standards of the Choice national chain rather than take a chance with the local hotels. BIG DISAPPOINTMENT! A minimal accommodation would be to refund at least the difference between the price of this hotel and the Rodeway Inn we stayed...