Dakota Inn — Hotel in Fargo

Well. We survived. Walked in and immediately realized our mistake. But we persisted and after ringing the bell we were greeted (that's a hyperbole) by an employee who clearly felt he had better things to do. He fumbled around with the computer a bit and settled on giving us room 204. Naturally we went up to room. Walking down the hall alarm bells are going off in my head. Three full bags of garbage outside of one room, another had cat food coming out from under the door. It was evident people must live in this Inn. We tried our key to room 204, only to hear a woman yell out at us- reasonably so as clearly we'd been given the wrong room. We traipsed back down the dingy hallway. At this point we are frantically looking at other hotel options to no avail, we'd even considered driving to another city, regrettably we persevered. The employee eventually showed us to our room, taking us back down that dingy hallway- at which time the amount of garbage in the hallway is becoming more and more apparent to me, and the smell of cigarette smoke has permeated my clothing. Now, onto the room it's self. A bed bug check screened negative which was the first and only positive of this inn. The shower worked to some degree- it was warm but really didn't wash the soap off. The "comforter" was really more akin to a table cloth that had multiple cigarette burns in it. The smell of old and new cigarette smoke is pungent in the air. Once we laid down to bed the outside sounds became all too apparently- doors slamming, men and women yelling, banging and clashing sounds coming from the hall and other rooms. We got the air conditioning working here and there to drown out this noise. After a total collective sleep of about 5 hours we decided we were rested enough to get the heck out and carry on with our journey. Recommendation- don't book, just don't. Spend the extra money, if you're short on funds sleep...

I was definitely hesitant on booking given the bad reviews and low rating. But honestly for the price, it's pretty decent - I'm low maintenance and on a budget. The room was clean, the place overall was kept neat and there was no bad odor. No bugs either so that's a plus! Good location, adjacent to the highway and close to downtown Fargo.

However! I will say that the overnight staff is absolutely useless. Seriously. Upper management: You might as well save yourself the labor costs and implement a self-check in for guests after a certain time.

If you need anything at all afterhours, don't count on the front desk to help you out. The guests across from me were absurdly loud all night, blasting their TV at full volume from 3AM until I checked out at 11AM. Like I mentioned, I’m very low-maintenance and things like this don’t usually bother me. But I’m in early pregnancy and value my sleep and especially not being woken up at 4AM by loud noise and kept awake for multiple hours. I called the front desk and politely asked if they could ask the guest to keep it down. They hung up on me. No apology, no acknowledgment, no action. Just… hung up. As if I was inconveniencing them by asking them to do their job?

Besides this, the place is decent if you don't need the staff and have...

You get what you pay for...

Let me walk you through our visit.

First, when we arrived there were 3 cop cars in the parking lot.

The immediate smell of cigarettes when you walk in, and complete lack of maintenance. The hotel room smells like smoke as well.

Smoking in ND has been illegal since 2012. Let that serve as a benchmark to when the last time the owners invested in their hotel.

Within 20 minutes of being there, my wife got asked "how much?" While walking down the hall.

The hotel room was dirty. Hole in the washroom door, unwashed floor, blood on the wall, dirty blankets, cigarette burns on the bed spread.

At 930 in the morning, someone knocked on our door, I yelled that we were sleeping. They knocked again, I yelled back.

5 minutes later, a staff member tried opening our door, we had it latched so they couldn't. If you are thinking that maybe they didn't hear me, they did. The doors are then and you can hear people walking down the hall.

Hot water seems to be a premium. I ran out during my shower. Speaking of showers, they have such hard water it is impossible to actually wash.

The hotel has no drawers in the room. The hangers had some sort of black slime on them. Not sure what that was.

Anyway. You get what you pay for. You deserve better. Pay more and stay...