Red Roof Inn Louisville East - Hurstbourne — Hotel in Hurstbourne

I imagine in this case the old saying "You get what you pay for" applies to this establishment.

First impressions...the website shows nice curb appeal with flowers and a pretty green lawn around the entrance. There were no flowers, the grass was sparce and not brownish-green. The office entrance is NOT clear, there was no sign designating its location.

On Red Roof Inn's website, I placed an online reservation before my arrival. Upon entering the office, the front desk was not staffed. There was a sign up stating the staff was out on the property and provided a phone number to call, which is what I did. The staff member who answered said he would be heading to the office in just a moment. He did arrive promptly. I provided my name for the reservation and then he advised me there was a $50.00 deposit, on top of the room rate! Nowhere online was there a mention of a deposit, but I was there already and just ready to wind down and relax, so I accepted the deposit charge. I was advised it could take between 7-10 business days for the deposit to be returned to my payment account. So fair warning, if you cannot afford an additional $50.00 deposit being placed on your payment method, then this location might not an option for you.

I was provided with a room key and asked the location of the room in relation to the office, and was pointed in the correct location. I parked, grabbed my baggage, and proceeded to the room.

Upon opening the room door, a very strong pungent musky odor hit me in the face like a ton of bricks. I set down my baggage, leaving the door open, and walked back to my vehicle to obtain the deodorizing spray I keep in it. I then returned to the room and sprayed it thoroughly. I took my baggage into the room and placed it on the desk.

The PTAC unit (HVAC unit) was not on, and the writing around the unit's two knobs was worn off so badly I could not tell which direction I needed to make any adjustments. So I played a heating/cooling game with the machine for about 5 minutes just turning the knobs in various directions to secure the temperature comfortable for me.

On Red Roof Inn's own website they advertise a large flat screen TV, which is not what was in this room. It was a 24" TV which was at least 15 years old. The TV was functional and the TV remote control did work fine, which was a plus. However, I was disappointed about the small scale.

At 1:20 AM the electricity went out. I waited 30 minutes (1:50 AM) before I called the front desk to ask if they had an estimated expected time for the electricity to be back on, however, no one answered, instead the line rolled forward to the Red Roof Inn's main company answering service line. The answering service attendant asked me to hold on while he tried to call the front desk to determine if they had any information about the power outage, then the called was ended (and not by me). I called the front desk line again, no answer yet again, and it rolled forward again to the answering service. This time the answering service attendant advised there was nothing they could do in case of of the power outage, and advised me to walk to the front desk to get more information. I was quite surprised I was recommended to walk outside alone at approximately 2:00 AM in an unknown area, and told the attendant exactly that, they then advised again there was nothing they could do to help.

I decided to look up the LG&E (Louisville's electric company) power outage information, and did see the outage was affecting several locations in a small area surrounding the establishment. The website did not list an expected time frame for the electricity to be restored. Around 2:15 AM the electricity was restored. I do realized the power outage is not an issue with the establishment, however, they were unreachable and the answering service was not helpful in the slightest.

I will say this, the bed linens and restroom were clean, or I would not have stayed at all.

Overall my experience was less than pleasant, with a few surprises, and I will not be returning to this...

Booked a three night stay while traveling for work. Upon arrival, our room had an OVERWHELMING aroma of cat pee. Think horder living with sixteen cats in one room with no litter box—so gross. We arrived late and exhausted, so slept there the first night for five hours and left early to return to work.

I politely called the next morning, after my pregnant coworker had to seek medical attention due to symptoms occurring after our five hour stay and was told by hospital staff that it was likely environmental exposure. Pregnant women aren’t supposed to clean litter boxes, much less sleep in one. I was informed by hotel staff that they were “sold out” though all booking platforms showed multiple rooms available. He said the “best he could do was have our room cleaned.” Needles to say, I filed formal complaints through Red Roof and Priceline. Less than an hour later I had two missed calls from the hotel. When I called them back, he informed me he indeed had a room we would be switched to and to ask for the new key at the desk when we arrived back that evening.

When we arrived back at the hotel to get our new room, the front desk staff knew nothing and informed me they didn’t have a room to switch us to. They told me they would refund me for the first night due to the confusion and on a three way recorded call with Priceline, assured me that the remainder of our multiple day stay would be refunded the next morning when management arrived.

The next morning I reached back out to the hotel, to be called a liar by their front desk staff and management. They stated we left items in the room. I took photos of the room when we left, less than 24 hours after checking in. They then told Priceline that we neglected to check out, and that was the reason they were refusing our refund. However, Priceline has them on a recorded call confirming we would be checking out since they refused to honor their commitment to provide us with an ammonia-free accommodation and we couldn’t risk our health.

The manager told me the only way she could refund the stay was to provide her with a recording of the employee stating he secured us a new room.

I provided the manager with call log records immediately and again, received an email stating we would not be issued a refund.

Thankfully, my bank values customer service and with the insurmountable amount of evidence I have, assured me a chargeback would be approved.

Stay away. You’d be better off sleeping outside. Disgusting business practices. Honestly the worst hotel experience I’ve ever had in decades of...

Room was extremely clean, no bugs, very quiet while we were there (we arrived between 1:00 AM - 2:00 AM during a weekday if that helps). Lots of parking spaces that are close to the outside first floor rooms (I suggest to book the first floor if possible). Internet is 100% free with your reservation however it is extremely blotchy & you do have to continuously reconnect while working/multitasking on other things no matter if it's a mobile device or laptop I still got the same blotchy results. Bathroom was spacious & spotless, lighting in the rooms was perfect, rooms smelled good. We also have two service animal pitbulls for my husband's seizures that were staying with us while at this hotel. They were not discriminated against for their breed nor did the front desk attendant hound me with a bunch of questions about what services they performed, I offered to provide their service animal official papers however they said it was not necessary which I highly respected & appreciated. This room cost us $70 something after taxes plus an additional $50 damage deposit, cash was completely accepted without any issues also. For the price, for the location, cleanliness & quality, I highly most definitely recommend this Red Roof Inn location. Plus Hurstbourne Lane In Louisville Kentucky has pretty much every store around you could ever need along with two major Louisville malls nearby that are located off of Shelbyville Rd called Saint Matthew's Mall & the Oxmore mall. Hurstbourne Lane In Louisville Kentucky in my opinion is a lot safer than staying anywhere else while having to travel to Louisville. Stay away from Downtown Louisville & Shively/Dixie Highway if possible, crime has gotten really bad there. As long as you stick to the Hurstbourne Lane area, you should be perfectly okay while also being able to enjoy your stay. Thank you for the amazing stay, we will definitely be returning in the future. PS: The reasoning behind only four stars was due to the terrible wifi/internet signal/connection that consistently carried on during the entire duration of our stay. I was expecting to be able to use the wifi/internet since that is what was advertised on their official website, that it came with your reservation however we were unable to use it due to terrible signal strength. The equipment you're using might not be strong enough nor the right kind of model in order to be able to reach all guests no matter what side of the hotel their rooms...