Shilo Inns Idaho Falls — Hotel in Idaho Falls

NEVER, NEVER EVER STAY AT THIS HOTEL. THE FISH STINKS FROM THE HEAD.

Let me introduce myself. I’m a writer, producer, and director. I spent years in the advertising business in New York and Los Angeles directing television commercials.

On June 21, 2023 my wife and I, both senior citizens, were traveling to a wedding in Montana and decided to spend the night in Idaho Falls. Your property looked perfect. We booked through Expedia and upgraded to a balcony room - number 203 - when we arrived.

At about five in the afternoon, as we were getting ready for supper, the toilet stopped working. I opened the tank, and tried to depress the plunger with a coke can to get the tank to fill. I couldn’t get it to work so my wife went down to the front desk to get help.

The elderly woman at the desk was not the same person who checked us in. She told my wife that the maintenance man had quit and there was no chance of fixing the toilet this evening. She did offer us another room - number 215. My wife explained that we really didn’t want the inconvenience of changing rooms so the woman said - no worries. Stay in 203 and just use the bathroom in 215.

To be perfectly clear, we used the toilet less than a dozen times and disturbed nothing else.

When we checked out the following morning, I told the person at the front desk - the same one that checked us in - that the toilet in 203 needed to be fixed. She responded by saying, “You’re still in that room?”

I said yes, and that that was the arrangement we had made the previous evening.

She said, “I’m going to have to charge you for the second room.”

I said, don’t you dare. The manager came out. Now, instead of apologizing for the inconvenience of having to traipse down the hallway to use the loo, he too, insisted that we would have to pay saying that “now we’ll have to clean two rooms.” I responded by saying “you would have had to clean two rooms regardless!”

When my wife and I explained that the woman the previous night had said it would be okay to stay in 203 and use the toilet in 215, both the attendant and the manager called us liars, exclaiming that the woman never would have made that accommodation and that they would indeed charge us for the second room.

I asked him to go upstairs and look at the rooms. They did. They saw that 215 was undisturbed and saw that the toilet was running in 203. I have video of each. Yet, they went ahead and charged us for the second room. That’s bad enough but being called liars as well is too much to take.

When my wife called later in the afternoon to get some information regarding additional charges on our credit card, the male attendant at the front desk said we would have to take it up with corporate. I’ve called the corporate office several times but as of today haven’t heard back.

In the course of my career I’ve stayed in thousands of hotels all over the world. And have never, never been treated as shabbily as this. Nor have I witnessed such a complete lack of courtesy and plain old common sense.

The fish stinks...

Stayed there this last weekend. Bottom line, this place was horrible! This hotel was the newest awesome thing back in the 80s when it was built. However, now it is a rundown mess. As you walk down the hallways (which feel like they are only about 6.5 ft high), you'll see the old "popcorn" ceiling look and feel like your eating asbestos. The elevator is tiny like a coffin. Good luck getting in there with 3 people or more.

Was booked on the 3rd floor, which used to be the smoking floor. The place reeks of old musty smoke and everything they've tried to use to remove it. Just plain nasty. The maid actually tried to just spray stuff on the floor to make it go away. Then commented that since its been so hot this summer, all of the smell is coming out of the walls. YUCK! Got moved to the 4th floor instead. The smell improved (as far as smoke), but the old mustyness remained. Our room was a mix of wanna-be upgrades (decent lamps and bedding) with ancient radio and TV. The TV was an old "block" tv and the radio was out of the 70s and not working. The bathroom fan sounded like Harley Davidson motorcycle when running. One of the many owners this hotel has passed through put some money into the bathroom tile, but didnt have it finished. The tops of the splash tiles was the rough cut edge exposed around the whole room and not the edge piece that should be there. The shower fixtures were upgraded at one point, but have been left to tarnish and lose their luster for sediment build up.

The outside of the hotel was not kept up either. Curbs are broken up, parking lot is dirty and beat up. The big gold lamps in the drive through are all tilted, etc. Parts of the hotel walls, roof, etc are in disrepair. The hotel has that "repainted 50 times over" look to it.

BEWARE: The "lounge" in the Shilo has become the night club for 20-somethings to come and hang at and pickup on each other every night. If you want drugs or STDs...this is the lounge to come to in Idaho Falls. Dangerous place to be around. I suggest going down the street to Chili's or AppleBee's to get a drink and hang out instead.

Next time, I'll use one of the better and many options on the river and pay a little more. I just didn't know this place had gone to trash.

Customer service was helpful, but are stuck with what they have. Wifi was...

We didn't get a chance to stay here but I'm glad we didn't.

We came through town during the same time as a BYU graduation. We had another hotel reserved and paid for 3 weeks in advance. When we arrived they said they were overbooked and refunded our money.

booked at a different one that same night, when we arrived they said they were overbooked and refunded our money.

Then we went to Shilo.. they took our money and told us the same thing. Fine, we were lucky enough to book at another hotel. When we asked about our refund they refused. They claimed there was a room reserved even though they said there wasn't while we were there.

Extremely dishonest. My guess is someone canceled and then they went back on what they originally communicated and tried to stick it to me. I spoke to Kurt the manager the next morning. He was polite to me but would not take accountability for what happened and refused to refund our money per there "no refund policy" despite what their employee had told us.

Besides the lack of accountability what really set me off was the way Kirk spoke to my wife. Not at all the way he spoke to me. Very condescending, dismissive, and he even made a derogatory comment towards her which crosses the line for me. I could understand if she was being rude and if he was just reacting to the situation but he was trying to assert some sort of dominant/intimidation tactic on her. I don’t care what the disagreement is, that is not okay and that is not the guy you want running your business and overseeing your employees.

I bring a lot of business in Idaho Falls - this place isn't just on my list of places to not go to but it's also going to be a place that I actively warn others against- for their dishonesty and hostility demonstrated by Kirk.

Be warned now, just move onto the next Hotel. You don't want to stay here. By the way, the hotel we ended up staying at knows Kirk and they told us they've heard similar stories before from other guests who left Shilo to...