Best Western Monticello Gateway Inn — Hotel in Monticello

I would like to stress that the front-counter clerk was fantastic. I would also like to stress that this is, as far as I know, the only hotel review I have written so far. The reason I am writing this review is because I have never experienced such a situation in any other hotel. In short, there was an overpowering smell of sewage coming from multiple hotel rooms, through the bathrooms. So much that holding my breathe still caused me to gag.

We showed up just before midnight after a long drive. Everything seemed great, clerk and room seemed fine. Except there was a faint odor I could detect when we got into this first floor room. Before bed I realized it was coming from the bathroom so I closed the bathroom door. Later, around 2 am, realizing the smell was still spreading, I opened the bathroom door. I was greeted by the most disgusting smell of sewage I had ever smelled in my life. It was also incredibly strong. At this point I quickly closed the door and walked to the front desk, noticing the smell was in the hallway. The clerk was understanding and offered a room change just a few doors down. I checked the room out only to discover the same smell in that bathroom. Being incredibly tired, I just asked for towels to cover the base of the bathroom door. It did not help much.

The smell was bad. So bad, in fact, that I'm actually concerned for my health and the health of the other hotel tenants. From what I could make from the clerk it also sounded like this wasn't exactly an isolated incident. However, it did not seem like this was a common issue for the hotel.

In all my years of stays at locations, this truly was an unfortunate nightmare. I would recommend checking the bathroom for this sewage smell when you first arrive and ensure you are able to receive a refund if it is detected. Perhaps write a review if you also detect the smell on your stay as well. I believe the city might be interested in this if it is an ongoing issue. However, it is my belief that this was an isolated occurrence.

I had written this review during my lack of sleep and general disgust of dealing with the smell, but have come back to the review after having more clarity of thought. It is my belief this was an isolated issue, but something to be wary of. The room and especially the front-desk...

This room was bad. Real bad. I will start with the basics:

Smelled dank Upper lock on the door appeared to have been ripped off at some point Everything was super dusty Cobwebs in the ceiling corners and behind the nightstand Killed three spiders during my stay, one in the shower Standing water on the ground in the bathroom upon arrival (not a lot, but you could tell it was wet between the cracks of the tiles near the tub) Breakfast options were not good

Now to the really bad:

At 4 in the morning, something in the area near the nightstand next to me beeped. One high-pitched chirp. I'm a light sleeper so I woke up immediately. I tried to fall back asleep, and it beeped again a minute later, and once more pretty quickly after that. Weird that it was not happening at a regular cadence - normally things that beep do it consistently.

I got up to take a look. Both my phones were already on silent. The beeping was not an alarm sound, but the only other object on or around the nightstand was the alarm clock. I unplugged the alarm clock and removed the battery inside it. I verified the air conditioner was functioning normally. Laid back down to sleep, and something near the nightstand beeped again. Now I'm freaked out because there are literally no other electronics in the area aside from the lamp.

I turned on the lamp on and got fully out of bed to do a real search. Curiously, once I began to search in earnest there were no more beeps. Not a single one. Now, I may be a bit paranoid but I'm convinced there may have been a hidden camera or something in the room because WHAT ELSE COULD BEEP without being visible? I can't think of any other plausible explanation when my phones were on silent, I don't own a watch, laptop was off, TVs don't beep, lamps don't beep, it wasn't the air conditioner...

And to top it all off, during the course of my search I found gross water damage in the night stand drawer and noticed that the curtain in the room had been cut at some point, literally looked like it had been knifed.

If I had not been on a work trip for an event that I already knew had sold out all the hotels in the area, I would have high tailed it out of that hotel so fast. As it is, I will not be booking a Best Western at any time in the...

This is conveniently not showing up in the reviews so I am making an update in an attempt to have it show.

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Man, where do I even start? We were getting married so I wanted a nice room and the jetted tub in the king suite sounded like the perfect end to a day of standing and walking but the jets were all moldy and had someone else’s hair in it so suffice to say we refused to use it. The lighting in the bathroom was really dim, the towel rack was really slanted, the ironing board was filthy, there was no shower curtain, the shower was mildewy, and the Kleenex holder was rusted out. The kitchenette had a stained counter, dirty walls, a moldy coffee maker (the picture shows what’s left after we tried cleaning it), and a dirty microwave from the 80s. The living room area was really bare; no pictures on the walls, just nails where art used to be. The couch was filthy and every corner of the room had a bundle of cobwebs. One of the sprinklers had no cover and the ceiling insulation was showing. The smoke alarm was dangling from the ceiling by 3 wires and the best maintenance could do was wedge it up so it wasn’t hanging but it wasn’t properly fixed either. In the bedroom the nightstand had water damage, there was a dangling phone cord from where a phone used to be, cobwebs inhabited every corner, and the heating/AC unit was propped up on bricks.

I don’t really have to tell you by now that we were extremely disappointed in the quality of the room. The rest of the experience wasn’t much better. When we asked the front desk for maintenance we were told they’d come but when we returned over 12hrs later they hadn’t shown up; apparently they were never told. I understand that breakfast is limited because of COVID but the selection is still quite bare and you’d think they would have enough money from not serving better food to give a slightly better selection. All the employees were improperly wearing their masks. They had masks on but they were either under the nose or just...