Royal Inn Hotel Mount Vernon, IL — Hotel in Mount Vernon

This has got to be the scummiest place I have ever stayed at. We stopped here on a road trip to asheville, figuring that for $50 we'd get a clean room and a shower. Didn't expect much else, but we were still sorely disappointed with our stay.

The first thing we noticed was the unkempt front desk lady who looked like she just got done doing a three day meth bender. We also saw the weekly rate signs, sure sign of some permanent residents.

When we got to our room a funky smell emerged and it was clear the carpet hadn't been changed since the room was converted to a non smoking room. The curtains also had a few cigarette burns in it through which the street lamp right outside the window fell perfectly onto the pillow, ruling out any sort of sleeping while facing the window.

If you decide to stay here, sleep will be something you won't be doing here anyway. With the residents slamming their doors at all hours of the night and conversing rather loudly with, what we assumed were drug dealers, it was almost impossible to get much sleep. Add to that the constant train horns blowing about every 10-15 minutes, and sleeping past 4 am is pretty much impossible.

The shower was also pretty bad. It's a stand-up shower only, the original tiles of the building has been horribly preserved and is now coated with scum. The water never really got hot, despite us only turning on the hot water knob. The towels were scratchy and cheap. The small disposable shampoo bottles had clearly been reused or never changed out (we could tell because one was clearly more full than the other).

my only bit of advice here is: DO NOT STAY HERE!!!!!

Addition In response to the owner:

You don't have a record of me staying because we registered under my girlfriend's name. So don't try and use that as a way to discredit my review.

You do certainly not have hardwood floors. That is a blatant lie. Our room had green, nasty carpet. Furthermore, there was no one at the front reception at the time we were leaving so we couldn't complain to anyone. It didn't even seem like anyone was working as no one was in the little office behind...

I picked this hotel because it was reasonably close to my destination and one of the very few offering smoking rooms.

This establishment offers both inside and outside entry rooms, some of which allow smoking in the rooms, most do not. My room was a king / smoking room.

The parking lot was old but clean. Exterior is definitely showing its age. Parking was ample.

Check-in was quick. They didn't require a deposit, instead requiring you to pay for the stay before receiving the key. Different from the national chains, but preferred by me.

The room was reasonably comfortable. King bed with a light blanket, refrigerator, microwave, coffee pot, large screen TV, desk w/chair, separate chair, charging ports in wall next to one side of the bed, outlet at desk for computer of coffee.

Floor was vinyl plank, showing a good amount of wear. Both chairs showed significant staining (bodily fluids?), The blanket on the bed had what appeared to be blood stains, making me suspect it had not been washed between stays. The sheets were bright white and crisp.

The bathroom was odd. The shower looked like a 2nd grade art project, wavy grout lines, tiles that appeared to have been cracked when installed, poorly done saw cuts, and an obvious mismatch between two lots of tile on the walls, making many look dirty, although it was an illusion caused by the darker color lot. There is no vanity, only a pedestal sink, leaving nowhere to put personal care items.

Another downside was a door that didn't close without a firm pull or shove. And to me, the most disturbing indicator of quality -- after walking in my bare feet for maybe 15 minutes, my soles were black from the layer of dirt on the floors. One picture shows the effect of wiping an 18 x 18 square of the floor with a damp washcloth.

Overall, a little attention to cleaning would have changed my rating to 5 stars. Clean the floors for Gods sake. Clean or re-appulster the chairs, and wash the blankets...

I had stayed one night at this motel and left only to find my car would not start for some unknown reason. Apparently being stranded in Mount Vernon for the foreseeable future, I explain my plight to the woman, whom for some reason was nursing a baby, at the front desk, and ask that my stay be extended to a week for the weekly rate, instead of making me pay the nightly rate (which is obviously more expensive) for the night I had already been there and then adding an entire week, i.e. that I stay six more nights in addition to the night I had already stayed, and that therefore what I had already paid for a single night be translated to part of the weekly rate. She responds "You don't negotiate for a gallon of milk," implying my request is equally absurd because it's against the rules they made up, demonstrating a gross disregard for the relevance of circumstance. She then calls someone over, saying "Can you please repeat to him that these are the rules," at which point I'm greeted by the owner of this motel whom proceeds - and this happened - to laugh at me and tell me I could walk somewhere else if I don't like it, despite business clearly being slow. The woman then had the gall to say with inconspicuous attitude "You seemed so pleasant yesterday; what happened?" as if the reason for any frustration on my part hadn't already been made clear. On top of all this, the rooms (I stayed in two) are destitute, as is, (morally), extorting the business of someone who has no choice, before I knew there's a nicer yet even cheaper hotel like a mile north of here. Stay there or anywhere else, trust me - not here.

Lastly, I was also laughed at when I noted that their inhospitable behavior would reflect badly in a review. Well, this is now permanently posted for all otherwise potential customers to see how the negligent owner and his shameless employees actually behave when a customer has a problem. I hope...