Quality Inn Fairmont — Hotel in Pleasant Valley

We stayed one night at this hotel, on 6/2/2014. It was late and we were desperate for lodging after driving for 9 hours straight. It was obvious that the hotel was under construction or being repaired or retrofitted.

THE GOOD STUFF: The desk, housekeeping, and breakfast staff were all very nice, especially the night desk clerk who was swamped because there was no one else on duty when we checked in (several things were in need of her full attention at the same time). All our room's furniture surfaces were tidy and dust free, and the bathroom was clean, despite construction going on in the hotel. The bed was immaculate and smelled fresh (despite the heavy unpleasant tobacco smoke odor in the room). The breakfast was good, and adequate for a quick, free meal. All towels and bedding were clean and fresh.

THE BAD STUFF: Building still under construction or undergoing major overhaul or facelift. The whole toilet was too small and low for the average person or seniors, as if the toilet was made for children. The tub faucet spout was loose or falling off. The tub floor was badly cracked, and poorly patched. The second floor hallway reeked badly of tobacco smoke. Non-Smoking signs on numerous room doors were taped over, implying that rooms were possibly assigned and unassigned as non-smoking on whim, as space was required by management, without regard to the effect on non-smokers who would have to use the rooms after smokers used them. Elevator was under construction and not in service. Not all hallways were finished. A/C-Fan unit in our room was not able to provide sufficient cooling, nor sufficient positive pressure, nor sufficient fresh air to keep tobacco smoke from adjacent rooms and hallway from infiltrating our room. Bathroom fixtures seemed of lower quality than other Comfort Inns. A/C-Fan unit unable to purge or force tobacco smell out of room, even on full blast. Construction debris/dust on outer edge of carpeting along baseboard around room. Room was hot and stank of tobacco smoke even though it was supposed to be non-smoking room. It took at least two hours with the window fully opened to cool and air the room enough so that our eyes and throats stopped burning from the infiltrating tobacco smoke, and the temperature cooled off enough to make it comfortable. No screen on window to keep out bugs or bats. We had to leave window completely open all night to maintain sufficient air to reduce the smoke and stench level and drop the temperature, so that our eyes and throats were not burning from the tobacco smoke that infiltrated from adjacent rooms. We could even tell when one person was smoking cigarettes and another was smoking cigars. No closet or safe in the room. Back upper corner of breakfast room had apparent water damage and sagging wall paper near the ceiling. Noise and airflow insulation between rooms seemed to be far inferior to that of other Comfort Inns where...

This score may be unfairly low because I've stayed at Quality Inns for years and love them and will continue to do so, but I'll explain why I'm giving the hotel I recently stayed in a 4. The Quality Inn I stayed at was extremely well-priced, which is why I chose it over other competing brands. The staff was extremely friendly, and the common area accommodations were fantastic. I loved the fresh popcorn being offered in the lobby area! That was a nice touch. The hot breakfast options left something to be desired, but for the price, I really can't complain. Everything about the room was nice, although some USB charging ports would have been nice (both standard and type-C). The only downside was the hallway my room was in smelled absolutely terrible. It smelled like rancid dog urine. And as it was clear that there were multiple rooms in that hallway where customers with dogs were staying, I can see how that ended up happening. To be clear, I appreciate that the Quality Inn offered a place to stay to people with pets. I wish more hotels did that. However, I think greater efforts need to be undertaken to:

(1) ensure pet-friendly rooms and hallways are prioritized for customers with pets, and customers without pets are by default assigned to rooms in other hallways. (2) when building new Quality Inns, the environmental setup should ensure that air is constantly pulled down said pet-friendly hallways away from the lobby area and ejected from the building. (3) each Quality Inn that provides accommodation to customers with pets should be required to have a carpet shampooing machine on-site so that carpets in the pet-friendly hallway can be regularly deep cleaned. (4) thought should be given to using hard surfaces (stone tiles or the like) instead of carpets in pet-friendly hallways. While carpets certainly add to the luxurious feeling that hotels can provide, if they smell of dog urine, I'd argue the value of using carpets over hard surfaces is quickly lost.

While I've given the hotel I stayed at a rating of "4" because of the smell issue that was going on, and my hope that you guys will address said issue (both at that Quality Inn and any others that may share a similar problem), overall I'd have to give this hotel high marks across the board in almost every other area, and to be doubly clear, this one experience has not blemished my love of Quality Inn or other hotels in the Choice Hotels International collection. Frankly, I hope you give these guys bonuses for running a great operation (which simultaneously seeing to it the pet-friendly problem is addressed in a way that addresses the smell while still keeping the hotel an option for customers with...

Went there on August 5 through the 7th had no problem no complaints from us ,they didn't have anything to say to us I got a 1 king size NON SMOKING room because we dont smoke if I did smoke I would have just gotten a smoking room it was the same price so anyways I decided to stay another night we went back same guy from night before very nice everything was good until I was awoken by the very rude maid at 10:20 she just walked into our room and yelled at us saying check out at 11:00 after that i was very pissed we go to leave and they started yelling at us saying we were smoking i said ma'am and or sir we dont smoke if I did I would have gotten smoking room I said we was just here the last 2 night In room 121 with zero problems he then yelled and said no you smoked in there to i said if you thought we smoked in there then why would you rent us another room it made zero sense..it pissed me off how they just lied and yelled and accused us of smoking the whole time the motel smells like musty cruddy horrible meldew smell we were just waiting to see the twin girls in front of the elevator like the shining. Just made no sense like I said they had smoking rooms the same price If we smoked we could of just gotten one of them rooms. As a matter of fact you should of thanked me for the air freshener I put in the stinky room them people are crazy most of them barley speak English then wanna have the nerve to get mad at me because I didn't understand them. It just was so freaking wrong what they did instead of saying im sorry I was wrong they made a lie up and said we were smoking dont take your family their it's nothing but a low class place people take their trick and it's full of junkies. Swimming pool ouy front is a mess. Junkies walking up to us in the parking lot ...the one in fairmont wv off Kingmont exit on...