Days Inn by Wyndham Black Bear — Hotel in Salem

The place could use a lot of improvement but for the price of a room it's comparable to those around it. I wouldn't blame the workers for the negative issues of the hotel as the service counter staff were knowledgeable and respectful as were the room attendants or house keepers. There are really three main areas of the hotel that can use improvement which are pool maintenance, the "breakfast" (or lack there of), and transients who decide to set up their camp for the evening all around the hotel. As far as the transients, it's an unintended consequence of the location that is a much bigger issue than the hotel has control over other than to have them arrested for trespassing which doesn't really solve the issue in the long run so I don't hold this issue against the hotel itself. However, it is still an issue so I have to mention it, I just don't blame the hotel for the issue. The two real issues which the hotel does have control over are pool maintenance and the lack of breakfast they advertise. During our stay we used the pool twice for a few hours each time. It's a nice large pool that starts from three feet and goes to nine feet at the deep end. Attached is a kid section which is only about a foot deep that has an antiquated fountain that the smaller kids enjoy messing with. There is a very large hot tub around the corner that can easily seat 20 people and the jets seemed to work well. There are also jets in the main pool that push out warm water so the water temperature is better than most pools. Unfortunately the kids section doesn't have warm water jets and was fairly cold. The issue with the pool was that both times we went, there were dead spiders in both the kids pool and the main pool as well as a fairly large amount of dirt/sand in the hot tub. It seemed to us that the pool area had not been cleaned in some time and (even though I didn't inspect each individual spider to confirm this) it appeared that both times we went it looked as though the dead spiders were the same which would indicate that there was no evening cleaning each day. Our assumption is that the pool probably gets cleaned weekly which unfortunately is not enough for the amount of guests that stay there and use the pool or for the amount of crawling critters there are in a wood building in the Pacific Northwest during the fall where spiders tend to migrate toward warm building (and in this case warm water where they succumb to their untimely demise). I would recommend more frequent pool cleaning, at the very least during the fall and winter times. Our biggest complaint was their advertising of a breakfast that doesn't happen. They advertise that you get a free breakfast each day during your stay but unfortunately there is no breakfast. What they call breakfast is simply juice and coffee, otherwise known as refreshment everywhere else. We understand that for the price you pay at this hotel that it may not be financially a good investment to pay for a real breakfast for their guests without losing money and eventually having to close their doors but not having breakfast is not our complaint. Our complaint is them ADVERTISING there is a free breakfast and not providing anything other than refreshment. If you aren't going to provide a breakfast simply don't advertise that you are. In our opinion, and I would assume in most reasonable individuals opinions, not providing something that you advertise you will provide would fall under false advertising laws. So our recommendation would be, if you can't afford to provide something then simply don't advertise that you will provide it. We would still recommend this location even though there are areas that could use improvement (no hotel is perfect and there are always areas that could use improvement). It's a nice hotel with good customer service and a decent pool area for the price you pay. If you want a better pool area or a real breakfast with your stay go somewhere that charges you at minimum three times the amount you will pay here. You get what you pay for here. We enjoyed our...

Oh, where do I start? When making the reservation, I thought I was calling the hotel directly, but come to find out, I made it through the Wyndham reservation center. I could hear people in the background, and she was a little hard to understand. Anyways, I had asked her about breakfast. She told us exactly what items were available for both cold and hot items. Even put me on hold, so I assumed she had called them directly to ask. Needless to say, when we checked in, there were only a few items that were available, such as a granola bar. 1st disappointment. I give them a 2 star cause our room had a hot tub, which we used the first night. During our second day there, we had asked two ladies from housekeeping for towels. They said they'd bring them to our room. We had to leave for an appointment, so as we were leaving, we see them walking towards the office. Obviously done for the day as it was 3:30pm. Not only did one of them forget, but the other one as well, regarding the towels. 2nd disappointment. Hours later, I called the front desk to inquire about a late check out. Were told we could check out at 11:30am. The gentleman who answered the phone was very short and curt. Answered yep, sure. So checkout day comes yesterday, and as I was brushing my teeth, there's a knock on the door at 11am! I peek outside; no one is there. A few minutes later, the room phone rings. It's the lady at the front desk asking what's up: are we staying another day or checking out? I tell her how her coworker said we could have a late check out, and she was very surprised to hear of this. She says, "Well, I guess you have the room until 11:30am." 3rd disappointment- no communication between the office staff. I call when I'm ready to go, and the same lady answers who was surprised. I asked if I could leave the room key in the room, and she answers yep. Should of said yes, not talking in slang. Not appropriate for a business. The ac/heater unit was loud. Room phone when in use was static. Next to my bedside, there was a nightstand. I thought I had dropped something, and when I picked it up, it was someone else's nail clipping. Eww, gross. So housekeeping didn't do their job well. Pool is drained and closed. Not sure why when other Salem hotels had their indoor pools open. Some sign stated they were waiting for guidance from Salem, regarding COVID-19 protocols. The only real plus was Mr. Les who had checked us in when we arrived at 1am, our 1st night there. We were in the back area so not a lot of people. Plus side is being by...

The check in and desk clerk lady was proficient. When we pulled up to our parking in front of our room- what looked like a drug deal was “going down”, maybe I read something into the exchange of green money from a man who exchanged for a ziplock put into a brown lunch sack. And then when seeing I watched them they quickly slithered away. When my husband and I entered our room- the door trim was pulled off the bottom of door by at least 810 inches and dangling leaving a 23 inch gap under door. I tried tucking onto door but it was hard rubber and too stiff and pulled away. We wondered why “cleaning staff” wouldn’t have noticed and had it repaired to keep out light and critters.? We brought in a couple items (suit case etc.) and noticed wall paper pulling away and lots of wall damages. I photographed so we wouldn’t be blamed for the room damages. When we tried to lower A/C from set 80 degrees to a lower cooling number… A/C remote would not work and the manual buttons would not work when I used our personal step ladder (from back of our truck) to get up to A/C unit in top of wall along ceiling/closet area. This is concerning due to my husband having health issues that because of certain medications for cardiovascular problems cause issues for him in heat. 80 degrees wasn’t conducive when it was 103 outside. We contacted the front desk before unpacking asking to check out and refund money. We were in room for 12 minutes and removed our items immediately and left no mess or evidence we were there. We waited in truck for desk clerk to come to room for inspection of our concerns and she and I had Understandably agreed room needed repairs and was not up to standard. I was told I would be refunded and my payment credit card would not be charged. The room payment would be reversed. As of 3 days later I am still waiting for funds to be released and refunded from Days inn Salem Oregon. We have frequented this Days inn for 20 years and it’s been 12 years since our last stay we will never stay here again and will never recommend to anyone ever again. (We are sorry to those friends we have recently referred this Days inn...