Econo Lodge Conference Center — Hotel in South Whitehall Township

Originally was going to give only 1 star, but had to bump up to 2 stars because of Saikoucon...

I came here specifically for Saikoucon 2018, and I pray to the highest celestial authority available that Saikoucon decides to move to another venue for next year.

The trip wasn't outrageously terrible....

Check-in and check-out was quick and easy.

The coffee in the lobby is actually...good.

The Wifi sometimes disconnects, at least where we were towards the back of the facility, but for the most part we were able to stream Pop Team Epic in HD through our Roku with little issue. Even Kill la Kill loaded and streamed with no issue. Good stuff. Also, our room came with a HDTV which was a plus.

Our room came with an unadvertised refrigerator, which was very handy.

The beds are firm, but oddly comfortable.

The A/C is a window unit, so it's loud, but gets the room nice and cool.

I've heard from other reviews horror stories about the bathrooms, but ours was good. The shower was clean and water warmed up quick.

I've heard about bugs running amok in the rooms. We saw one little bug on the hair dryer. Well, it's a wooded area and living in a rural area myself I didn't care much.

Well I think I ran out of good things to say...

While you can in theory sleep and live in these rooms, after staying in ours for about 3 days for the convention, we literally couldn't wait leave because of the moldy, musty smell room.

As I write this review back in my nice comfy house, I can't believe we were able to deal with the horrid mold for so long.

My brother kept having a runny nose, and we both started getting itchy eyes and coughs.

I know there was an anime convention here, so there is the potential for bacteria to grow but our room was further away from it and I feel the room was largely responsible here for our general ill health.

And the carpeting....oh, the carpeting. Clearly the carpeting never gets cleaned, because literally walking on the carpeting from your bed to the bathroom results in a fine black buildup of grime on the bottom of your feet.

Truly, truly disgusting.

Not only is there a strong musty odor that permeates the room, we were surrounded by smokers which didn't help at all. Even though you supposedly can't smoke in the rooms, you can outside and it seems the guests staying here puff like crazy.

Oh, and I've heard long-term tenants stay here and I think that was confirmed by the random loiters that sit around in outside.

I wouldn't say I felt unsafe here, but we always ensured our doors were locked up at night.

Saikoucon and its programming definitely made the stay worth it, everyone who participated did what they could to make it worthwhile and really enjoyable. But the panel rooms weren't much better in terms of air quality, and the hallways are extremely claustrophobic.

This convention center was clearly not designed for an anime convention, or probably any other kind of con. Unless if the con has about 50 people attending. And they're absolutely bonkers for booking their con here.

Let's see, what else...

Free breakfast is offered, but other than the decent aforementioned coffee don't bother. It's just pastries, juice and a waffle maker. And yes, you have to make the waffles yourself. We ended up going elsewhere for our breakfast everyday.

We wasted no time in leaving on our last day.

If it weren't for Saikoucon, I would give this place a 1 star and say stay as far away from this place as you can. It's only because of Saikoucon why I would give the Econo Lodge 2 stars. And I feel that is still being way too generous.

Actually, yeah I am being too generous and so 1 star it is because I'm still recovering from my itchy eyes from all the mold.

Sure, the Econo Lodge does some things right, but overall it's just an unbearably filthy, moldy, rotting place that needs some massive renovations to get it up to date for 2018 and actually make it a livable place to even have a stay at or to hold a decent con.

Here's to hoping Saikoucon never (and me)...

Letter written to the manager:

"While traveling with some of my family round trip to Boston, MA from Oklahoma for a funeral, my sister-in-law, Heather A., called ahead to reserve 2 rooms with double beds on the bottom floor (208 and 210) to accommodate my handicapped parents. I found this motel the WORST I have ever experienced!

When we arrived approximately 2am, it took the lady (she said this was her 1st night working alone) 40+ minutes to check us in. When we arrived at our rooms, we were so busy with my parents and my niece and bags into the room that it wasn’t until we got them settled in to notice the horrific urine smell in the rooms. We thought, it’s just for a few hours … THEN ….. I went to the restroom. The tiles for the bathtub had mold around them (see attached photos). And while flushing the toilet I noticed a bubbling sound from the bathtub; it was fluid bubbling up into the bathtub for which I can only assume was from the toilet. My parents and niece being already asleep, my brother, sister-in-law and I waited and closely monitored the liquid to determine if I should call the “slow” desk clerk to report the situation or maybe request to move. Approximately 4am we decided it wasn’t worth calling and just laid on the beds to grab a little sleep (in warm rooms). We woke up approximately 6am and informed my parents and niece that no one was to touch anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary and why. When checking out, we informed the new desk clerk, for which her response was “Well, did you report it?” SERIOUSLY! If I could I would give this motel a negative score and my suggestion would be for you to bulldoze the motel and start over!

Following this stay, my sister-in-law further notices the motel charged her card 3 times! Probably a screw-up with the check-in desk clerk, but REALLY!!!!!!!! You can’t even image the frustration, anger, disgusting horror this place left with us that I had to calm down to even write this letter and post reviews to Yelp and Choice...

The staff was terrible as was the condition of my room. Checked in at around 9:20pm. Upon entering, the room immediately reeked of cigarettes. Not even just a little bit. Smelled like an ashtray. My girl had some spray which helped, but the problems didn't end there. My girl and I were exhausted but we didn't feel the need to leave yet. Unfortunately there were more problems. A hole in the shower that seemed to be melted through (can someone say mold?) The mirror had scum on it, and the floor was vacuumed half assed if anything. Even saw a toenail. We were tired and didn't feel like moving but my girl ended up becoming nauseous at the filth so we begrudgingly decided to leave at 10:55pm. The lady at the counter huffed but went through with the refund. Then some other lady (housekeeping? Definitely not management) very rudely put in her two cents, rambling about how it shouldn't take me three hours to decide I want a refund (dunno since when an hour and a half meant three!!). I explained that we were both exhausted and didn't want to move at first but my girlfriend was about ready to yak and we had to leave entirely. Still she kept rambling. I bit my tongue because I didn't want to cause a scene. I got my refund and very politely said "thank you, I appreciate it." As I was walking out, the housekeeping lady STILL kept jackhammering away. I'm glad I left with such a rude staff and atrocious room. I took pictures of everything so I'll be sure to notify the appropriate persons then. If I had to sum it all up in a phrase, "utter rubbish" would...