Pine Valley Motel — Hotel in Spruce Pine

AS I start this review I'm well aware of the devastation Helene wrought across NC. (It hit our area of Florida too, but the topographies are so different, the effect was MUCH worse in NC.) I sure hate to kick the AREA while it's down, but... I feel I'm forced to give my impression. It genuinely saddens me to leave a bad review. ||I've been privileged to be a corporate pilot for 35+ years and I've flown pretty much everywhere in the USA (with the exception of Pacific NW.) So I've seen every type of hotel in existence... from 5-star to 0-star. This place was bottom-tier. Upon initial calling for reservations, the person answering had an extremely thick Indian/Paki accent. I could not understand about 50% of what they were saying. We got thru that. ||Upon arrival; no owner or manager there; the Construction crew gave me key to my room! I kid you not. The room was recently re-furbed: but I'll try to show in my photo essay some of the screwed-up issues. Due to weather emergency we had to leave early and (forget any concept of hospitality; the owner was argumentative and extraordinarily unpleasant to deal with. Ohhh yeah; WiFi not working, ever. Overall impression: literally a curry-stinking (and I like curry!) Third World S-Hole. ||||Photo captions: 1): Room design terrible! You can't reach light switch from bed without falling out of bed. 2): The curtains held heat in that spot and so thermostat not working. 3): I'm first renter in the room but still damage to walls. 4): No girl could put her make-up on with that lighting. 5): Hated this switch. I'm old guy, so up several times to pee. Light come on full blast each time, waking me fully up. HATED THAT. 6): Third World construction standards everywhere. 7): Yup; that's a hole in ice bucket. 8): Shelf situated right above "desk." Naturally, I banged my head on sharp corner as I stood up first time. Painful; bled a lot. 9): Used desk... apparently from Goodwill. 10): Attention to detail. 11): I moved to second room due to barking dog. Still couldn't reach light switch without getting out of bed. ||||Not in photos: Whole place REEEEEEKED of...

My family has stayed at this motel for several years now for our annual family reunion. However, each year, the motel has gotten progressively worse and this year topped them all. After checking in, we discovered the door to our room wide open with a horrible Axe-like smell coming from it. Later on, I discovered that without the Axe smell, the room actually smelled like dirty feet. I would have opened the window but the screen was bent and broken and bugs could've gotten in. Spread throughout the parking lot and in front of our rooms was trash and miscellaneous junk. Not small stuff either, enough to make it look like a junk yard. Beds for family in other rooms did not have sheets on them and when we inquired, the owners insinuated we had stolen the sheets. There were homeless people camping out in their cars in the parking lot. At no point did I feel like my belongings were safe inside our room. The shower was okay although I don't care for my shampoo and conditioner to come from ketchup packets. The rooms are very dated and extremely overpriced. Our lamps either didn't work, were missing shades or had two different types of bulbs in them. The towels qualify for Dollar Tree status. When I asked about the $283 bill for two nights 😳 I was told I was getting a deal at $129/nt since it's normally $179/nt. That's insane. These owners think they're renting out rooms at the Westin or something for that price. If there was ever any doubt, this last trip sealed the deal and our family reunion will be held elsewhere...

Location is wonderful. The staff was wonderful. The price was awful though definitely overpriced. I'm guessing it's overpriced because of the location though I mean if you want a good location this hotel is right there at it. There aren't really any other cheap options in the area. My biggest complaint though is the pillows in the room They are hard as a rock. Most hotels have feather pillows or really soft pillows and they make for a comfortable stay This hotel I'm not even kidding the pillows are so hard you're not going to get very good rest I woke up the next day and couldn't even move my neck I had my husband go to the store nearby to get me some goody powders because my neck was locked up and I don't even have issues with my neck but the pillows were that bad They physically hurt me. The Indian man working was super nice though It's hard to complain when you get good service from the friendly staff but I'm just mentioning the pillows because I'm hoping they will do some updates with that. Also some price updates would be nice That hotel room was definitely not worth the $130 we spent. It was more like a $50 room. I can almost guarantee people would be willing to spend $130 though if you updated the rooms a little better and that includes the pillows I cannot emphasize that enough. Also just a suggestion but if you're going to charge $130 a night on a room at least offer some fresh fruit and snacks for in the morning. Anyway thanks for the kind check in But we probably won't be back at least...