Americas Best Value Inn Story City — Hotel in Story City

Stayed here this past weekend to attend the ISU/Iowa Football game in Ames. Opted for this place because I grew up in the area and had great memories of this place (a long, long time ago). Let me start by saying that I do not require fancy hotels, so that was not what I was looking for. I understood this to be exactly what it is, an older motel off of main interstate. So my expectation was not at all of luxury or anything exceptional. I had read the Trip Advisor reviews before I booked our two rooms for two nights and didn't give it a second thought. I wish I had. ||||This motel is not clean. The carpet and walls in our rooms are so dirty, it's actually uncomfortable. The sheets and bedding seemed clean enough, but it ended there. Anytime carpet is so dirty you would never walk barefoot in your room and the walls are so grungy you don't want to touch them, it makes me nervous that other things are not properly cleaned (like the ice machine for example). It is just one of those places that you know is not clean. Floorboards are gross. The shower is gross. It is just obviously not clean. ||||There is a really gross popcorn machine in the lobby that looks like it hasn't been cleaned in years. There wasn't popcorn in it, thank goodness, because I can't imagine it would be safe to eat out of it. The continental breakfast had way to many things that are not individually wrapped and nothing was provided to pick them up. So, you are essentially using your hands to take things out of a container and other people had too. I really am only comfortable doing this with my own family. Certainly not with strangers. I'm kind of surprised they aren't required to have things in individual servings for sanitary reasons. You shouldn't have to get peanut butter out of a big jar like you do at home when you are staying at a motel. The fridge in the breakfast room was really really dirty which would make any reasonable person very concerned about any food that was in it.||||I should also note that at some point in the past few years, they have lopped off part of the hotel and turned it into a Mexican Restaurant. This is kind of weird, but that aside, when we checked into our rooms, which were on that wing, the smell of cooking food or boiling meat or something was so strong that each time we left our room, we exited quickly because we were afraid that the smell would get in our rooms. It was terrible.||||The rooms certainly need updating which doesn't seem like it would be a huge deal because the furniture itself is in fine shape and generic enough to not seem dated. They very much need new carpet. They need to have sheers behind the curtains so you have an option in-between a fully open, exposing window and really dark curtains. They need to check the light fixtures. One of the lamps in our room had the bulb fixture almost hanging by a thread.||||The only good thing about this place, besides the location and it's proximity to our activities for the weekend, is that the people at the front desk are very, very friendly. We did not complain about anything while we were there, because, quite frankly, the list would have been so long, it would have been ridiculous. And, at a place as dirty as that, it's clear that they either don't care if it's clean or don't know what clean is. And us complaining was not going to fix that. It would have just potentially left us with no place to sleep on a busy weekend. Safe to say, we will never stay...

Would rate lower if possible!

Stayed from April 21st to April 26th 2019. Owners were rude, hard to communicate with. Left us with an uneasy feeling...  Card keys to the room worked maybe one time, or not at all. So we had to frequently keep going to the front desk to get a new card key. Each time we went up to the desk, the owners either acted like they couldnt understand us, or they seemed to be incompetent. When we went to make a pizza on our pizzazz on the second day of being there, they told my boyfriend that we couldnt make the pizza in our room. However when he asked her why, she gave him and unexplained incomprehensible answer. Final night after parking in the front of the building at the front of the the hotel, where the cameras are the owner asked my boyfriend to move his vehicle out of his spot because he said that he had other customers coming, but there were probably 4 or 5 spots open in front still. About 30 minutes after being told this by the owner, we go out for a quick bite and were gone for maybe 10 minutes. There was a vehicle coincidentally in the spot hes been parking in at night for the past 4 nights?

The room itself had a very unwelcoming smell. As well as the majority of the building. I opened the window for a full day to clear the smell. Carpet was unclean, shower tub and sink would clog. Last night of staying there it smelled like someone was smoking in one of the rooms next to ours.

Would not stay again, and would not recommend this place to anyone...

While this older facility is not outstanding in amenities, it offers exactly what it is supposed to----||a good night's sleep. What sets it apart is the great service provided by Mike and Kirti, the on-site owners. With prior approval they had agreed that I could leave my vehicle in their parking lot for a couple of extra days while my brother and I were going farther west in his car (and I would pick mine up on the return trip). While I was driving to Story City I experienced a minor mechanical problem with my little truck. Mike hooked me up with an honest mechanic a few miles away who took care of the problem over the weekend and my vehicle was back at the Viking on Monday ready to go when I got back there. I enjoy finding Mom and Pop places like this in small town America where people go "above and beyond" what is...