Econo Lodge Inn & Suites

This place has gone downhill We stayed in this motel in 2018 when my sister got married, and the rooms were recently renovated and nice. Sadly, that is not the case anymore. Upon arrival, we were instantly hit with the humidity. The lobby and hallways were so hot and muggy that I was literally sweating. It wasn’t even that hot that day, and you could see they had AC units, but they weren’t using them. There were a couple of issues during check-in; they said my last name didn’t match my ID and had my address as Lincoln instead of Omaha. Eventually, they sorted it out and handed us two room keys in a dirty key card holder. It was clear these holders are never cleaned. After checking in, we drove around to the side to go to our room. The first thing I noticed was a big bag of trash sitting outside the building by the door. Inside, the hallway carpets were visibly dirty and stained, indicating they hadn’t been cleaned in a long time. There were numerous security cameras, but none were hooked up—each was facing downward with cables exposed and unplugged. Entering the room, we immediately saw a huge beetle on the floor. There was no weather stripping at the bottom of the door, making it easy for bugs to get in. When I went outside again to get more of my stuff, the key card wouldn’t work. Luckily, my husband was inside to let me in, though he too had issues with one of the key cards. In the evening, I went to take a shower and noticed mold on one of the soap dishes, mold and mildew in the corner, and another soap dish that hadn’t been cleaned in a while. I didn’t even want to put my bar of soap on it, so I kept it on top of its plastic packaging. The bed was so firm and uncomfortable that I could feel discomfort from my upper to lower back, making it difficult to find a comfortable position. The AC unit was super loud, turning on and off every 3-5 minutes, which made it very hard to sleep. The next morning, my son and I went down for breakfast, which was disgusting. The gravy for the biscuits was as thin as milk, cold, and the mix was settled at the bottom of the pan. My son’s milk carton was completely open as if someone had drunk from it and put it back in the fridge. One of the milk cartons I picked up had a hole, and milk leaked out when squeezed. The apple juice, which was good the first day, was unavailable the second day. A guest informed the front desk, but they said it would take 2-3 days to arrive. After breakfast, I noticed our room’s trash can was full. There were no additional bags in the bottom of the can, so I had to take it out to find another bag. As I was getting ready for the day, my husband and son found a cockroach walking across our room’s ceiling. This wasn’t the only one, when I was packing up my stuff to leave, I found another cockroach by the sink—we also found another bug that looked like a tick in my bed the second night. There were many sketchy people outside. It appears that people are living on the second floor since there were house plants in windows and personal decor on the walls. We saw people carrying laundry baskets inside, as they had just come back from the laundromat. These occupants constantly have the south side parking lot always full. One man even had a camping chair in the only open parking spot, so we had to park on the north side of the building. We finally checked out at 10:30 am, and that evening, my step-mom called to tell us the building was on fire, with people trapped on the second floor. She drove by but couldn’t see much as it was blocked off by police and fire trucks. However, she mentioned the fire was on the north side of the building, possibly near the laundry room, which had its doors wide open when we left, allowing anyone to walk in.