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| - When rating hotels, my primary criteria are:
1. Was the room clean and comfortable?
2. Was the room in good repair?
3. Was the staff friendly and helpful?
4. Was the price in line with the amenities and overall quality of the hotel?
Overall, I would say that Days Inn & Suites Richfield scored a YES on the first three criteria.
I arrived at about 1:15am (yes, long drive!), and was greeted by a very friendly desk clerk. He even volunteered the wi-fi passphrase without being asked; at many hotels, I have to remember to ask for the passphrase. The other staff I met during the course of our stay - just overnight - was similarly positive.
The room was, indeed, in good repair, and everything in it was neat and clean. There were no off-smells (I've been in some hotel rooms with lingering cigarette smoke smells and even one that smelled heavily of some petroleum-based cleaner!), and no obvious dust or dirt anywhere I looked. The room had clearly not been renovated in quite some time - the bathroom, in particular, had seen nothing more than simple repairs since at least the mid 1970s - but it was all maintained well and in good working order. I think most people would have found the room comfortable, although the bed did not work out all that well for me, personally. (I prefer an extra-firm mattress, and I have a hard time finding pillows that I really like. This mattress was a medium-firm one, a single pillow wasn't quite enough for me, but two of them together were too fluffy for me.) Our room had two full size beds with three nice, fluffy pillows apiece, so even though I, personally, wasn't completely comfortable, I think most people would be.
Our room included a mini-fridge, mini-microwave and coffee machine with appropriate supplies. We had perishables with us, so we were thrilled to have a refrigerator in the room (we did not request one specially), but didn't try out the other appliances. The room also included a HDTV with cable service, but we didn't try that out, either.
The room had a single air conditioner/heater unit that was a bit noisy, but worked well. Wi-fi is free, the clerk wrote the code on the map that he gave me at check-in without being asked, and it worked well in our room.
An ice machine was located conveniently down the hall. An ice bucket was provided, along with drinking cups. The soap provided smelled a little strange, kind of like ginger ale, but it worked well enough and didn't leave my skin feeling greasy. I didn't try the shampoo and conditioner that were provided. There was a spare roll of toilet paper provided, but no tissue box.
For guests staying longer, the rooms in this hotel open out onto an indoor atrium, which features a swimming pool and furnished deck, hot tub, food service, children's climbing structure and play yard and a few other things I don't remember. This is a very attractive property!
Complimentary breakfast is served from 6:30am to 9:30am, if memory serves. They had a nice spread of Kellogg's ready-to-eat cereals in bowl packs, several freshly cooked options including eggs, hash browns, and a few other things that I don't remember because I stuck with the cereals, whole milk (no skim or lowfat), orange juice, apple juice and coffee. The orange juice tasted good; at a lot of hotel breakfasts, I've found the orange juice to be souring.
The bathroom cost the hotel one star. As stated earlier, it was generally well-maintained, and mostly worked fine, but badly in need of updating - not so much for aesthetics as for function. Most hotel rooms now have a sink and washing station outside the bathroom, which is very helpful for a family having to share a single bathroom; this room didn't. The toilet flushed fine, but the plumbing inside the tank was very noisy. The bathroom exhaust fan did not work, and there was no switch for the heat lamp. (Not that we needed a heat lamp for an early August visit.) The biggest problem, though, was that the shower still had its original 3-knob faucet, which lacked an anti-scald valve. Water pressure wasn't great, either, which means that while I was showering, the water shifted between uncomfortably hot and cold as guests in other rooms showered, flushed and used their sinks.
The other lost star was for the price. Given the age and condition of the room, $114/night seemed a little high. Still, you could do a lot worse in terms of finding a room for the night. I know I have.
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