We stayed In Ames the weekend of Oct 5th with a group of 5 rooms. Two of the rooms were at the americinn and three were across the road at the Country Inn and Suites. Lets just say those of us at the americinn felt cheated.
The one upside is that they have a great pet policy and allowed our dogs to stay free of charge with no deposit, which I have never run in to before.
The downside.. well the lobby was insanely hot and muggy. It was cooler outside. It smelled dirty as well.The furniture in the lobby was worn and dirty. The locks on the rooms didn't work well at all..it took forever to get in to the room. The room was never cleaned and the beds were never made the entire stay and clean towels had to be retrieved from the front desk. Then due to a mistake on the part of the front desk, my card was overcharged $500!! It took 2 days of phone calls to resolve.
The manager did handle the situation and refund one night of our stay due to the mishap, but it was way to much effort for what was going to be a relaxing weekend with family as my daughter looked at colleges out of state. Bottom line.. only if you have pets and can stand the heat and the smell.

I just returned home from a one nights stay at the AmericInn in Ames, IA. I thought the front desk was very nice and courteous; however, the hotel had some problems.

The first think I noticed when I walked in the room was the smell (we got a non-smoking room). The smell was sort of a mix between a dirty sock and a moldy basement! Second thing was our door to our room. It took us 10 minutes to get the door to close properly. I believe that the door lock was faulty. Next, was the TV. All the channels did come in; however, the picture was very snowy. Then there was the heating/air condition in the room. It only worked if it was on really hot or really cold! And the last thing was the beds…they were hard as a rock.

We just came back from staying at this hotel! It is a very nice clean quiet place. We would highly recomend staying here, you won't be dissapointed!

I visit Ames serveral times a year, and this is the only place I'll stay. It's reasonably priced, the bed are comfortable, and the rooms and common areas are always neat and clean. I have no idea why one reviewer said it was "smelly." Not my experience.

The only drawback is that it books fast, namely when events are in town (and there are a lot).