We stayed in the suite before my son was deployed to Afghanistan. They were under construction. Since the room was terribly outdated, I could even overlook that. The room was in terrible disrepair as well. The fire alarm was dismantaled. The bed was sagging, making the head and foot higher than the middle. The counter on the bathroom sink was falling off the wall causing the bathrrom sink to drain on the floor. When we complained the next morning(we arrived late the first night) they fixed the alarm immediately and said that the repair man would come in Monday to repair the bed and sink. It was repaired as promised but 2 of our 4 night stay was over. They did give us one unpaid night. It was also dirty with visible dirt between furniture. Of course there was construction noise. Due to the construction, the very small lobby was as cold as outside making it impossible to eat at the very skimpy continental breakfast.

I had a reservation for Feb. 17 and when I arrived at the Travelodge I could not believe my eyes. It is 99% under construction. It is undergoing a complete remodel and we could not even get to a safe parking place. You can see straight through the upper rooms and when I did find the entrance I went in to cancel the reservation and the Manager said they have a few interior rooms not bothered by the construction. The lobby is old, dirty and unpleasant. I canceled the reservation, because staying they was not an option.

We stayed here- or should I say, we tried to, August of 2010. We made and paid for a reservation for 2 nights, Friday and Saturday, using a popular travel website online. 3-4 weeks later it was time for our trip! We drove from Boston on a Friday afternoon and about 7 hours we arrived at the hotel at about 1:30 a.m., tired and ready to check in and get some sleep.

We were surprised to see several pieces of paper attached to the door, reading "No Rooms Available- All Booked". We knew we had a confirmation number, and that our rooms had been reserved and paid for in advance, so we thought we had nothing to worry about. Wrong! We walked into the hotel, to find the 'manager' in sweat pants, a t-shirt and no name tag. He was rude from the moment we walked in, not helping us or saying anything to us until I asked him directly if he was the manager.

I told him we were checking in, and he said "No you're not." We were confused, we had a room all paid for and waiting for us- I told him so and tried to show him our confirmation receipt and #. He refused to even acknowledge the confirmation, would not accept it or even listen to us. All he kept repeating was, we are all full, we have no rooms to give you. The 'manager' actually threw the whole guest list at us, (with names and phone numbers of other guests) I guess to 'prove' that they were full but we didn't care. I told him that was impossible, as we had already paid for the room and it was confirmed. To this he admitted that the day manager will often CANCEL PAID RESERVATIONS for guests if they do not book 3 days on a weekend, but book 2 instead... and that he does this without notice to the paying customers. I told him that's just wrong, as we had paid and had confirmation- and that he needed to find us a room somewhere else, or give us a refund on the spot.

"I have no rooms. Now GET OUT of my hotel!" he screamed and then walked to the back of the room and turned his back on us. We said "Sir, we are paying customers, it's the middle of the night during tourist season, there is no where for us to go. Please help!".

He refused to help, refused to refund our money, and refused to call another hotel. He would not help us at all and he did not know how to manage or have any customer service skills at all. After only 5-7 minutes of this, with us trying to figure out what to do, he then yelled at us and said "GET OUT or I'm calling the police!" To which we replied, please do! We'd like a place to stay and our money back and maybe the police will help.

And he did call the police, I was shocked that that was how he thought best to 'manage' the situatuon. He ignored us entirely and would not let us even stand in the lobby where it was dry and warm. He offered us no assistance, and when the police came we gave them a statement and they apologized to us but could not get us a room. We tried 7 other hotels in the area, all booked. We ended up sleeping in our car on the side of the road. Worst hotel and vacation experience of my life! I will never stay in a Travelodge again, and I sincerely hope both the day and night managers have been fired.

We ended up traveling later than planned and arrived in Watertown exhausted at midnight with no reservation. After checking prices at motels right off Rte. 81 and not wanting to pay $100/night, we drove less than a mile up Arsenal Street (main road) and found the Travelodge, which was far less expensive. The staff was very friendly--even at post-midnight--and room was surprisingly large and clean, with refrigerator and microwave. Parking was very close to room. Morning free breakfast was standard but plentiful and fresh. Would definitely stay here again.