Econo Lodge Inn & Suites Fairgrounds

Great friendly helpful staff, nice rooms and indoor pool. There are plenty of hotels to choose from but for the price this is a great place to stay. Negatives are small parking lot. More positives: close to everything and right across from state fairgrounds.

I needed a hotel to stay at during a cross-country drive from Pennsylvania to Utah, and I chose this hotel because it had pretty decent reviews, and seemed to be bed bug free. Thankfully, no bedbugs, at least not in the room I stayed in. The room was decent - the linens all seemed clean, the floor seemed vacuumed, and the bathroom was clean. The AC worked well and I actually woke up cold, which is preferable to being too hot. However, there was a gross stain on the blanket - I realize they don't wash them after every use (or probably ever) but if it has a stain on it, why wouldn't they just throw it in with some bleach?! Just gross. Also, there was a huge stain on the floor that looked like blood next to the bed...ew. It was also extremely overpriced - $90 for one night after all the fees. And not in the best area. I had a homeless guy ask me for spare change in the parking lot when I left around 5:30 AM. Not a totally bad experience - it was basic and mostly clean - but I wouldn't stay here again.

There is plenty of room for picky criticisms of this older property in an older neighborhood adjacent to the fairgrounds. The current management has been keeping up with the remodeling, but there are still minor maintenance issues. If you are looking for a place to stay near the capitol area and spend less than $200 per night, this works just fine. It will never pass for a four or five star experience, but it's clean, seems safe and was an overall pleasant experience.

It's a very basic Econo Lodge hotel located a bit out of city in a residential area next to the State Fair complex. The room was okay as was the service. The only minus was the breakfast. Not the breakfast itself but the space to eat it in. There are only couple of tables and when there are more than few people having the breakfast you have to eat standing or take the breakfast to your room.

We decided to stay here for the night so the kids, my wife and myself could go swimming and have a night away from home. Upon our arrival we meet Adam working the front desk. He was very friendly and efficient in checking us in. He totally made my day when he said pool was open until midnight (I am used to 10 pm, which I never understand). They were installing new carpet on second floor so you that smell to deal with, oh well. The pool was awesome, hot tub was just what we needed. especially with it being -12 outside. The rooms have 2 double beds (what 2 normal sized adults can fit into a double bed). The beds are less than an foot away from the heating unit so no walk room. You kick the heater if you get out on that side or disturb your partner. The heater worked great. The room got hot quickly. The heater did not have any kind of control. So if you turn it down then it became cold. The door to the room looked like it was hung crooked, huge gap all around door that let the hallway light into room. The breakfast was good. It was your typical biscuits and gravy, waffles, muffins, cereal, juice , and coffee. I noticed when we checked out they did charge an extra fee of $1.50 for the safe, not sure what that is about. I would say overall this was a nice place to stay in off seasons. I would not want to stay here when a big event is going on at the fairgrounds like the state fair, or renaissance festival, or anything like that.

I just came back from staying three nights under two different stays. I worked a trade show, and then didn't want to drive home in the rain (and dark), so grabbed a room with points. OK, lets get the good out of the way first: This was a fairly typical budget hotel overall. The beds were fine, the TV worked, and I had no issues with the AC/Heat during my stay. There is an elevator, and it works just fine. The ice machine worked fine, but there was only one for the entire facility, and it was located at the other end of the building. Oh well. Now, for the more fun portion of the review: The annoying stuff. General notes: Water pressure in the shower seemed OK, temperature seemed to keep drifting to cold. This happened in both rooms I was in. I stayed in one accessible room, and one not. The "not" had what I call a "threateningly small toilet", the Accessible room had an ADA standard model in it. If you are built larger than itty-bitty, you might want to keep that in mind. The hotel used to have two entrances from the street to the parking lot. However, due to the fact that one of those entrances has two very large trash dumpsters blocking it, you have one choice for getting in and out, and it's NOT the choice on the street with a intersection stop light on it. Others have noted that there is a biker bar on one side of the property. That's true. It looks like there's a dive bar on the other side as well. I didn't see either apparently open any time I was out, though. Perhaps there's something to be said for colder temperatures. Regarding the parking lot: This lot is apparently too small for the occupancy of the building. Friday night, Saturday, and even Sunday morning, cars were parked all over, including on the sidewalks and in the one and only entrance to the parking lot. This made backing out of the parking spots particularly interesting. Friday check-in was relatively easy. Sunday mas more of a Mongolian cluster. I showed up, waited awhile, pushed the little doorbell at the desk, waited, another customer shows up, they pushed the doorbell, we waited, a third customer shows up.... I finally grab my phone and dial the number for the hotel on my reservation. I call, don't get a response, call again, don't get a response (I am letting it ring until it gives up), call a third time, get a faint "hello?" say "I am at the front desk and I need to check in please", get another faint response, and one of us sees an employee emerging from somewhere all the way at the other end of the building, making their way to us. This wasn't at a silly time either, it was about 7pm. Oh well. One thing that really torques my shorts are hotels that add various fees to your bill. Fees, such as the "room safe" fee. Each day, the hotel adds $1.50 plus taxes to your bill without your consent or use of the facility. They will take it off your bill, assuming you remember to ask them when you check out. I was expecting this when I saw the note on my sign-in, and the golden sign on their lobby desk. So, when I checked out Sunday, I was sure to tell them not to charge me for the safe. OK, fair enough. Sunday night, when I checked in with points, they asked for a credit card "for incidentals". When I checked out Monday, sure enough, they tried to hit my "incidentals" card on file for the blasted safe fee. Arrgh! Oh, incidentally, there was a strong smell of paint on the second floor, and evidence that they are painting at least the halls on floors one and two. Never went to floor three. I tried out the WiFi with my tablet, and couldn't get a connection on Saturday. I ended up just turning the hot spot on my phone on so I could do what I needed to do. This hotel is silly close to the Fairgrounds, and very convenient because of this, but given these issues, I may just have to drive a bit further next time to avoid having to deal with these annoyances.

This hotel is directly across the street from an entrance to the state fairgrounds, which would make it very convenient to someone spending a couple days checking out events. I stayed here mid October when the fair was over and it was a nice, quiet location. First impressions: Hotel was out dated and worn looking, area didn't look the best (low end bar next door), nothing to write home about. The clerk at front desk was great. There were 3 guests in front of me when I was checking in around 7pm. He was friendly with everyone, patient, quick, worked efficiently and got the line moving. When it was my turn, about 3 more groups of guests had come to check in; the place was busy. I had a first floor non smoking double bed suite room. The room was smaller than other suite rooms I've had. There was a door separating the two double beds and bathroom from the living area. The bathroom had a sink outside the toilet and tub area and the bathroom light switch was inside the bathroom (not outside so your funny family members can turn the light out on you!) Didn't care for the sink light shining on people sleeping if someone has to get up to use bathroom though. There was a separate air condition/heating unit in the bedroom area, along with a tv and table and chair. The coffee maker and cups were in the bedroom which was kind of strange though. There was a small fridge and microwave in the living area. There was a tv, air/heating unit and end tables along with anther chair. The lighting was dim and the carpet desperately needed to be ripped out, along with fresh paint on all walls. The pull out bed was a disaster. Might as well of been sleeping on the floor of a tent on dirt in just a sleeping bag. Definitely bring a blow up mattress for anyone sleeping there so they can move in the morning and not have major headache/muscle aches. Didn't use the pool area but saw people in it and smelled the chlorine. Breakfast was ok, but if you wake up with only an hour left you will be screwed out of half of what was offered. The dishes were not replenished and had to ask to refill the batter for waffles. It was a basic biscuits and gravy, waffle maker, cereal, yogurt, oatmeal, muffin kind of breakfast. There is a Quick Trip gas station right down the road on University and 30th that has a HUGE selection of drinks and food choices, even a hot food pizza place there. Also Sleepy Hollow sports park is about 10 minutes away, Domino's is also 5 minutes away. A short drive west on University, just past the Quick Trip will take you to a grocery store called Aldi. Parking lot did fill up fast and some had to be creative with makeshift parking spaces next to the sidewalk, or you parked on the road. Overall this is not my first pic for cleanliness, however I did not see bugs (okay, two tiny beetle bugs in the bathroom that I think came in from a small hole in the window screen) or smell anything musty or horrible. It will do if you are not picky or a germ a phobe. Employees were very friendly though and the place was quiet and I slept well on the double bed.

The staff was quite nice, and I like the chocolate chip cookies in the evening, the parking is convenient right out front, but that is about all I can say really positive. The place in general appeared dingy including the room but the room itself was clean. The A/C did not work right as it was cool enough but not dehumidified as the room was as humid as a tropical jungle. The biggest issue was next (outside my room) was a "biker" bar. All night long and wee hours of the morning unmufflered motorcycles roared off like 747's. I can sleep anywhere but was shocked out of sleep numerous times every night. I was disappointed in there being no micro wave or fridge but it did have an indoor pool that seemed nice. You need a car to get food but enough about 5 minutes away. Domino's Pizza delivers to the Motel and is nearby. The location is somewhat isolated and dark so not an area one would roam around in, however it was not far to most tourist venues (15 min).

This hotel is located right next to the IA state fest grounds. We weren't there during that time of the year though and it had a great rate. The check-in was quick, although they were unsure of when their breakfast hours were. All of the walls in the building, halls and rooms, REALLY needed a fresh coat of paint. It looked like some patch paint jobs here and there of various shades of white and you could see gauges and missing paint everywhere. The carpet also looks like the original 1960's brown and was musty smelling. The room furniture looked like 1960's cheep hand-me-down's and the yellow cloth desk chair had stains all over it. I would never feel comfortable sitting in it.The chairs were in the same condition in other rooms as well. But, for the positive, the beds were comfortable and clean. The breakfast was nice with waffles, biscuits and gravy, 2 cereal choices, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, muffins and bagels, as well as juice and coffee. We visited the pool area. It was nice, nothing fancy. Seriously, a paint job and new carpet and the place would have earned a much higher rating.