Thunderbird Inn Florence

After working half a day a driving for 8hrs. I decided to get off of I-95 for some rest and was drawn to the large neon sign that I recall passing over the years. For the price I have to admit the room was old, but clean and the front desk worker was super friendly even talked me into staying for the breakfast buffet. Glad I did, you just don't see that motels or hotels for that matter, and when I say breakfast it was just that non of that continental stuff which has become so popular. The only problem I noticed during my overnight stay is locals begging for money in the parking lot even across the road at the gas station.

Just needed a stopping place on a long haul trip,this was super convenient to I-95, and the price was right. Older rooms, nothing fancy, but good bed, shower head, (little things like that make a HUGE differences,) and on the hottest, most humid day of the year so far, excellent AC. Breakfast buffet was a revelation, eggs, corned beef hash, pancakes, fruit salad, several kinds of sausage...and fat back. Something called fat back. (I'm a yankee, what do I know from fat back?) Very nice restaurant staff, helpful with an allergy problem

To be honest I reserved a room here because it was a great price on Priceline. It was a one star hotel so I had really low expectations. When I got there it looked like one of those classic 1960's hotel with a big neon sign and a bar next to the lobby. Well, the gentleman behind the counter was friendly and talkative and he explained to me that I had to get my breakfast voucher in the morning because people had been tricking them into giving extra vouchers. Ha!! The room was outdated but clean, and I slept great. The next morning I want to the breakfast and it was great. They had bacon, eggs, pancakes, sausage links, tator tots, grits, etc. There were also multiple fruit selections including prunes, Cantalope, peaches in sauce, pears in sauce, pink grapefruit, etc. To be clear, this is no Marriott or Hampton Inn. And I get the impression a lot of people may live at the hotel. The thing is all of the staff and the people staying there were very friendly. I just really enjoyed my stay and I will return the next time I am in Florence.

I'm a sucker for old neon signs and the Thunderbird Inn has a great one just as you come off the interstate. I was going to go to a chain but checked them out on line and got a single room for $45. I set my expectations low but I didn't need to. For my $45, I got a large room with a clean, comfortable king bed, fridge, microwave, free wifi (mine was fine) AND a free hot buffet breakfast. The buffet had cereal and breads, fresh fruit, pre-made scramble eggs, various breakfast meats, pancakes, coffee and more. You also could get a fresh made omelet. Frankly, I don't know how they can afford to keep things going but I hope it lasts. They even have an outdoor pool that looked pretty inviting. Staff was very friendly too. Yeah, she's a little rough around the edges and no, everything wasn't perfect, but you should have no reservation about coming here. Keep up the good work work old gal.

Clean rooms, great restaurant buffet with real southern cooking. Front desk staff went way beyond their duty to accommodate me during my stay. Free wifi was spotty but overall a great hotel for the money.

I've stayed at the Thunderbird five times now, on my way from PA to Florida. I like old fashioned style motels, and the Thunderbird is such a motel. The rooms are clean, the staff is friendly, and the food is great! You get a FREE BREAKFAST BUFFET with every stay! This is a $20 value!

I was only there for an evening and early a.m. departure. booked through expedia - I usually/often use a/the 'mystery hotel' option for the best price (I'm not picky when travelling solo, .... a bit different when my wife wants to read reviews first! :-) ) I was pleasantly surprised. ... and had a great full buffet breakfast included. nice waitress, tip well please, their minimum wage is terrible!

I decided to take my grandmother up here to get something to eat so she wouldn't have to cook just to give her a break and relax. I should've paid attention to the parking lot because there wasn't many cars outside and I was always taught you can judge a business by how many cars they have outside. Anyways we proceed to go inside despite what the outside looked like. I pay for our food to sit down and eat, for one there wasn't a lot of options to choose from but I still was going to give it a shot until I went to grab a plate. The plate I picked up still had grits on it, so I decided to pick up another one, that one was dirty too. Not only was I experiencing dirty plates, so was my grandmother. So I told her we will eat out the to go containers (still trying to give this run down place a chance) and we started putting our food in the container. Then the lady who rung us up yelled to us as we were on the other side of the room. Now I understand if you did not want us to use the to go plates, however what you wont do is yell at us like we arent paying customers. When I asked who she was talking to she proceeded to point at me and the lady on the grill thought she was talking to her because aint no way in the world could she be talking to a customer like that. So before I could walk over there (b/c obviously the batteries in her feet died) she decided to yell out to tell us not to use the to go plates. So I kindly tried to tell her the plates were dirty, not trying to embarrass anyone. I nicely told the lady on the grill that I would like to talk to the manager. The manager comes out and I was trying to tell him what happened and he asked me to show him the dirty plate. I picked the plate up that still had the grits on it and gave it to him. The manager looked at it like oh thats nothing scrapped it off and was like where are the other ones. Right there I knew it was going to be a problem since that wasn't good enough and he needed more proof. I went ahead and went to the stack my grandmother had picked from. He felt some things on the bottom of the plate and acted like he couldnt see anything wrong with the other ones. Then the manager proceeded to tell me if they got rid of all those plates they wouldnt have nothing to eat off of.....thats what your revenue can go into to. Anyways that wasn't any of my problems b/c I do not stay here nor do I work for him. So I told him we didnt want to eat there and would like a refund. After he interrupted me trying to express my concern and yelling to the cashier I understand why they do NOT know what Customer Service is. Besides the poor customer service the manager snatched my to go box out of my hand and tried to snatch my grandmothers to go box out of her hand but I grabbed it from her and told him he does not have to snatch anything from us. Other than this poor customer service the breakfast food was not what people say it is. For just $2 dollars more save yourself the disappointment and poor service and head over to Shoney's (a little further up the street) where the plates are clean, the people are friendly and the food is good.

Had misgivings because it's right next to the highway so I asked for a room away from the interstate. We were given a room in the back. HOWEVER, there was a truck parked in the parking lot that ran all night. Hotel and room badly in need of a makeover. Bed was ok, but no shower curtain. Tub was disgusting so couldn't take a bath either. Refrigerator froze our food. Would not stay here again but the dinner buffet had the best Southern food. Better than Cracker Barrel!. Breakfast buffet was included in room price and was quite large and delicious. Even had omelets made to order.