Econo Lodge, Marion, VA

Jamey and I travel a lot back and forth between Lynchbuurg, VA and Marion, VA where Jamey's Mom is in a nursing home and where his brother lives.  We stayed at one of the four small hotels in Marion this past weekend with my mother, who came along for the ride and to meet her son-in-law's family.  It was a dump--in a word.  No wonder this area of Southwest VA has such a bad reputation for hotels and dining.  We plan to stay at and review each of these small hotels over the course of the many trips which we will be making to Marion, VA this year.

The Econolodge at 1420 N. Main Street in Marion, VA was terrible.  We reserved two rooms.  Thank goodness it was only for one night! There was only one handicapped room in the entire motel that we could find and there was no handicapped sign on the door.  My Mom is 81 and cannot climb over the tub enclosure to get her shower.  She is doing very well, but needs a handle to lift herself up now and again.  The room that she stayed in had a huge bathroom into which you could roll a wheel chair, but no roll in shower and no useful bars for getting up and down.  Other than the extra floorspace in the bathroom, that was the only concession to the handicapped individual in her room.  So, Mom never got to have a shower.

The heat was impossible to regulate.  The thermostat in the window-units in both rooms was obviously not working correctly and the hot air became cold air, then hot air and this continued all night long. The TV in my mother's room was not working correctly and had snow in the picture on just about every channel.  The rooms were old, worn and dirty. The lamps were controlled by the switches on the walls and the turn buttons on the lamps themselves were non-functional.  The telephone had to be fine-tuned by banging it on the dresser to get a working dial-tone.

Surprisingly, the Internet worked just fine.  The coffee in the morning has got to be some of the worst I ever tasted.  While we were looking mournfully at the meager offerings of the free breakfast, we asked what time checkout was and the male at the desk told us 12 noon.  We went back to the room to get ready to leave and since we no plans until a Sunday family brunch at 1 PM, we were glad for the 12 noon checkout.   At 15 minutes to 12 noon, the phone rang and the man on the other end (the manager?) informed us curtly that we only had another 15 minutes to get out of there. 

Not surprisingly, there were only three cars in the parking lot all night long.  I would never return here or recommend this place to anyone.  A full scale remodeling is called for at this motel and a crash course on customer service.  I give them a one star rating.