Days Inn Awful!
 

If you are planning a trip to Florida, especially Miami.. stay away from the Days Inn. All of them, especially the Miami Intl Airport Days Inn. Dirty rooms, horrible staff... just a nightmare. You may find a decent deal, but what you may in a cab to leave and get a nicer place.. will cost you more inthe long run! And dont be fooled by the free shuttle.. it may not show up! ANd you'll pay again for a cab! Don't do it!!!

Thanks for the warning and another vote against Days Inn.

Days Inn could not PAY ME to stay in one of their rooms! :-(

I am not fan of Days Inn but can you elaborate on your comment "All of them"?
Have you actually visited "All of them" in FL or the Miami area?
Days Inn's are mostly franchise properties and there are some that are pretty decent for budget travelers.
I suggest that people research properties on igougo.com, tripadvisor.com or one of the dozens of other sites that post numerous reviews.

Some people actually look at reviews of properties BEFORE they show up!

And chains can vary from property to property. Super8's, Comfort Inns and Travelodges are a few I've noticed differences in levels of "quality".

I must agree with TxTravelPro's comments; some Days Inns are pretty decent. I stayed in one in Asheville recently that was comfy, clean, roomy, and very reasonable. On the other hand, a Budgethost Inn in Florida City was among the worst chain hotels I've ever stayed in. Yet, I have no idea whether it is representative of the chain. Keep in mind that the hotels are often (always?) owned by individuals.

I wrote a letter of complaint to Budget Host, but have not recieved a response as of yet. I think that our best protection, as consumers, is to take the time to complain - politely, of course.

Bunman doesn't just hate Days Inn, he hates Norwegian Cruise Lines too. Sounds like he just had a bad trip all the way around.

Give him a break. We stayed at that hotel about 4 yrs ago post-cruise and it was so bad that we STILL talk about it, lol! I swear there were blood stains on the carpet. There were standing ashtrays in the halls. There was so much smoke in the "lobby area" that we were choking, and FL is supposed to have stringent smoking laws. The area is full of derelicts and drug dealers and it was one time in my life when I was too afraid to go to sleep in a hotel. Our room was filthy. We did have free HBO though, lol. There was a really good authentic hole-in the-wall Puerto Rican restaurant down the block which was GREAT! However, the walk back was terrifying. I posted several warnings on the cruisecritic boards following this and have been a much smarter traveler ever since. Live and learn. ps- the Ramada near the pier was pretty darn bad too!

During our US visit some years ago we stayed at two Days Inns. One was OK but our room in the other (in Savannah) was smelly and dilapidated. We were under the impression that franchisors imposed some minimum standards on their franchisees, but it seems not to be the case in the hotel business. We walked around to the Hyatt and after a minute's negotiation got a walk-up special rate for a nice river view room at only $30 more. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes not.

My experience with Days Inn is about the same at the other inexpensive chains. Better than some - Best Western for example.

A few of them have been very good.

Keith

I've stayed in Days Inns in 15 states in the past 4 years and have not had a problem with any of them.

First hand I can tell you the Days Inn South Beach (21st & Collins Avenue) is dismal at best.

While I have never stayed at a Days Inn I find it hard to believe "all" of them are bad. The poster is making a blanket statement saying "all of them". Has he stayed at "all" of them?

Perhaps Days Inn is not the Ritz (but would you expect that considering their rates in most places)? There are good hotels and bad hotels in ALL chains.

It pays to do your homework beforehand by reading reviews and asking advice. If a situation is particularly bad you can always contact the corporate office via letter detailing what the problem was in the specific hotel (not "all your hotels are bad").

Just remember, not all hotels look like website pictures, not all hotels in any chain are the same. Do your homework first tho, it does help in the long run.

The point is that Days Inn is a brand name as are Kraft, Sara Lee, Panasonic, and Honda. Kraft, Sara Lee, Panasonic, and Honda deliver consistently good products whereas Days Inn does not.

Even though some Days Inn's may be great places to stay, I, and others, choose not to do business with a brand (e.g. Days Inn, Super 8, Motel 6, and that ilk) we have learned from experience will likely deliver dissatisfaction.

It's all a matter of what you expect of a hotel/motel. If you take a holiday and stay a week or more at the same place you would want a different kind of accomodation than if you only need a clean room with bathroom for a couple of nights max.when you're touring the country.We stayed at a Days inn in Mystic CT in 2004 and it was alright. We have often stayed in Motel6 on our extensive tours and never had to complain. Paul

I have had both good and bad experiences.

BAD - Days Inn in Fort Lauderdale and in Orlando.

GOOD - Days Inn in Williamsburg almost across the street from Busch Gardens.

Happytrailstoyou, I don't quite get your overall suggestion of avoiding "brands". Would you also expect dissatisfaction if you chose a brand like Ritz Carlton or Four Seasons? There are good and there are bad brands to start with, as well as high and low end brands. Choosing a very low end brand is certainly more likely to result in unhappiness than starting with a higher end brand. And among each brand, yes, there will be better and worse.

Frankly at the price point of most Days Inns, I think I might actually feel safer staying at one of those than at a same priced mom and pop place these days -- especially when out traveling the highways. Still it might be wise to do some homework on checking out the reviews of any individual place you're condidering staying.

For the record, I went to tripadvisor and read the reviews. There were only a few which actually stated how bad this place was. Believe me, I've traveled the world and I've never seen a scarier hotel than this! If I hadn't had my husband with me, I would have RUN from this place and camped out at the airport overnight.

Concept behind brand comparison:

Honda good vs. Yugo bad.

Consumer Reports does brand comparisons for autos, motels, and much more.

If I have a bad experience with a brand (e.g. Days Inn) I switch brands. It's called being rational.

Days Inn website used to show a 1 to 5 sunburst rating for each hotel, but I don't see these ratings anymore. Used to be if you found a Days Inn with a 4 or 5 sunburst rating and also a 3 star AAA rating then you'd be pretty safe, but I don't know what happened. Maybe so many of their hotels were only rating 1 or 2 sunbursts that it got embarrassing?

Each hotel franchise sets up their very stringent regulations and long list of standards for the hotel to retain the "brand name." An auditor visits every year and more often if necessary to check on whether the hotel is up to snuff. If not, then the chain will suspend or revoke the right to use the franchise name. It is entirely reasonable to expect certain standards to be kept up with any given franchise. For example, the Hyatt's standards are more stringent than that of Holiday Inn. Days Inn's basic standards must fall pretty low to allow such operations to continue under its name. That being said, many hotels exceed their franchise's standards. But the floor of Days Inn's expectations seem to be in the bargain basement.

From this thread, we have two bad reviews for the Days Inn Airport and one for the Days Inn South Beach.

From that, I'd probably skip other Days Inns in Miami just because I know how bad the one is in South Beach is, I trust Linda's opinion, and chances are good they are owned by the same person.

I do and have stayed at the Days Inn Charleston and it is a great hotel.

AustinTraveler has a point I think. This sounds like a rehash of his anti NCL comments only he substituted Days Inn instead. Must have been an awful trip. :S-.

And there are people who find fault no matter what. And you cannot please. They complain for the sake of complaining. DH and I have traveled all the states except Alaska in the U.S. and have stayed at many Days Inn and have never had a bad one. We have stayed in expensive lavish hotels also and have found them not to our standards. We always check our room before we accept it. If we do not like it for whatever reason we ask to see another or say "thank you" and go down the road. It's one's own fault if they stay in a place that they are unhappy with in my opinion. The door swings both directions in and out.

marlene, I've been in the hotel business (management) for a long time and I am much more lenient than most.

At the Days Inn South Beach, we checked in with five rooms with our families at 1AM on a Saturday night and the first four rooms Mr. GoTravel and I tried to check into for just us were in various state of disrepair and gross.

The kids and my mother didn't ask for different rooms but all three of the girls slept in the same double bed.

I think from a professional hotelier standpoint, my view is pretty accurate when I state a hotel is dismal considering I saw nine different hotel rooms in the same hotel in one weekend and only one was acceptable.

Only wondering, how did you book or pick this hotel? Not being critical. Was getting your money back possible?

If you are asking me, I got all five rooms on Hotwire for two nights at $50 per room per night so the bad room really wasn't that big a deal.

tracys2cents, Days inn still shows the Sunburst Rating. I just visited their site before posting.

BTW: Days Inn Miami Airport North gets ZERO sunbursts. Days Inn Miami International Airport gets 5 SUNBURTS. Days Inn South Beach gets ZERO SUNBURTS.

Keith

I think that each individual property even within a chain should be judged by itself. We attempted to stay at a Days in in southern CA a few years ago. We were dealing with estate issues, and just needed a place to crash after what was to be several exhausting days. We arrived at the hotel and had our doubts, but went to our room. I think we were in there maybe 5 minutes when my DH said that even he could not handle this place. He dealt with the front desk, and we got most of our money back. We promptly went to a Hampton Inn and felt like we were at the Ritz. I have never in my life been so happy to see a clean room. BTW, I just checked the Days Inn site and they give that location a 3 sun rating. EWWWW!!!

Isn't it amazing how someone can post a simple statement here about how bad their experience was at a particular place and they get attacked as being too picky or just plain telling lies? Especially when those comments come from people who have never even been to the exact place the poster was talking about?
If someone says their steak was tough at the Outback in Tucson, several posters will immediately tell them they don't what good steak is because the one they had at Outback in Chicago was wonderful. It's all just too funny -- and too frustrating for the poster who tried to pass along a simple warning.

I am sure there are some good Days Inn but I have had a number of bad experiences with them and I would never stay in one again either. I think when you have a bad experience with more than once member of a chain it does turn you off to try others. That is the way it has worked with us. Usually, you can get another hotel in a market and it is no problem but there are some small towns and cities that this is the only choice and in those cases I will go to the next town to avoid a Days Inn.

Thanks Keith. I didn't see any sunbursts on the website, I guess that means that all of the hotels that I was checking had a ZERO SUNBURST rating? Pretty sad when your own hotel chain rates your property a zero!

Good luck to those poor Days Inn operators who maintain three star/five sunburst properties! So sad that your business has to suffer because the rest of the chain is so sub-standard.

Days Inns are bad, but Econolodges are MUCH WORSE!

The Days Inn in Dunkirk/Fredonia NY was very satisfactory to me. However I don't expect inexpensive hotel chains to have immaculate rooms. Since other people stay in the rooms over the months before I arrive I do expect that they may (heaven forbid) have some wear.

We spent a miserable half-night in a Days Inn right off highway 70 in Columbia. Were too exhausted to move on but it was disgustingly filthy, filthy, FILTHY and had noisy teens in the pool at midnight whom management made no effort to remove in spite of the posted "no swimming after 10" rule and our requests for quiet so people could sleep. After that experience, I swore I'd never spend a night in a Days Inn again! When I when I attempted to complain to "the home office" I found out that each is owned and run independently. Which explains the clean and well-run Days Inn in New Market, Virginia where we have stayed several times and expect to do so again.

What I've learned is to never make reservations sight-unseen at a Days Inn and to always stop with ample time to inspect and move on if need be.

Oops, that should have read "Columbia, Missouri" for anyone who might be wondering just which Days Inn I was indicating should be avoided.