To be honest, this was not my first choice for accommodations. The concert was at the Ho-Chunk Casino and I had hoped to just get a room there. However, when I learned they were already booked up, I looked for something that was affordable and familiar. The Days Inn was only $65 for a night (compared to $150-$300 at most others I checked). Even more important, I have stayed at other Days Inn motels in the past and thought they were decent. Since we didn't plan on doing much more than sleeping there, I figured that was as good of a choice as any.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
If I would have taken the time to read some reviews about this motel before booking my room, I would have seen most people gave the place one or two stars. I wouldn't give it that much. My wife and I enjoyed every single minute of our trip with one exception; the very little time we spent in that room.
Before I go any further, I do want to make something perfectly clear; I gave this motel every benefit of the doubt when we checked into it. It's only March and many businesses are shut down for the off-season so the motel might not be making as much money right now and, as a result, is working with a smaller staff than normal. But, even with keeping that in mind, I can't recommend this place.
One of the first things we noticed when we pulled into the motel parking lot was the large amount of garbage scattered around. There were leaves piled up next to the building (likely from last fall), there was a giant wine bottle and various other pieces of trash on the grassy area near the parking spaces. When we got our room key and pulled to the side of the building (near our room), we noticed what looked a bit like a dump. There were old metal doors, pieces of lamps and what looked like a broken down car sitting on a trailer.
When we got inside the motel, I was even less impressed. Right at the top of the stairs was a beer bottle sitting on the windowsill. Again, I gave the motel the benefit of the doubt and, because we were there early, I figured a guest left the bottle there the night before and, because they were still prepping rooms, I figured they hadn't gotten to it yet. But, the bottle remained there all night and into the next morning when we finally checked out.
The room itself was small and definitely would not fit more than two people in it at any given time. This I could actually live with since it was just my wife and me and, as I said before, we weren't going to be staying there all that much (we checked in and returned to the casino a little over an hour later; not getting back until about 11). However, I don't know why anyone in his or her right mind would put a coat rack that is no more than 6 feet off the ground right next to the bed. I'm lucky I didn't hit my head on it when I was getting in and out of the bed.
The room also seemed very dingy. Part of this was probably the lack of light; there were just two lamps in the room and a light over the mirror in the bathroom and all of them had energy-saving bulbs in them that couldn't be more than 60 watts (I should also mention there was a light switch in the room that didn't seem to do anything at first; until we discovered it controlled the outlet the TV was plugged into). It was so dark in there when we turned the lights off we ended up leaving the TV on (with the sound off) all night, just in case we had to get up to go to the bathroom.
In addition to the lack of light, I did discover on further inspection, the room wasn't very clean. The one vent in the bathroom had a layer of dust covering it and the main room had sunflower seed shells near the bed; something I would think would be picked up if the room had been vacuumed. It actually made me wonder if they changed the sheets.
Oh, and did I mention the clock in the room was running an hour slow, as though they forgot to move it an hour ahead for Daylight Savings?
One of my biggest pet peeves about this motel was the parking situation. As I mentioned, my wife and I went to our concert and then returned later that night. When we got there, we were shocked to discover every single parking space had been taken. And, I'm not just talking about the parking spaces by our side of the building. I mean every one in the entire parking lot. We ended up having to park up in that dump area I mentioned behind the broken down car and just short of running over a broken lamp. There weren't any lights back there either so we had to be very careful walking to the motel (especially since it was cold and there was ice).
I do want to be fair and mention, when we actually got to the room and went to bed, the beds themselves proved to be much more comfortable than I was expecting them to be. The mattresses were soft enough for me to sleep on them with only one pillow instead of my usual two. And, unlike some other motels we've stayed at, I didn't hear a lot of noise from the other guests (though that could have simply been because they were all asleep by the time we got back).
Unfortunately, the comfortable bed didn't mean we got a good night's sleep. As I mentioned, it was cold outside and, because of that, we needed to use the room's heater. The heater was one of those heater/air conditioner hybrids and, when turned on, it made a ton of noise. And, since the low setting didn't work, we had to have it turned on full blast. That, combined with us leaving the TV on for some light (since we didn't even have light coming in from the parking lot) meant we both pretty much just tossed.
My wife and I hope to visit Wisconsin Dells again in the near future, possibly with our kids. If we do, I can tell you I will not be staying at the Days Inn. In fact, if it happens to be the only motel available, I will just drive home regardless of the time of night.
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