Homeland Inn

As bad as it was, it was better than my worst expectations for $ 25/​night. When I showed the receptionist a cigarette hole in the sheet, she rushed to get me a clean one which she spayed thoroughly with a mild solution of bleach water before handing it to me. Well, I didn’t get any crawlies, and it was safer than sleeping in the car. No, the place wasn’t spotless, and there were no amenities, but seriously, what do you expect for $ 25?

While it is clear that the management tries hard — this is the most atrocious hotel I have ever had the displeasure of spending the night. All the other big chain hotels were full — no vacancy anywhere on the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving. We found a vacancy here — but couldn’t get into our room due to a card key/​door malfunction. A new key and different room didn’t work any better and the «maintenance manager» had to let us in with a master key.
Clearly they are going for the «weekly» and «monthly» markets because they are doing some renovations where they are knocking down a wall between two rooms, putting a sofa and oversized crappy tv armoire in the other room. In fact, there were still open holes in the walls and crumbled sheetrock on the carpets.
There are still two bathrooms (shower stall only) — and a distinct lack of sufficient overhead or task light. The controls for the thermostat didn’t work well (one in each room) and the linens had clearly seen better days. We felt very fortunate that we did not end up with lice or bedbugs.
The beds were so uncomfortable that we probably would have been better served sleeping in the car. We were so disoriented in the morning that we continued South on Hwy 5 instead of taking 58 east into Bakersfield as we intended, such was our haste to make tracks away from this awful hotel.

I’ve stayed at this rat-​hole a couple of times now. Nothing special about it, except the price. it’s great when you’re road-​tripping and running out of money. It’s about $ 33 dollars a night for two people, one bed. It’s a place to shower, watch tv, eat and relax. There is NOTHING wonderful about this place. Like i said, it’ s just some place. If you come without expectations, you most liekly will not be disappointed.

Barreling down a lonely stretch of interstate highway at 90+ miles per hour in the driving rain at 11:30 on a Friday night might sound like fun if you’re a methed out long-​haul trucker, but it was absolute torture to me. As I nodded off for the ninth time only to be snapped awake by the din and vibration of the rumble strips on the side of I-​5, I decided that it was time to pull off for the night. But where? I’m in the middle of BFE.
At that moment salvation presented itself in a 20′ x 30′ sign on the side of the road offering a room for $ 25.99 per night. How could I resist? The pull of Mr. Sandman was far too strong to escape and I needed a place to lay my head. So dodging trucker bombs (those water bottles full of toxic meth enhanced trucker piss you see on the side of the highway) and lot lizards, I pulled off in Buttonwillow and looked for this fabled cheap room.
I walked into the lobby and was greeted by a bed-​headed Indian woman who showed me my ‘ultra-​luxurious accommodation’ for the evening. The room had a saggy twin bed with a cover that I wouldn’t have wanted to hold a black light to (damn you for making me neurotic, CSI), a well-​used table and chair, a tiny TV, a bedside table, skanky carpeting and a dirty bathroom. Oh joy. Not being in a position to complain, I took the room. I walked around in my flip flops, not wanting to actually walk on the carpeting barefoot. About a half hour later, I headed off to sleep, the drone of Interstate 5 just outside my door.
The place was disgusting and at 5:15 am after a less than restful night of sleep, I woke up and got the fuck out of there. My bathroom was so foul that I didn’t even take a shower. I just left. Quickly.
This is a great place to stay if you’re a methed out trucker, a hooker or serious hillbilly trash. If you don’t fall into any of those categories, then it would be best to find another place to stay. Needless to say, I won’t be staying there ever again.
EVER.

meh, its a place to put your head down, take a shower, watch some speedTV and drink a few beers the night before a track day or race weekend.
its pretty run down, the area stinks because of the cows and farm fertilizer, but the WiFi is free and overall cheap. less than $ 20/​person when you share a double.
and totally worth it over waking up at 4am to drive to the track and make it in time for registration and missing your first session and being tired all day.

In my continued search for the worst motel in America, I stumbled upon this place on my way to Motel 6. I couldn’t resist the $ 25.99 price thinking ‘how bad could it be?” Well, it was pretty bad. I got really grossed out after reading the online reviews that talked about everything from dirty sheets to bugs. I checked my room and sure enough there were hairs on my pillow cases (they even felt like they hadn’t been changed. Most people how clean sheets feel.) I checked the bathroom closely and hairs were also in there in the shower. I also checked the drawer of the bed stand and some dead little bugs in there. Not sure why kind of bugs and hoping that the fact they were dead means they exterminated the place. The room also had an odor of cigarettes and I’m not sure what else. I went downstairs to ask for a refund and was told by the short lady (likely the mother of the teenage girl who check me in) that «we don’t do that.» She offered to change my room. I could have been a b*tch and left it for my CC company to deal with but I have enough to do as it is and I had been driving in the heat all day. I let her give me a room on the side by the truck stop. I asked about the noise and she said it would be noisy everywhere and the other hotels are worst since they are off the highway. Aaaannnyyyywayyy. She asked for a few minutes. I’m presuming so she could clean the new room or something but she came out on her cell phone. She said she was checking with her head housekeeper. Honestly, I doubt they have a head housekeeper. I saw one person «cleaning» the rooms but there were no cleaning products in the cart/​laundry basket. More than likely this person was going into the rooms and straightening up the sheets (no clean sheets to be found!) and putting new rolls of toilet paper in the rooms. They do offer what appear to be clean towels. Everything else in the rooms are grubby, grimy and worn out. She took me to the new room and at least this room didn’t smell of cigarettes (as much) and it smelled like it had been cleaned with something (likely Ajax). The pillowcases also appeared to be clean but upon close inspection of the sheets… discovered fine hairs on the top and bottom sheets. Didn’t come from the blankets like the lady suggested. Also note, I have coarse, curly hair and the hairs were straight and fine. Didn’t come from me! Not sure if they came from the wash but there were too many for it to be acceptable. There were also hairs on the sink and the shower head didn’t work well and the sink didn’t drain. Sigh! Didn’t seem to have any hot water either. That just suggests to me that the place is not well kept. I went back downstairs, asked for a clean top sheet. The woman thought that I wanted a bedspread. I said no, just a clean sheet to put over the spread. She took a while to dig one out. Another red flag! She grudgingly gave it to me and I spread it over the bed with the intention of sleeping on top of sheets, natty blanket, dirty, stained spread and all. The rooms on the lower level by the pool were being renovated so maybe they are trying to improve the place. I think the family got a bum deal. They bought this broken down motel that probably was slated to be demolished. Rugs are filthy, lamp fixtures rusted, furniture peeling. It’s pretty bad. I’d advise you to pay the extra $ 10 and keep driving down the road to Motel 6. I was serious afraid I would contract something in this place that I wouldn’t be able to get rid of and also chalked up the $ 26 and kept driving home. Note to self, always check room before paying for it, bring own sheets, blankets and scented candles when traveling. The moral of the story: Cheaper is not always better. Alternative moral: Go with what you know.
Update: So it turns out the place is owned by a little Indian family (they might also be affiliated with the Taste of India restaurant across the street) and they are trying to run it all by themselves! No wonder the place isn’t well kept! The little girl (early teens I would suspect) was up the next morning «cleaning rooms» saw a toilet brush and some what looked to be watered down cleaning products in the laundry basket. She dragged the cart filled with dirty towels down the stairs (and she is just an itty bitty thing). The mom is obviously the one running the show and the dad had a vacuum (which I think they use to surface vacuum since I found a toe nail near the head of the bed!) I think when he isn’t helping out he is trying to do the renovations himself. Crazy!!! I feel bad for them because they seem to have gotten a bum deal when they bought this place and unless they can bring more relatives over to help out or will trust outsiders enough to work for them they are going to continue having a crappy business.

This is the old Motel Six that has been here even before when I was a teen ager driving north in the eighties. I have to say I have stayed here twice (once about fifteen years ago, and once last year). It‘s still the same dirty motel six was back fifteen years ago, even down to the same shower head! I slept in my clothes and was still grossed out. It was cheap and the grounds kept up. Other than that I wont be back. I‘ll sleep in my wagon next time.

I was totally fine with this place until my boyfriend had to be all gross and refer to everything here as having «trucker jizz» on it.
Other than that it was cheap and reasonably safe!
:D