Days Inn Marion IL

$ 39.99 plus tax gets you a small cinder block room that smells awful. Dude at front counter was very nice.

I had to write a review to offer up this advice to travelers: if something is up with the room, tell the desk right away! I was in a small solo room (#208) & it stunk of stale smoke, even though it was non-​smoking. I’ve lived with smokers so I thought «whatever, I’ll tough it out». The room was uuuuugly– orange cinder block wall, laminate floor, falling apart trim in the bath, cigarette burns in the blanket– but the bed was clean & there was a mini fridge, so I aired the room out a bit & hit the sack; not having paid for a hotel for a while, I thought I’d remembered wrong what $ 45 gets you. When I woke up at 5am, my mouth tasted like I’d licked the bottom of some shoes & my throat had the beginnings of a chest cold. I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I called the nice guy downstairs. He came up & showed me to another room on the other side of the hotel that’s MUCH cleaner. So bitch right away if you have a serious issue with your room or feel unsafe– there’s probably a better one.
negatives: free wi-​fi is unsecured, pool was covered & closed– other reviews elsewhere indicate the pool has been a holy mess for a while, so they should sort it out or stop advertising it; my first room looked like somewhere you’d «hole up» after a bank robbery
pluses: a/​c, mini fridge, clean beds, polite staff, my second room was more like the cheap chain hotels I’ve come to expect– clean & secured