Americas Best Value Inn Refugio

As we arrived at motel we assumed we would go into lobby and get checked in. We waited in the driveway in 96 degree weather for 45 minutes before the employees came back to the office. When we looked over the room it looked OK; but then I decided to take a shower. WOW Hair in the shower and hair wrapped around a half empty bottle of shampoo. Apparently the employees thought a new client could use the shampoo so the bottle would be empty. How unsanitary. There was also a full bag of trash from previous checkins. We complained to the owners and we were offered $25.00 off our next visit. That will never happen again.

Four of us stayed for one night. Room 102 had Big Foot with a hammer living above them, the beds were saggy, horrible but they had hot water, window shades fell off when trying to shut them. Room 104 had great beds, Big Foot with a hammer living above them and NO hot water in the shower. The shades on the window would not shut. Grateful we had a blanket to hang over curtain rod. To top it off the fire alarm battery started beeping at 3 a.m. We unplugged the battery and took the wires off and it stopped about 5 minutes later. The rooms were clean. The bathroom was in need of repairs in 104. The switch turned both the rattling vent and the light on. The bathtub was well used. The faucet regulator wouldn't hold to the hot side of water and even when you held it in place, never got hot water. The AC unit was noisy enough to cover the road noise just not the Bigfoot noise from above. We spent $77/night. By the time we left, we agreed it was too much for the issues we had.

This was the second time we had stayed here, not because we particularly liked it, but because your lodging options in Refugio are limited. On the positive side, the room and the bathroom were clean, the bed was okay, and the microwave and mini-fridge worked. But there were too many negatives. To start with, the room key didn't work properly because the lock appeared to be boogered up. I could make it work, but it took a minute or two and was very annoying. The stopper in the bathtub didn't work, so a shower was the only option. The bathroom door wouldn't shut, probably because of the constant humidity. Speaking of humidity, the AC worked okay, but didn't seem to take any moisture out of the air - plus it was noisy. The carpet felt nasty and moist, again probably because of the constant humidity. The room had an unpleasant musty smell, which we noticed even permeated our clothes when we got home to put them in the washer. Most annoying of all, there are no curtains or drapes for the window, only mini-blinds, which let way too much light in. There was an outside light right over the window, so the first night, it was like sleeping with a lamp on in the room. The second night, I unscrewed the outside light, so it was a little better. In conclusion, we won't stay here again. The Best Western is much more expensive, but this bargain motel is not that much of a bargain.