PA Harrisburg La Quinta

[LoneStar]

This is the old Baymont hotel on I-283 north of the airport. The location (near the Wyndhams) is excellent for Hershey, about 10 minutes away. For $35, it was a good deal for a night. That said, the hotel isn't great, and is properly classified as a 2-star.

If you're used to staying at La Quintas out West, you know that most of their motels are in good shape and represent an excellent "mid-priced" lodging value. Every once in a while, though, you hit an old La Quinta that needs a remodel. This property certainly falls into the "needs a remodel" category. The property is just worn and fraying around the edges.

Example: my in-room mini-fridge was unplugged. I went to plug it in and found a big puddle of water in the back. Whoops! I did without a fridge for the night.

Since I was travelling with my family and was going to arrive late, I called the night before to arrange a 2-bed non-smoking room. "No problem," the desk clerk said. Sure, enough, when I arrived at 10 pm, my 2-bedded room was given away. "Why?," I asked, unhappily. "Well, we ran out of 2-bedded rooms, so I changed yours back to a 1-bed room. I thought that's what you would have wanted." Of course, this made me more unhappy (although not surprised, since my bed-type requests usually get lost on priceline stays), but the manager was nearby and put us in a "king suite" room that has a pull-out twin bed. These are supposedly the most expensive and largest rooms in the hotel, but the difference is small, and the room was only OK (not a suite by any definition I know). The king bed was OK, an obvious step-down from the beds you usually get in 3-star hotels these days. Like the rest of the hotel, the room decor was overdue for a remodel.

The free extended continental breakfast is probably the best thing about staying here, and breakfast was decent. The fresh waffles are the high-point. My son was disappointed by the lack of bagels, which are a promised La Quinta breakfast item. "The shipment didn't come in," was the explanation I got when I asked. Otherwise, plenty of danish, cereal and toast, with the "fruit" consisting of a basket of apples.

Bottomline is that I'd bid 2-star in this east Harrisburg zone only if I valued the free breakfast or didn't mind a slightly worse hotel than the 2.5 star Wyndham Garden (which often goes for about $35, too). Both are good for the price. Neither is worth paying much more for!