Super 8 Motel – Alton

Pros: Decent breakfast, plenty of parking, and clean room.
Cons: First assigned room wasn’t prepared. We got bit many times by mysterious bugs when in bed all throughout the stay. One small bug was seen dead on the pillow. The bug was smaller than a bed bug and bites were more like a mosquito bite in appearance. Non-​smoking room smelled like cigarette smoke, could be from neighboring room.

I think that for what it is, this motel was fine for one night: inexpensive, seemingly clean, ideal location, fridge, microwave, and a provided breakfast in the morning. My only complaint: Our room was pretty noisy throughout the night. We were in room 118, and I think we must have been right next to generators or something. I am used to outside sounds since I live relatively close to a freight train when I am at home, but this was pretty loud. At around 6am when I was still laying in bed I could also clearly hear my hotel neighbor’s toilet experience. So I guess my suggestion to future guests might be to bring earplugs.

You get what you pay for… and the cheap $ 50/​night and I didn’t get bed bugs and/​or herpes is why this gets two and not one.
Room was very run down and haggard. Not real clean. Lowlights were the possibly poop/​blood stains on a towel I tried to use and the fact that hot water seems very difficult to come by.
Highlight was the people in the room across the hall smoking enough weed to give me a decent contact high.

My wife is a native Altonian and we’ve been making the five hour pilgrimage down to Alton since, ummm… 1998ish. Usually we stay with family but when there’s a big event going on and the family can’t put us up, we need to find a place to stay. It had been a while since we’ve needed a room in town, but usually Comfort Inn or Holiday Inn are cheap and clean. I don’t know when it happened, but at some point, the Comfort Inn on College Ave. and Holiday Inn (also in College Ave) must’ve reinvented themselves as luxury hotels [Comfort Inn wants $ 130 per night?! (*pffft*) screw that]
The Super 8 is cheap and is clean and is quiet and the rooms are dark. When you’re visiting from out of town and you don’t spend more than 8 or 9 hours in the room, that’s all you need. They also serve an edible breakfast although you might consider driving into town for something else — you’re saving a few bucks on the room… go ahead and treat yourself. Still, if you don’t want the hassle of driving somewhere for breakfast, you can carb load here [waffles/​cereal/​muffins/​bagels/​toast/​oatmeal]. If you get the hankering to booze up, just run across the beltline and buy a six-​pack of beer @ the Shop N Save — you can keep it cold in the convenient mini-​fridge — just make sure you buy before midnight or no booze for you. My one complaint was the truck-​driver who was grinding his gears trying to turn his truck around in the parking-​lot next door at 2:00 am — that’s just rude.