Best Western Shenandoah Inn

Let me preface this review with the following statement: I am an experienced business traveller. Therefore, I would never, ever book myself into a Best Western on purpose. I had to be here at the request of a colleague on short notice, and he booked the room for me. Now that I have that out of the way, here comes my review.
I had no high hopes for this place, but I figured if my choices were staying at this Best Western or freezing in my car overnight, I’d stay at the Best Western. At the time of my writing this, I’m sitting in the room still contemplating the car option… I arrived to find the motel conveniently located right next to the interstate. No parking anywhere near check-​in, I had to trek around the building. Nobody was at the front desk, no bell. Eventually, a small child came running out of a back room and saw me, and she went to get mommy so she could check me in. I got all checked in and I soon discovered no parking anywhere near my room. Also, this is one of those joints where the rooms face outside and has that little window that allows people on the outside to peek in through the cracks in the drapes. That’s a negative for me, I prefer hotels/​motels with interior, well-​lit corridors. My room was on the second floor, and of course, no elevator. I had to carry all my crap up the steps. That sucks.
Now, for the room — It smells slightly of bleach. I guess it was the only way to get the smell of weed and hooker spit out of the room — ok, fair enough. There are three lamps in the room, all with those god awful underpowered florescent lamps in them, so even if you have all of them turned on, it’s still dimly-​lit. There’s a giant stain in the carpet by the sink; I’m not even going to wager a bet as to what that might be. I just took care not to step on it. There’s another crappy, exposed light fixture in the bathroom which gives you a choice of an unbelievably dim florescent lamp or a hot-​as-​the-​sun heat lamp. The shower has no shower curtain. It has the cloth, decorative outer curtain, but the inner vinyl bit is missing. The shower affords you two temperature choices with which to bathe — scalding hot or ice cold. You can switch between those choices by moving the shower selector handle about 0.2mm in either direction, which is convenient.
There’s a mini-​fridge and a microwave. That’s convenient. However, I think the mini-​fridge is powered by a large two-​cycle gasoline engine or something. It’s the loudest mini-​fridge I’ve ever heard. Ever. In fact, two full size refrigerators tied together wouldn’t be that loud. Unplugged that. The clock radio made a bunch of crazy sounds whenever my cell phone was anywhere near it. Unplugged that.
Turned on the hotel room heater. The sound of the fan drowns out some of the highway noise, which is nice. The bed seems clean enough, but is hard as hell. This ought to be good on my back…
So far, this room seems vastly overpriced. With taxes, it’s about $ 94 a night. I’ve stayed at much nicer hotels for roughly the same price. There’s «free» wifi — not password protected, but at $ 94 a night, trust me, I’m paying for it. There is a big plus, though — there’s an IHOP right across the parking lot where my colleagues and I plan to have breakfast early tomorrow morning, should we survive the night; there’s a seedy bunch milling around the parking lot. It’s places like this that compel me to carry a concealed weapon.
Is this the worst motel I’ve ever stayed at? Nope, that honor goes to a motel in Wrightsville, GA that shall remain nameless. So, I give this place two stars. It could always be worse…

Seems to be a family-​run establishment, conscientious about their customers; my reservation was made on
for non-​smoking (the discount websites didn’t show the hotel since it was too late to cancel a reservation made for same day, still got discount for making rez on their site directly) but when arrived in office, found housekeeping off for Christmas & so only smoking available. As a former smoker & anxious to get off the highway & into a room, I agreed. The smell was worse than I thought, but I turned on the fan & cracked the door since it was still daylight… nearly 2 hours later, I was developing a throbbing headache. I returned to the front desk and half-​expected a «nothing we can do, plus you said yes to the substitution» but they were happy to accommodate me! I was given a key to an upgraded room immediately & told to leave my smoking room key in the same room after I’d cleared out my luggage. The new room was like a hot shower on a cold day… just great! My recommendation would be to try this place, because they will do all they can to make your stay a pleasant one!