Sands Motel

Soooooooo… I’m gonna be short and to the point. If you like BED BUGS (omfg!) or blood spattered sheets (from dead bed bugs) or just a shithole. … Well then your in luck! Sands motel might be for you! I’m still royally disgusted. Bed bugs. are you kidding??? On a positive note. I was refunded. 0 stars!

I don’t know how they haven’t been shut down. Wall to wall filth no paint on some of the wall’s. Stains on bedding and towels. Carpets were so gross I wouldn’t get out of bed without my shoes. Last but not least there were druggies coming and going in the room next to me all night.

I came here for a 3 day and 2 night birthday weekend celebration! It wasn’t bad at all. The area does seem to be a bit sketchy at first but turned out to be ok. It’s conveniently located by food, Tyler mall, a liquor store… and a hospital in case of emergency. Lol. All within waking distance.
In my time there it was very quiet, I heard the upstairs briefly stomping/​walking only once, and nothing from the surrounding rooms. Sheets and blankets were clean (although comforter seemed a bit worn) towels smelled good, the bed was comfortable and there was a tv with HDMI hookups that made hooking up a Wii U a breeze. The room also had a blueray player!
I encountered two men at the front desk during my stay. The older of the two, and the one that checked us in, showed me a room when I requested, and honored the deal I found on Priceline. He was kinda cold/​unsmiling. While a friendlier and more welcoming demeanor would have been appreciated, he was not unpleasant at all.
My ONLY real gripes were wifi and ice. Sprint and Tmobile did not get good service in the room at all. (We were ground level) and the wifi was weak. It would frequently disconnect and when it was connected it was SLOW. So it’s ok in a pinch, but not reliable. Don’t count on it if you stay here. And the ice machine is .25 cents. It’s not too bad, unless you don’t have any quarters. But the front office hooked me up when I brought in change.
All things considered, I got a fantastic price, everything was clean and quiet, front desk was accommodating, and I enjoyed my stay. These negative reviewers seem have wine taste on a beer budget. Just sayin.

DO NOT STAY HERE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!
first of all, just down the road at Magnolia and La Sierra is a Motel 6 with the same rates. they are excellent. there is also the Riverside Inn located nearby and while i cannot personally vouch for them– Unilocal and tripadvisor both have 4 stars– but certainly ANY PLACE IS BETTER THAN HERE!
the wi-​fi is indeed terrible. my wife book 2 nights for business reasons– and wi-​fi was a necessity for her doing her work. same problem another reviewer mentioned– it kept disconnecting on her. they tried to tell her that the problem was her computer. she had 2 lap tops with her– they both experienced identical issues– which did not occur closer to the office. she made this clear to them. so did i upon a later phone call. they simply insisted that ‘we have excellent wi-​fi’ — as you can see per the other review– this is not the case.
i called the motel asking for my wife’s room– but had forgotten her room number. i was told «THEY checked out earlier today.» if you are perchance unfamiliar with the importance of accurate pronouns, «they» suggests that she was with somebody, which is slanderous. in later phone calls they told me «we don’t give out any information» — when i pointed out that they HAD given out info, and i had recorded it, i was told «i don’t have the names, just the room numbers» which is clearly false. i asked if he did not know, why give out inaccurate info?
i was then told that they had made a mistake and that room 120 had checked out. she was in room 220. i had never specified the room number when i had first called and been told «they» had checked out. after the fifth time i pointed this out, i was told that the person in room 120 had the same name as my wife. considering her somewhat rare name, this is highly unlikely. plus i had been told previously that he did not have a list of the names. i have no reason whatsoever to conclude anything other than that these people were lying to me. other reviews note similarly.
also, there was a problem with the toilet. it was backing up, not flushing properly. another reviewer noted plumbing problems as well.
considering that my wife had booked a room here in part for the needed wi-​fi and a refrigerator (which btw, did not work properly) and she was not getting it and they were not either fixing the problem or offering to move her to a room closer to the router/​office, and she was beginning to fear that these creeps were going to come into her room either when she was there or when she was not– she left a day early and we requested that they refund her for the following day she had booked but not used.
we felt this was a fair enough settlement– paying for one night despite stated services not being rendered (the wi-​fi) — and were refused. i told them we would dispute the credit charge. we opened a credit card dispute regarding the matter. also filing a report with the BBB and department of consumer affairs.
again– DO NOT STAY HERE! both the very nearby motel 6 and the Riverside Inn are better alternatives. the first guy i spoke with suggested there was a ‘language barrier’ which is mentioned in another review here. do not believe them– they are lying to you. they understand you just fine– they use this excuse as a method of taking your money and keeping it– along with pointing to the «no refunds» sign which they did in our case as well when we requested the refund.
i marked wi-​fi as a ‘no’ because essentially such is so, despite their insistence otherwise.
unless you are a crack or speed addict, which appears to be the common clientele at this location, stay literally at any other motel in riverside. check the reviews of this place on
where ⁹⁄₁₀ rated it «terrible» and you can also find similar ‘bad wi-​fi’ reports and at least one recent review reports bed bugs.

The hotel room was clean. The Wifi was terrible and I had to constantly reconnect. The hotel room did not have enough towels and had to as for more. The next day they only left one set of towels even though I told them 2 people were staying in the room. The other problem is that the plumbing was noisy, which made it hard to sleep at times.

I am writing this review because I see that it did not just happen to me I just like another review says called around looking for a good price for one night there were lots of choices and sands motel happened to be the cheapest on the phone the day before the man told me it would be $ 59 I asked what exactly the price would be with tax and he said with tax the price would be $ 65 I said ok and so the next day I walk in and ask for a room he says my total would be $ 72 I said I had called the night before and he had said the total would be $ 65 he looks me straight in the face and says he never had a call the day before about prices I knew it was the same man because of the way he talked but whatever I said fine and went up to the room GROSS! they need to do some real cleaning, the place is falling apart, there was water in the floor of the bathroom, the tube was nasty and looked dirty, I could just go on and on point is there are better places I have staid at just across the street and for the same price you end up paying here and they are way way better and cleaner DO NOT STAY HERE!

I went there last year because it had the lowest price online at the time. The front desk clerk is the least presentable, least friendly… scary looking guy working in front. He looks like a zombie to me. I used my credit card to pay for the room. Even if my card already have my picture on the back, the clerk still demanded my driver’s license. I needed a place to sleep, so, reluctantly, I gave it to him. He then made a copy of my ID. Lord knows what he might do with the information.

If my life depended on it I would not stay at Sand’s Motel again because it is my life or at very least my safety that I would be risking.
Even though I live in Riverside I had a very close loved-​one staying at the hospital so it was important for me to as close to him as possible so I could be there quickly if need be. Admittedly I was emotional and over tired (so consider that when reading this review) but looking forward to simply getting some rest. There were a lot of hotels to choose from in the hospital’s vicinity and since I was on a budget I called most of them to find the least expensive one and Sands Motel was it~ $ 59.00 for the night.
When I arrived, the front desk clerk, who seemed that either he did not understand a lick of English or needed more sleep then I did because he was acting unusually slow, rang me up for a room totaling my bill to almost $ 80 for the night! I told him for the second time I was the person that had just called a couple of minutes ago reminding him that he had quoted me for $ 59 which even with the added sales tax should not cost that much. *Scam people much?* He then rang me up the way that he promised over the phone.
Now for the price I paid I was not expecting The Four Seasons or even Motel 8; all I needed was a clean room with a clean bathroom which the Sands Motel provided plus the added bonuses of a TV., fridge, microwave, and wifi. So after hauling my luggage up a flight of stairs (no elevator), I got into my room, kicked off my shoes, and between calling relatives and friends with updates on our loved one, was looking forward to relaxing evening… so I thought.
Later I had another encounter with the oddly behaving front desk clerk. I needed to use the motel’s wifi, but had to call the front desk for the password. The front desk clerk told me that I needed to come down to the office to get it. I told him that I was in my pajamas and was really not in the mood to go outside in which he said that he would bring the password to me, he just needed my room number. Lord knows I did not want some creeper coming to my front door either so I put on my shoes and headed down to the office. He printed my password from a machine and I asked him «you really could not have done that and then told me the network key over the phone?» He responded «no».
Okay so I’m a bit annoyed which doesn’t warrant a 1 star review in my mind but the events at Sands Motel were far from over starting up again at 1 am when my «lovely» neighbors decided to have a fight. Apparently the female locked her male companion out of the room on purpose so the guy was hooting and hollering to let him back in. After about 10 minutes I got up to turn on the light so I could see the phone to call the front desk to do something about my and I’m sure everyone on that floor’s disturbing the peace issue but stopped in my tracks when I heard the guy yelling at his woman to open the door so he could get his knifes from the room. Uh… ixnay turning the lights on as I may unintentionally bring attention to myself and become a victim of this domestic scuffle. Time to call the po-​po; but without light I could not see the address of the motel so I called the front desk to alert the police whispering quietly so the «upstanding citizens» next door could not hear me but clearly so the front desk clerk could understand me. His response to me? «You are going to have to call the police yourself.» In which I responded, «Are you serious? I don’t even know the address here and it is an emergency, please call them.» «No,» he said followed by the dial tone of him hanging up on me. Luckily for me the guy arguing with his other half next door yelled, «You ain’t opening up so I’m going to call the police!» THANK GOD!!! The police got there, the bickering couple left, and I was so tired that I was able to go back to sleep.
The next morning I went to the front desk to find a manager to make a complaint and request at least a partial refund. After telling the manager what happened he said, «I wonder why he did that? It is our policy to call the police, especially since there is a station right across the street. Sorry though, no refunds,» pointing to the «No Refunds» sign. Whatever! I had more important things in my life to deal with; I’ll write a review on Unilocal later.
I know that a place cannot really control the types that walk into their business’, but Sands Motel did a horrible job of making sure everyone else staying there was safe as possible. So if you are considering a hotel in the area, my suggestion is to stay away from Sands Motel.