Days Inn Charlottesville/University Area

Great location… Minutes from the downtown area. Room was semi-​updated. Check in was easy and fast. Room was clean and beds were very comfortable. A little dust/​debris from construction next door but overall a great stay!

Please, Please, Please, avoid this hotel at all cost. Even the non smoking room reeks of cigarettes. I feel like my stay included some complimentary lung cancer. The room quality is sub par and the management refused to relocate us despite our room quality.

Most cheap hotels are fine if all you plan to do there is pass out. But this place was a bad experience even by cheap hotel standards.
When we arrived, the man at the front desk immediately demanded we pay a $ 20 fee for putting four people in a room with two double beds. This isn’t necessarily a bad rule, but I’ve never seen a Charlottesville hotel enforce it, and the booking website offered no warning whatsoever. It also defeated the purpose of even staying at this hotel (i.e. the price).
The room itself was pretty standard for a cheap hotel, except for the grimy shower that (thankfully) none of us needed to use. We were caught off guard by the electric plugs in the floor too, but maybe that’s a matter of personal preference.
The next morning, we all woke up with shoulder pain from the beds and bolted as quickly as possible. We later found out that we should’ve been charged $ 12 for «over-​occupancy» instead of $ 20. Shady.
Bottom line: there are plenty of other cheap hotels in Charlottesville that will give you a better experience than this one.

Easily the worst hotel I’ve ever been in. Notice that I didn’t say «stayed at» because we weren’t there for more than an hour. We went into our first room where we saw the 1’x1’ hole cut into the ceiling above the shower. We asked the front desk if there was any work being done in the room and they didn’t even know what I was talking about. We requested another room, as I don’t feel comfortable with the possibility of me breathing in anything that could come from inside the ceiling. We were hoping the next room would be better, but to our surprise it was even worse. Not only was the ceiling starting to collapse right above the shower (again), there were pieces of it in the tub. I took a few pictures and went to the front desk and they were «shocked.» Needless to say, we will never stay in any Days Inn ever again, nor any of their partnered hotels.

This is one of the best Days Inns that I’ve stayed at. The front desk staff was welcoming and friendly. My boyfriend and I were in town for a few days and went to a different hotel each night. The prior night was at a Marriott and the bed was pretty uncomfortable. The days inn king sized bed was perfect and we had a restful night’s sleep. Daybreak breakfast was as expected, but they had peanut butter as well which some don’t have. The only downside was the ceiling appeared to have water damage at some point and the bathroom was smaller than most.

Showed up and stood behind the counter for 5 minutes before anyone ever showed up. Phone kept continuously ringing but nobody came out to answer it.
When they finally did show up, we went to our room, which smelled like cigarette smoke and and had cigarette burns all over the comforter. The bed was fine, not too comfy, but I was able to sleep well.
The construction happening around the building made it very hard to find parking for my big pickup truck and Uhaul trailer.
But for the price, I guess I could have expected a poor experience.

I stayed for three nights, and I barely slept. The walls are actually impressively thin. I don’t need a fancy room, but I do need sleep.

The staff here are superbly kind and helpful. When we first arrived, we needed to change rooms and the night manager was understanding and helped up without hesitation. The next day we tried to do laundry in the coin-​operated machines, but the pipes were frozen. A staff member worked to unfreeze the pipes so we could wash our stuff, but when he couldn’t do it they offered to launder our things for us! They were very patient and professional. The waffle maker is cool too.

Cheap, clean, and comfortable. Definitely not a five-​star hotel, but definitely worth the price. Plus free Internet! Score.

This is the cheapest hotel in Charlottesville. I imagine that’s the main reason people stay here.
It’s in need of a major facelift, and some serious cleaning. The carpets and furniture need shampooing. The mattress is old, but it’s bug free. The room smelled musty and the fabrics felt lightly damp.
I wasn’t sure how long I’d need temporary lodging, so I went cheap and wasn’t expecting nice. It does have a TV, microwave, and mini fridge. The wifi is free, and you can enter your room from the outside. Everything was in working order.
While I didn’t enjoy my stay, and was quite happy to leave, it was workable.

A typical inexpensive chain hotel. While the place has seen better days, the staff was friendly, the room decent and clean and surprisingly quiet. Breakfast was below average even for a chain hotel.

I’ve stayed at Days Inn Motels before & never had an issue w the state of my rooms… until now. The bathroom had an unpleasant smell & when I looked at the tub, I refused to shower (luckily I only spent 1 night there). The tub was peeling & just looked gross. I had to sponge bath with a washcloth at the sink. Then I noticed a black dot on a pillow & when I raised the pillow case up & peered inside, I realized that the dot was a dried blood stain. Nasty!!! In addition, the price per night was outrageous for the service received: $ 118/​night. Never again.

It is highly unlikely I will ever stay at a Days Inn again. I had read a couple of mediocre reviews this hotel but trusted the brand, I certainly won’t be making that mistake a second time. The staff was incredibly unhelpful, and because I had booked through expedia they wouldn’t give me a receipt at check in or check out, instead insisting that I would get an email. I had questions about my rates that they wouldn’t answer, and all that aside the room was dirty, the pool was a wreck (it’s summer btw), we had to get three different door keys, there was no overhead light in the room and half the lamps had blown bulbs, it was super noisy, and the ac unit was loud and smelly. The price and the fact that there was a microwave were the only positives and honestly I’d suggest shelling out a few extra bucks and staying somewhere else. This place is the bottom rung of decent.

The hotel is what you would expect for a budget stay. Clean and comfortable. They get 5 stars from me because of their customer service… I left some items behind.
When I realized the items were missing and called over a week later, I of course, could not remember my room number. They had my items marked with our name and set aside. We travel a lot and this is not the first time I have left items behind in a hotel, however it is the first time that I have been able to recover them and the first time someone has set them aside with our name instead of just digging through their random box of lost and found. It shows a level of care that I appreciate.

Classic low grade motel … except dirtier. Nice hotel clerk. But if you have to pick between staying here and the bus station. Pick the bus station. It’s cleaner.

I stayed here for one night during a quick trip to Charlottesville. The room had more amenities than I expected — I had a fridge and microwave, which I did not anticipate. All of the appliances worked just fine. The room was clean, although there were some old marks on the rug and the chair was pretty old. There weren’t any bedbugs in my room, and the shower worked perfectly. All in all, I would recommend this as a place to stay a night or two.

Several years ago, I vowed never to stay in a Days Inn again after a terrible weekend stay at their Richmond Airport location. But I had to make a trip to Charlottesville this weekend (luckily on an «away game» weekend for UVA football), and this Days Inn was the only spot in town with a room. And a pricey room at that ($ 110 per night). I suppose half of the Commonwealth of Virginia visits Charlottesville during fall weekends, to get their mountains, Monticello, or winery fixes in.
I found out that this particular motel is 50 years old — it was originally a Holiday Inn, and they jammed a Red Lobster into the lobby area about 30 years ago. This motel and the Quality Inn behind it were part of the same Holiday Inn and heck, they even named the side road «Holiday Road» in tribute. The perks are this motel is in walking distance to several (non Red Lobster) restaurants, including the esteemed Aberdeen Barn Steakhouse (right across the street). The pool looks nice but was in winter mode. The rooms were quiet despite the motel location on always congested Route 29 (why does Charlottesville have such gridlock? See paragraph one).
The rooms are all updated, the amenities typical, and the in-​room refrigerator is always appreciated. The staff was incredibly friendly during check-​in and check-​out. But here’s the rub: Don’t stay in older motel rooms (upgraded, or not upgraded) during the «transition» months (fall or spring). They had decided to «click over» to central heat from AC a few weeks ago, and once they click over, you have to deal with the heat. No fan. No circulating air. Just heat. Even with the thermostat on the «off» setting, the room is like a kiln and has no air circulation (this Days Inn does not have that noisy window unit — it is truly central air or heat — one or the other, take your pick). I slept with the door open, and the chain on (and this motel has exterior entries). Others had the same idea. It was the only way to get any fresh air in the motel room. Outside was 53 degrees and pleasant. Inside was a kiln. What century is this? And why don’t these motels have windows you can open? That would have solved the dilemma.
I asked the front desk about this — apparently everyone in this booked motel had called or visited that night. The reasoning was «we checked the extended forecast a few weeks ago before deciding to click over to central heat… the forecast called for temperatures in the 50s or lower for several weeks, into November… and then they changed it a few days later to the 70s or 80s during the day.» But they didn’t decide to «click back» to the central AC setting? And it boggles the mind that there is no setting for a fan, to at least circulate the stale, hot air in the room (turning the thermostat to the «off» position didn’t help; the room stayed hot and stale).
Since I couldn’t sleep, even with the door open, I walked around the complex around 2 AM, and the night manager saw me. He explained more about the problem – «we have this problem every fall and spring. The building is 50 years old, and we can’t do anything about it.» BS.
This is 2010. The owner CAN do something about it, but is too cheap to do it. Even for $ 110 a night during «peak season.» This guy apparently owns this Days Inn, the Quality Inn behind the Days Inn, the EconoLodge across the street, and the Comfort Inn near Monticello… he can afford this upgrade. Temperature control is a pain in the ass in motels, but if you’re going to charge $ 110 a night, get it done. My guess is the owner is from India («non PC» comment, but I have to call it as I see it). Indian motel owners are not known for their spending behavior, even if it makes the stay more bearable to the consumer, who’s paying above-​the-​norm prices for a basic motel.
A few dollars more would get you a room at a new building (the cool Holiday Inn Monticello or Sleep Inn), and none of these problems.
The stay was saved from a one-​star review by the night manager loaning me the fan that belongs to the day office manager…“don’t let anyone see you with this…”