My misadventures at Red Carpet Inn, Grandview Plaza/Junction City

I posted this on trip adviser dot com:

I stayed at Red Carpet Inn, Grandview Plaza/Junction City, while in-processing at Fort Riley.

The lobby smelt funky, the carpet was dirty and showed its age. A stack of phone books sat in the corner, many stained or stuck together. One locker showed age and disrepair. I walked up to the counter, and pushed a buzzer. The owner's wife came out and checked me in.

She pulled out an old "receipt" slip and had me fill information in. Then she stowed it in what looked like a mail box set up (what you'd see if you were a mail clerk putting mail in different post office boxes). She handed me two key cards, and I took a couple of my duffel bags to my room. I opened the door when "WHAM!" it hit me.

The moldy, musty, smell of carpet and wall decay. I left the room to retrieve the third duffel bag... the owner walked it toward me. After sitting my duffel bags by the dresser, I looked around. I tried to turn the lamps on, but the lights kept cutting out. You had to figure each lamp's "personality" out, they had a little "trick" that kept them on.

A film of dirt covered the horizontals. I broke some baby wipes out and started cleaning. I cleaned the horizontals and the lamp out. I cleaned the bed's headboard out. The wipes were black by the time I threw them in the trash. The sink had the normal "cheap motel" set up, with plastic cups and coffee basket. But there was no coffee, and the napkin holder in the wall had no napkins. Butt where it lacked napkins, it overcompensated with rust spots on its surface.

There was also a "dip" in the floor. You could hear it "creak" when you walked on it. I wondered if this contained old paraphernalia or worse, dead bodies. The smell seamed to justify it.

The bathroom had a sink cabinet with just a horizontal surface where the sink would be. A garbage can sat on top of it, with the last guest's trash still in it. A dead fly lay parked on the bathroom floor. I decided to leave it alone to check how room service does its job. That fly was still there when I checked out 10 days later.

The walls had seen better days, wall paper wasn't the only thing caving up and wrinkling away. The walls were starting to fight loose from their restraints. Stains were already working their way up from the broken seams.

I went to the refrigerator to check it out. It wasn't cold, heck, it wasn't working. I didn't check the microwave, I didn't even want to know what was inside it. I got into my civilian cloths to begin my weekend. I grabbed my sunglasses and headed out the door. The sidewalk by the room had black, grey, brown and white blotches on them. Dry bird droppings were splattered near my doorway.

An active bird nest sat on a piping right above my doorway. Feces flowed down the nest and pipe.

The parking lot also had caked in stains and potholes. The filth frequency increased as you got closer to the trash can, which overflowed and radiated a powerful stench. The ground near the trash can looked like a junkyard, with old televisions lined up waiting forever to be picked up.

The pool held shallow, brackish, still water. Garbage waste and vegetation floated on the top, while weeds and vines on the pool area's edges reached tree-like size and proportions.

The owner did do something about the pool. I started a conversation with the owner as he watched the contractor drain the pool. I commented about guests being able to swim there one day. He said that if they wanted to swim, there were other pools in the area.

Room service came, took used towels and hand cloths, but didn't replace them. They never replaced the complimentary soap and shampoos. I had to ask the owner for these items.

I had an opportunity to talk to the owner throughout my stay there. One day, I ran into him--he was all spiffed up. He told me that he was fixing to go see a lawyer so that he could purchase 40 acres of land, and to purchase buildings and materials to start entertainment businesses.

One quick thought came to mind. "Why isn't he using that money to renovate his Red Carpet Inn? It definitely needed massive refurbishment. The walls need to be redone, the rooms need to be re-carpeted, new light bulbs need to be reinstalled, the sidewalks and pavement needed water hosing, many of the beds needed to be replaced.

One day, I saw the owner and his wife fighting each other. The momentum of their fight caused both of them to slam against the glass doors. the owner did talk about dating other women.

The negative here are pretty much accurate. I wouldn't recommend staying here. If you're a soldier reporting to Fort Riley, make reservations in advance to stay in Army Lodging, or to stay at one of the other hotels in Junction City.