Best Western Aspen Hotel

First impression- a large container for cigarette butts outside the front door. Lobby - bright gold gaudy lights. Many guests walking in without masks, even though they are mandatory in Arkansas. The wood frame around my doorjamb was broken; the room smelled stale - like old sweaty shoes. People working in the hotel were often seen without a mask, or talking to friends who were not wearing them either. There was a hot breakfast of scrambled eggs, etc. but the person setting it up was not wearing a mask. Besides Covid issues, this place needs an update in colors and cleaning- dingy, drab rooms. One good thing - the mattress and pillows were very comfortable! So maybe there is hope for this place with an upgrade and more attention to Covid issues. less

We came to the hotel late at night. I had called to ask if there would be rooms available that had never had a pet. While I was told yes on the phone, the answer was no when I got to the hotel. The only thing good about this hotel, was the friendly staff. They were very accommodating, and tried to help as best they could. The first room they gave us, smelled like smoke, the toilet paper handle was broken off, and the comforters were stained. When I say stained, I mean, I’m not even sure they were washed. With Covid running rampant, I would expect a different level of cleanliness in the rooms. Unfortunately, We have been traveling in the pandemic, and this was by far the worst I felt about staying somewhere. In addition to this, the sink was stopped up, the bathroom fan did not work, and we were not convinced the toilet would flush down adequately if you know what I mean. We got in late, and knew that breakfast would stop at 10am. my husband went down at 9:50 to make us a piece of toast. He was only able to bring us up coffee as breakfast had closed down early. Needless to say, the overall cleanliness of the lobby was good, the stairs look like they hadn’t been vacuumed in a while, and the overall cleanliness wasn’t up to my standard. less

When we arrived the counter help didn't know how to redeem rewards. The bedspread, sheets and towels were all stained. The bed was broken and sunk in on the left side. There was no 1/2 & 1/2, real sugar or hot cocoa, although the containers were labled stating that all should be available. When asked about the availability I was told they don't provide hot cocoa any more and they just don't have the other two. We picked a midlevel chain hotel to get a clean and reliable environment, but they fell very short on all of that. The only positive was a decent size room refrigerator/freezer combo. less

I have never had a hotel experience as bad as this. I checked into the Aspen around 4pm on a Thursday. When I got to the room, on first look, everything seemed to be in order. However, I quickly noticed that there was an empty plastic water bottle on one of the two beds that had a hand written note that was inside. I took this bottle down to the front desk to show it to the young woman who checked me in. Obviously, there was nothing for her to do about it, I only thought that she should know about the poor job that “housekeeping” had done in this room. I might add that this woman at the front desk was the only bright spot at the hotel. I was to need to call attention to the housekeeping problem again. The next day I departed the hotel around 9am for the day. There was a small blue/white sign to Lea we on the dole; the white side out meant “ Do Not Disturb”. The blue side out meant “ Please Make-Up the Room”. I checked and double checked to be certain that I was leaving the blue-side out to have the room serviced. When I arrived back to the hotel after 8pm that night, the sign was still on the door, and the blue-side was still out. However, the room had not been cleaned. Again, I reported this to the same woman at the desk who apologized again and made a note to discuss with management. At the same time I reported that neither the telephone in the room was operating (there was no wire/cord to connect to the wall outlet, nor was the clock-radio working. Again, she made this note to management. The next day I again left the hotel around 8:30/9am for the day. This day I didn’t leave the sign on the door at all. When I returned I was initially pleased to see that the bed had been made-up, but unfortunately, as soon as I walked into the bathroom I was both shocked and upset to see that two days worth of dirty towels were still on the floor of the room. Housekeeping had been in there and left fresh soap but left the dirty towels for the first two days on the floor. Again, I reported this. I would have moved to another hotel right then, but I was staying there because I had 3 cousins also staying there, and it would have been a lot of trouble to move, and we didn’t really know how long we would be in town as we were there because my 99 year old uncle was in Hospice care, and we had been called to come to Fort Smith right away. The cousins and I had come from Indiana, Colorado, and California. At this stage I told the nice lady at the desk to suggest to “management” that I thought to make things “ right”, they should “comp” one night. Well, here is the response that I received from a man at the front desk the next morning. He said that he had checked with Housekeeping re the first day when they didn’t clean the room at all and that it was my fault because I had left the white-side out, the side that says “do not disturb”. This is not true as I double checked before I left that morning that the blue-side was out as well as the same when I returned that night. Of course no excuse was offered about the dirty towels, the plastic bottle that was on the bed when I checked in, the telephone that wasn’t connected, nor the alarm clock-radio which was never fixed. He denied my request for a one night comp but offered in return a 20% discount for one night or about $17. This would have amounted to $6 per day more or less. At this point I checked-out and moved to the Fairfield Inn. One last thing. I told him to NOT take the $20 off my bill as I felt this was a total insult, but he said that he had already done it. Therefore, I took a $20 bill from my billfold and tossed it to him and got the hell out of there. I will never return to this poorly managed property. In fairness I must also give a shout-out to the lady who handles the buffet breakfast. She, like the young woman who works the front desk, are both assets. I don’t know how they can work in that environment. less

I was looking for somewhere nice yet affordable, that also provided free breakfast for me and my wife. Sometimes I will hire a baby sitter for the kids and take my wife out for a fun night on the town and we will stay in a motel for the night. The location is perfect for this because there are several restaurants and bars within walking distance. The rooms at Best Western were very nice for the price and the breakfast was great. I think next time I'm going to try out the room with a Jacuzzi. less