Okay, at $39 a night I wasn't expecting much, but we were doing a budget trip so cost was the first consideration. The Econolodge delivered. :) When we arrived there was no running water in the room. Asked the front desk about it and it was *then* they explained that it was being worked on and would be fixed before 5pm. Could have told us *before* we checked in, guys... The room was clean and everything (bar one light) worked. The room had new AC and, to be honest, it was the best inroom unit I've ever seen: quiet, easy to use, and did it's job well. The room wasn't, despite what we'd booked and asked for at checkin, a non-smoking. We didn't realise until the next day just *how* non-smoking it was when we found our bags and other things now smelled of cigarettes where they'd laid the night before. Breakfast was okay - functional chain "continental" style and nothing more. Room also didn't have any lock except the door deadbolt, and given the area of town it's in, we would have preferred an internal chain there as well. All in all, functional and I'd consider it again if I was wanting to save money & desperate. Otherwise, I'd spend the extra $7 and stay over the road at the newer Days Inn (which I didn't know about when I booked) or some such.

What ever you do with your life, do not stay at the Econo Sludge. The only reason we stayed here was because it was the only place available in Champaign, IL. We were in town to watch the Badgers play IL in football and had no choice where to stay even though we made reservations 9 months before hand. We paid $150 a night for a hole. I have stayed in better hotels for only $50 a night.

First of all on our reservations it said we had 2 queen size beds. We only received one king and a pull out. Also on our reservation we requested a nonsmoking and received a smoking room. I was hesitant to even sleep on the pull out due to the cleanliness. The room was not clean by my standards. We even head a cigarette butt on the floor in our room. The room had a slant to it. It looked as the floor was going to cave in at anytime. There was little to no lighting in the room. Not all the lights worked. When you turned on the exhaust fan above the Jacuzzi tub in our suite, it sounded as it was going to break at any time. It also was falling out of the ceiling. I bet if we were to use the Jacuzzi tub the exhaust fan/light would have fallen right into the tub and killed us. Even worse the bathtub looked as if it was never cleaned in the past. I did not dare to walk with out shoes or sandals in the bathroom as well as the rest of the room. There was no hot water to take a shower that is if you dared to take a shower.

Not even an hour after checking in there was four to five squad cars at the hotel. That is how ghetto it was. I didn’t feel safe even before the police showed up to take care of some business. It looked as if our room, as with other rooms, that they have been broken into sometime in the past. I was not sure if it was safe to leave any of our stuff in our room while we were gone.

There is much more to complain about, but I think you get the idea. Whatever you do, DO NOT STAY AT THE ECONO LODGE!!! Find another hotel in a different town. Champaign in general is not a good place for hotels.

The rooms are all outside entries, which I personally don't care for, but the price was right and in Champaign, it can be very difficult to get a room anywhere, so I was happy to find one. We checked in to the first room, and their were ants crawling over the bathroom counter and sink area. The carpet was old and stained, the toliet repeatedly flushed itself. The room just looked dirty and you wondered if the sheets had been washed. We had requested a refrigerator, and there was one in the room, but I would not have been comfortable leaving any food there. We hadn't even unpacked when we knew we couldnt' stay in that room.

The front desk clert couldn't have been nicer or more accomodating. She was very apologetic and moved us to a suite on the second floor. The rooms were spacious. The front room had a queen sized bed, a pull-out couch, big screen TV, refrigerator and microwave. The back room had another queen size bed, a big screen TV and the bathroom/shower area. I was concerned because the door didn't look like it would shut properly but we tried it and it was locked, so we left for dinner.

When we came back the door looked funny again, One of us stayed outside and locked & re-locked the door, and checked it to make sure it was actually locked. We tried to turn on the lights - but there was no power in the whole front room. So, no frig, no way to keep our milk cold, only one bed instead of 2, no heat, no lights. The clerk reset the fuses, but the power never came on.

I called the front desk and the attendant was again, very gracious & apologetic & offered to move us - which we declined as it was late, after dinner & we were tired. In the back room, we didn't have any lights over the sink (I wear contacts). The only light we had were 2 little wall lights on either side of the bed, and one with the toliet/shower. The desk clerk had maintenance try to find the fuse box - which they never did.

During the night we were awakened by a bunch of drunks out on the balcony, one of the tried to open our door, and others were putting their empties on our windowsill. Kind of frightening!

The next morning we were assured our room would have lights & power by the time we returned. I called around 11am to check the status and were told they couldn't find the fuse box, they couldn't fix the light above the sink and they would be happy to move us to another room. I declined and asked for my money back - which they DID refund without any hesitation.

I was a single mom with a teenager staying there, and would not at all be comfortable staying there ever again. We ended up moving to the Super 8 which was great.