My sister and I were visiting Charlotte for a concert and found Country Hearth Inn through an online package deal. Since we're both graduate students, we thought that having a cheap place to stay (about $40) would be a smart idea.
However, the place was shady and odd from the moment we pulled into the lot. When we were checking in, there was half-eaten food sitting on a counter - not on a plate or a napkin, but just on the counter. There were stray birds wandering around in the back office. The lampshades looked like someone had punched them. The woman ahead of us in line kept requesting a specific room, insisting that she really liked that particular room and that she "liked the view." My sister and I had a hunch of what that might mean that this woman stayed at this dingy place often enough to have a favorite room, but we decided to check in anyway.
I didn't feel particularly safe - we showed up in the daytime, but our room put us in the back parking lot where there were few lights. Most of the cars were concentrated in this back lot. Once we got to our room, the first thing I noticed was the smell. The clerk had told us it was a non-smoking room, which it clearly wasn't due to the heavy odor of smoke (I am allergic to cigarette smoke). There were brown stains and rot in the ceiling, and the room looked like it hadn't been cleaned in a while. The bed sheets definitely did not appear clean.
Another red flag to the place was the sign on the back of the door once you entered your room: no refunds 15 minutes after check-in. I have never seen that type of notice, but it should tell you that the turnover rate is high enough that if the inn didn't have that policy, they wouldn't be making money because everyone would leave.
We managed to check reviews of this motel when we were actually in our room, and our gut instinct combined with past reviews pretty much told us to get out of there. If you're looking for a clean place for less than a hundred bucks, try the Residence Inn Marriott in downtown Charlotte. It's only about ten minutes away and is pretty much a palace compared to this place.
TripAdvisor has free and easy resources to help you enhance your listing and promote your property.
- Start Here - Visit Your Owners' Center
- Add Photo
- Add Video

