Americas Best Value Inn Oakland Lake Merritt

Great Staff, but some glaring issues that really h

The staff was almost perfect. The front counter attendant was super friendly, courteous, and quick to check us in. His name was John and definitely was great. The location makes travelling to San Francisco fairly easy by car (25 minutes until downtown). The lake nearby (1-2 blocks) is very nice. The area doesn't feel ghetto, but definitely not super classy. There is graffiti/mural on the building behind the motel and it was so insanely gorgeous (my bathroom window had the perfect view of it). The place looks fairly maintained externally. Some Mexican guests next to us decided to blast some Mariachi/Folk Music at 2:30AM outside their room on an external speaker sitting in front of their room door for who knows what reason and we had to call the front desk and they handled the situation, but then our rude neighbors decided it'd be quieter to bring their speaker inside which made it even worse so after a second call the staff came to the room and told them in person to stop and then it was quiet. Situation was resolved in about 10 minutes in total. The paint is clean and doesn't look old and the outside of the building and parking lot also looked very clean.

The staircases need some lights, both the adults (Sister and I) missed the last step coming down and luckily we didn't fall and just tripped. The bedroom we first got had hair on the sheets (I didn't personally see, but my sister had changed the room while I unloaded car and had a smoke). Our new room had used tissues in the drawer of the dresser. We had 2 Towels, 2 Washrags and 2 Hand towels for a 2 Double bed bedroom and it would definitely go a long way to do more washrags at minimum (I don't mind reusing towels, but not washrags and no washrag for face if you decide to shower). The floor had what looks like animal hair. So definitely if I had advice to this place, put out a ton of safety strips on the steps and lighting. Also, either fire your cleaning staff and hire some new ones, or start checking rooms they sign off on because they are not doing their job. Also, I would strongly suggest an enforced quiet time of 11PM weekdays and 12AM weekends and put a 1 warning policy before you kick people out. There are just some really small changes that would go a long long long way in improving the overall value in staying here. I didn't bother with the breakfast they offered (didn't even go in to look), but I heard it was pretty much slim offerings so a small variety increase would go a long way too.

Liked the flat panel TV and King bed

Room had an odor

the Location to on the bay area was convenient for a business trip

Poor and not totally safe neighborhood. At the motel many occupants were outside their rooms screaming and drinking alcohol. Room stank with bad smell, Floor needed vacuuming. Bathroom too small. No privacy, can hear next room's tenants speak. Weekend price increased significantly, probably to accommodate prostitution nearby.

It was awful and dirty and smelled like marijuana.

Nothing had bed bugs

I didn't like anything. It was awful