Colfax Inn

I am a travel nurse that arrived to work in Des Moines. I arrived to check in and and the man that runs the hotel tried to charge me over $100 in taxes. When I called him out on it he started back tracking. He tried to get me to hand him my debit card before he told me my total. The elevator isn't working, the safety latch on the door to the room was broken, the air barely works. There was a large laundry cart in the hallway and a piece of ceiling paneling missing that looks like the ceiling was leaking. Wifi not working and the TV channels half not working and the ones that do work the picture sucks. The pillows are horrid. They are like the $2 ones at Walmart.

I booked this hotel at the last minute on my way from Colorado. At check in, I notified the clerk I had my service dog with me and was told he “had fear” of dogs and I had to take him through the back. The clerk charges me a $25 per night pet charge and I’ve come to find out that their policy is $10 per night. I left the lobby and proceeded to my car and headed towards “the back” where I was to enter because he was afraid of dogs. That wasn’t a huge deal except “the back” was not lit and very sketchy with me being a single woman traveler. I unloaded my dog and got my bag. I went to room 121 (the room assigned to me) and slid my key — it did not unlock the door. I tried 2 to 3 more times and someone from inside the room screamed at me and said he was going to shoot me if I tried to come in again. He kept yelling he was going to blow my *expletive* head off. I retrieved my phone from my bag and called the front desk. The man answered and I told him he gave me room 121 and someone was in it. The man told me to stay there and he would come give me another room. He came from around the corner and screamed when he saw my 10 pound Lhasa Apso service animal — on a leash — sitting at my side 3/4 of the way down the hallway. He told me to back all the way down the hallway and he would give me a room. When I started down the hall, the man in room 121 started screaming at me to not come down the hall any further or he would shoot. So I was stuck between a man with a gun and a screaming hotel clerk. The clerk unlocked the door to the new room and ran. I received no new key to get into the new room and the room I booked was not like the new room I was given. If I had needed to go to my car or exit my room for anything, I couldn’t because I had no key to the room nor did I know what room I was in. I was scared to death and my service animal was shaking ! When I checked out at 8am, I had to run to the exit door. As I got to the door I looked back and the man in 121 was looking out. I went to my car, someone had poured something on all of my door handles and back windshield. I had to tie my service animal to a tree to clean the handles as I did not have a key to get back into the hotel or my room I had just left. I do have pictures of the damage. I’ve contacted the website I made the reservation through. After several days of them trying to reach the hotel directly (the hotel will not answer the phone) the website company have final spoken to the hotel and the hotel refuses to refund my money.

If I could give this hotel no stars believe me I would. We booked online with Expedia due to the storm and power outage in Newton. (I have a 4 month old who absolutely cannot handle the heat, she gets cranky and won’t eat, and when she does it she ends up vomiting it all back up.) We weren’t expecting much, a place to stay with power and AC. The first couple nights were okay. Power still isn’t back on at our place. We initially booked two nights (check out on Thursday, then on Wednesday we extended our stay and booked another two nights on Expedia. The man running the hotel kept telling us he hadn’t gotten our booking despot Expedia conforming it. We decided to cancel our stay and go elsewhere as this morning the man came into our room and asked us how soon we would be out because check out it at 11am. My husband tried showing him our confirmation of the booking and he just brushed him off and was very rude. Expedia finally got through to the hotel (they weren’t answering their phones) and was able to cancel our reservation. The man has jacked up his prices since the power outage and is trying to charge $130 per night for a bed and electricity. As we were leaving we met another lady that was checked out and the man was so rude to her that she was in tears. I would absolutely NOT recommend staying here. They shouldn’t even be allowed to run a motel. The place is dirty, their WiFi didn’t work, there was no breakfast and the pool was drained (which I expected due to COVID)

During the night tried to flush toilet, no water in tank. Had to turn on valve to fill. Ice bucket under lines to catch drips. Carpet by hall door soaked. Operator would not refund any of my credit card charge and hung up on me.

looking for a hotel after a long drive. the driveway entrance was full of deep ruts hard to see Drive with lack of lighting at entrance. Room was clean and bed was comfortable, lacked glasses had to go to front desk, asked for 2 keys, tried both 1 worked, went to from desk made new key then other did not work, went back for new key then the other key did not work, oh well, not much for breakfast, pool was closed, refrigerator in room was not plugged in and did not seem to work, room rate was great only $62.00 i guess it was worth that price.

We stayed here by mistake. It is badly in need of a complete makeover. Our first warning was the elevator was not working. Then a chair in the upstairs hall was obviously dirty. Once in the room we noticed torn carpet, a torn and dirty sofa and a toilet not cleaned. Plugging in a charger revealed an outlet loose in the wall. then little things like only three pillows - most motels have four or more. Later we discovered the abandoned swimming pool. The overall impression was one of neglect and sloppy cleaning and maintenance. Two solutions - gut and remodel or burn it down. And, don't be tricked by the low price listed in reservation systems. The motel was not full but there were no rooms under $100 and no non-smoking rooms. We should have left and gone elsewhere.

This location could really use a nice hotel. Unfortunately this is not a nice place to stay. It is not clean. Toilets do not work properly and worst of all and totally unacceptable are the bedbugs. Best to stay in Altoona or Newton.

The first thing that I noticed upon entering this motel was a strong cooking odor, even though it wa almost 10 PM. We were planning on driving through to our destination, but we were both very tired so decided to stop here. The young man at the desk was very pleasant and helpful and he allowed me to look at a room before I rented it for the night. Both the room and beds looked clean and I could not smell the cooking odor in the room, but after getting into the room I noticed a lack of cleanliness and just an over all lack of caring. There were no cups, so I got them from the front desk. There was no ice bucket, just a dirty tray and an ice bucket lid. The bathtub had an odd odor in it and I noticed dried urine,and long hair along one side of the toilet. The edges of the room had not been cleaned in quite awhile as there was a white ring of dust around the room near the wall. The "breakfast" consisted of dry cereal (it was fresh) toast, and juice, milk, or coffee. The bed was fairly comfortable and the room was quiet.

We have stayed at this hotel twice while heading out West.It is a good place to stay.The owners are nice(new owners since last year).Previous owners were nice too.Fairly big rooms with table and chairs and small fridge and microwave.They offer a small breakfast in the morning.You cant beat it for the price.

This is a decent, reasonably priced motel that is fine if you are looking for a place to lay your head for the night. We've stopped here twice on our way West. The staff is very friendly, and they offer a small breakfast. Good value for the price.