Grand Vista Hotel

After a pandemic-related hiatus, I am back, gentle reader, with more pointless and inane reviews. I avoid overly critical reviews, but, in my endeavor for honesty, this post may be a trifle harsh. 1. This hotel is rather grim and drab. It could use a touch of color, and the weed-choked flower beds need a bit of work and love. 2. The Grand Vista is not a hotel; it is a motel with the rooms facing a bleak parking lot. The room doors do have a deadbolt and lock, but they seem ripe for kicking in. 3. My room was fairly clean, but it was dark and somewhat depressing. The alarm clock was not plugged in and would not work despite my best efforts. 4. On a positive note, the internet was easy to access and worked well. 5. The Motel is near a busy road, and the truck traffic at 5:00 AM was quite loud. 6. The shower did have good pressure and hot water. The tub drained poorly, however, and I had to stand in my filth while I showered. 7. The towels were very small and skimpy. 8. The in-room coffee was gross, but powdered cream is always bad. 9. The breakfast was sparse if meager. The display case had two bagels, but I consumed one after smothering it with margarine and cream cheese "spread." The scrambled eggs were ok, and the coffee was drinkable.

It's not a bad place and it might be an improvement on any of the (very few) hotels nearby. I found it annoying that the office was locked and empty when I arrived so I had to wait for an employee to show up before I could check in. Also, the breakfast wasn't good (a personal opinion of course) and there was no social distancing at breakfast. Other than that, it was fine and it's entirely possible that it's the least worst hotel in the area. Note that some internet sites give the location as Helenwood and some as Huntsville. My understanding is that "downtown" Helenwood (such as it is) is closer but technically the hotel is in Huntsville. It's on Hwy 27 just north of the junction with 297.

We arrived pretty late at night around 1 am - we had to call to get someone to come over to get us checked in. I’m assuming it’s a family run place and they live on site. She promptly came over and got us all checked in which was great. There must have been a miscommunication between booking online and checking in - we paid for a king and ended up with two doubles. At the end of our stay they offered us a small refund which was “all their computer would allow them to do” and no where near what we should’ve received between the difference of the two. The room was okay. There were baby cockroaches crawling around the furniture and the drain in the bathroom didn’t drain during a shower. We were grateful to have a place to stay but not worth the money.