Review of Quality Inn Athens I-65 / Huntsville Area West 2*

We've used this hotel a few times on an annual road trip. I've stayed in 1-3 star hotels that charge a lot more and deliver a lot less or were just gross and smokey. This is a convenient location for us on our trip, the beds are comfortable (for the price/hotel category), and we haven't had any major issues. This time, we arrived to check in and there was a long line in the lobby with no one present at the desk. The employee returned a minute or two later (which feels like a long time after 13 hours on the road) and all the people ahead of us in line left because there was no vacancy. Check in was quick. We had reserved three rooms and were able to have them charged on three different cards. Two were fine, but the keycards for the third wouldn't open the door. The employee tried a new set but those didn't work either. It appeared that the actual locking mechanism on the door was malfunctioning, so not his fault. We were moved to a different room and he carried some of the luggage. The problem was we had 4 people and paid for a 2 bed, but the new room was a King bed and a couch. Two offered to sleep on the couch but another person in our party talked to the employee and they were moved into a fourth room free of charge. It took a while to get everyone settled, but in the end everyone had a bed. Our room was as expected. The only issue we had inside the room was that both the tub and sink were not draining, the plugs that you're supposed to be able to push open/shut would not go up so we just unscrewed them. Our room seemed clean. Others in our group said their room smelled smokey, otherwise I would give it 5 stars (considering the price and category, it's not a 5-star hotel but in the category of paying > $80/night for road trip travel, it's one of the nicer places I've crashed). We'll go here again.