I booked two rooms for two nights in the annex building at Best Western Plus Main Street Inn in Brawley on September 4, 2026. What we encountered was, without question, the worst hotel experience I have ever had.
The first room smelled overwhelmingly of what can only be described as feces covered up with air freshener. When we reported it to the front desk, the clerk neither apologized nor appeared remotely surprised. Her solution was to offer us a can of air freshener and send us back to the room. That response alone should have been a warning sign.
After an already long day, we reluctantly decided to make the best of it. That decision lasted until we discovered a cockroach in the bathroom.
Unfortunately, the second room wasn't any better. Both rooms showed obvious signs of neglect: stains on virtually every piece of furniture, cobwebs hanging from corners, trash left under the beds, peeling paint and plaster, and unidentified smears on the walls. These were not minor cosmetic issues. The rooms appeared poorly maintained, unsanitary, and completely inconsistent with what anyone would reasonably expect from a Best Western property.
At that point, we no longer felt comfortable staying there and politely requested that our reservation be canceled and refunded. After personally walking her through the rooms and showing her photographic evidence of the cockroach, she insisted there were no issues that she could see, and refused us a refund. After insisting to speak with a manager, she told me there was no manager on duty. She ultimately made a few calls to the off-duty manager at my behest, but i could hear her saying that there were no issues with the rooms after she checked for herself.
Throughout the entire interaction, she never apologized, never showed concern, and never seemed surprised by what we were showing her. It gave the impression that these complaints were neither new nor unusual.
I then contacted Best Western corporate, hoping they would intervene. Instead, I was told that because the property is independently owned and operated, there was little they could do for me. After speaking with the hotel themselves, corporate simply repeated the front desk's claim that the rooms were clean and informed me there was nothing further they could do. The hotel's final offer was a 9% discount.
To put that in perspective, we would not have stayed in those rooms if the hotel had paid us.
By that point, the money was no longer the issue. What stood out was the complete lack of accountability, customer service, and basic concern for guest health and safety.
Once it became clear that I would not be receiving a refund and had already begun to arrange accommodations elsewhere, I thought I should document the conditions of the rooms for my records and, if necessary, a complaint to the California Department of Public Health (or at least to my credit card company). Incredibly, I then discovered that the front desk had locked us out of the rooms I was still being charged for.
The condition of the property was unacceptable. The response from hotel staff was worse. The refusal to acknowledge obvious problems, the unwillingness to make things right, and the apparent indifference to guests' concerns turned an already terrible stay into a truly astonishing example of how not to run a hotel.
I am not looking for compensation (my credit card company will fight that fight). What I hope is that someone in a position of authority actually reads this review, investigates this property, and holds its ownership accountable. This hotel does not need a discount program, a fresh coat of paint, or another can of air freshener. It needs management that understands cleanliness, hospitality, and basic customer service. Until that happens, I would strongly recommend that travelers stay somewhere else.