I know that I stayed at an "Econo Lodge". The key word was definitely "Econo". The room rate was by far the lowest I could find in the area. There are, of course, several ways that a hotel can minimize their expenses. One way is by closing the front desk. I arrived a bit after midnight and found the front office dark, the door locked. Taped to the door was an envelope with my name. I opened it and it had my room key and room number. "Nice," I thought.
The next morning, my room phone awoke me when it started ringing about 9:00, while I was still asleep. It was the front desk checking to see if I got in ok. While it was nice of them to do that, I would have preferred them to call a bit later. For cryin' out loud, I obviously didn't get in until very late--they had already closed when I arrived, so it would stand to reason that I wouldn't get out of bed early. To their credit, though, the front desk staff were always nice and pleasant when I needed anything.
In the light of morning, the dirty carpet was more apparent. There were some Cheerios under the bed. The carpet appeared to have some sort of stain, possibly red soda pop. The exterior corridors weren't much better. The light orange paint screamed 70's to me and there were cigarette butts on the floor. Again, it is outside, but they need to be picked up--they were still there on my return later that day.
The pool looked nice, and I saw an employee out there with a strainer and doing other maintenance at least twice a day, so obviously management is interested in taking care of it. It is quite small, though. The area itself seemed to be quite full with only a few adults. The pool area did also have a hot tub/whirlpool, which is a nice feature.
The bed didn't seem to be that comfortable. I can't exactly pinpoint why, but something about it just didn't feel quite right. The room also had a light burnt out.
The bottom line is: this is your place if your looking to save big money, but that's about it.