The only reason why this hotel gets 2 (or 4 out of 10) stars instead of one is because of good management and staff. If it were not for them, we would not have stayed there for several weeks. They were about as good as we've seen; there is only so much that even the best people can do with a place like that.
That hotel is probably getting too old, and because it takes animals and has kitchens, it attracts all kinds of riff raff. Despite that, it never felt like an unsafe or unclean place to be; just old and noisy.
Besides the noise from the freeway just a few hundred yards away, and a major thoroughfare with tractor-trailors that would sometimes compression brake as they got off the freeway at 2a.m. just 100 yards away, there was frequent noise from families and groups who stomped around in their rooms, up and down the stairs, slammed their doors, had parties late at night, and yelled and screamed outside at the pool and basketball court.
It was like staying in a cheap hotel, yet the daily rates were about $170-$200 per night. We have stayed at some nice hotels for that much, and we have stayed at some hotels like that one for about $60 per night.
We have stayed at regular Marriotts and they have been nice. We've paid around $200 per night. The reason we tried the Marriott Residence Inn was because it was a Marriott with a kitchen, and we thought we would be getting the better, "Marriott" experience; but, once we realized that we were not, we felt stuck because we had a dog and no other places with kitchens, that would take a dog, had balconies.
The manager gets 5 stars; she's too good for that place; we figure that she must be paying her dues there. She should be a manager at one of the nicer Marriotts. Some of the staff get 3 or 4 stars. The hotel itself, gets 1 star. Most of the guests who stayed there were ok, but there were always enough bad guests to make us think often about moving to a different hotel. I give it 1 star for guests.
If you have a noisy group, this is the place to stay; but if you need peace and quiet, this place could work on your nerves until you feel like snapping!