As usual, we did not plan out our stay. I was driving most of the day so I didn’t get to look up hotels. I started looking as we drove down from Scranton PA after seeing the Houdini show/museum. Hotels in the Allentown/Bethlehem area are expensive so you have to start with that premise. I wasn’t overlly concerned with a pool in this case because we were arriving late (8-9pm and I wanted to get to our first destination (America on Wheels) by 10am so that wouldn’t allow for swimming. I did want a hotel with a free breakfast. I struggled to find any hotel under $100. I tried booking.com , travelocity.com, trivago.com, orbitz.com. I found another hotel on trivago and then when I want to book it, it said that the hotel was full. As a result, the only hotel I could find that had a decent rating was the Super 8 in Allentown.
The hotel pulled up easy on our GPS and is in a convenient location and also right next to an Autozone which was convenient because I needed windshield wipers. We pulled in around 9pm after a 10 minute drive from Lehigh University. The check in counter was dark and dingy. Check in was fast.
The guy behind me asked the front counter guy if he could use the phones to call his girlfriend but was told the phones shut off at some specific time. As a result, the patron asked if he could pay me a dollar to use my phone. Although I was worried I was being conned, I dialed the number for him after he repeatedly told me that I was opening the texting and not the dialer on my own phone. I was worried somehow my phone number is going to be captured and used to make international calls. We’ll wait and see. He said his girlfriend didn’t pick up.
I parked on the other side of the building close to our room. Location seemed safe enough. Our room was right by the exit and the stairs. The room entrances are from the inside with a key needed to get in the side doors. So it was loud when people went up and down stairs.
Upon entry into the room, it was clean but did have a faint odor of smoke despite being a nonsmoking room. The room had very little room to walk but did have all your standard amenities and did have the sink outside the toilet area which I like. We were all exhausted, and ate our dinner and went to bed. For some reason though there were no blankets, only the thin linen and the decorative cover. It was odd. I was too tired to figure out what the reason was and if we could get blankets.
Woke up in the morning, the included breakfast was a standard offering which is all i ask. The staff in the morning was very friendly (I assume they were the owners). Check out took 2 seconds and then we went straight to autozone right next door.
Overall: Decent for one night when you are just looking to sleep. I would stay again if I am only looking to sleep.
Pros: I paid about $100/night which was the cheapest price around. Breakfast is decent and staff is nice. Location is centrally located.
Cons: No blankets, faint smell of smoke. Rooms are tightly packed.