Hotel Days Inn Des Moines - Merle Hay (Des Moines, USA)

Rooms are clean and well decorated. Staff members, particularly those on the front desk, are very friendly and always flexible and accommodating.

Access is easy off the Interstate and parking is equally stress-free.The pool and surrounding area are impressively clean and inviting. The pool itself is beautifully warm; somewhere you can relax ... for as long as you wish.

Attendance at breakfast can be very thin on the ground. This isn’t due in any way to the standard of what is on offer. Breakfast here is very impressive. Lots of it and with plenty of choice. It’s a real feather in the hotel’s cap and one of the positive memories that guests take away with them.

If you’re after a good night’s sleep, get a room as far away as possible from Derry’s Bar. It’s not unduly noisy but, from the room you can hear everything.

Hotel staff members are to be found smoking outside and directly under the ‘non-smoking’ sign. Laughable in a way but, more seriously; it doesn’t give a good impression, nor does it set any kind of a good example for kids.

They’ve invested (*wrong word!) in cheap and nasty accessories so, for example, the shower handle and other accessories are likely to fall apart without any undue pressure whatsoever. Toilets are really small and there’s an ongoing lack of water pressure in the shower. Sadly, corridors smell of ‘you know what’.