Kayenta Monument Valley Inn

This hotel was a poor choice on my part. I made the reservation weeks earlier and didn't check the latest reviews, which would have warned me that this was not the best hotel in Kayenta. While we were there. representatives of Choice Hotels were studying the property and discussing what remodeling would be needed to add this hotel to their collection. I wish I could have told them what I've learned on this trip. A Choice Hotel in Casa Grande was a pit, and this hotel was very close to being a matching partner. The description in Trip Advisor mentioned a restaurant at the hotel. On arrival, it turned out that the restaurant was undergoing remodeling. Apparently most of northern Arizona was being remodeled this month. At this time we had yet to see the room, which turned out to be set up for disabled people. The shower was made to accommodate a wheelchair, and the toilet had an auxiliary seat and arms on it. Since neither of us needed this level of assistance, it was both creepy and annoying. The shower floor was damaged with pieces of fiberglass missing from an area at the sill. We did not shower. There was obviously no way to truly clean that shower floor where the fiberglass was damaged. The basic room itself was moderately clean. The room was chilly, the blankets thin. There were no extra blankets. It had snowed the night before (evidence still blanketed parts of the parking lot), and while it didn't snow the night we were there, it was hinting that snow might be on the menu. Adding some extra clothes got me through the night, along with turning up the noisy heater. Thin walls told me that the few other guests were watching TV to keep warm. We should have asked for a better room, but we were tired, didn't feel like imposing on the management, and simply wanted to get to sleep in preparation for an early tour of Monument Valley. That turned out to have its own adventure. I would stay at a different hotel on a return visit, perhaps the Hampton, or the hotel at Monument Valley itself, or Gouldings. We did not see the rooms at any of these properties, but they could not have been any worse than the one we were in. On a happy note, the hotel was across the highway from The Blue Coffee Pot, the best thing in Kayenta for us. Moral - check the reviews AGAIN just before the trip, when there is time to cancel the room and book somewhere else. It turned out that there were lots of empty motel rooms at Monument, at Gouldings, and probably at Hampton. We didn't drive back to check that. The pictures make this hotel look cute and appealing, though very basic. The room we had doesn't much resemble the example picture at the left of the page. There were two marshmallow-sized pillows, no bolster pillow, no wall art that I remember. We didn't bother with the TV. It appeared to be reasonably recent in construction and if the neighbors were to be relied upon, it probably worked. Fortunately we had our own pair of king-size pillows along on the trip, and only had to use them twice. This was one of them. There are much better choices in the Monument Valley area to stay in. This isn't one of them. Read less