Fresno Hotels with Bars

My husband and I paid for a night at University Square Hotel, but we left before sundown (something we’ve never done before) because we didn’t feel safe for ourselves, or safe to leave our car in their parking lot. The property itself is an older hotel, built in the 80’s and in need of renovation. That is fine, as we expected not the best condition given the low price. The rooms are large, and it seems like it was probably a perfectly nice place years ago. The biggest problem is the very sketchy tenants who seem (judging from a conversation b/w a tenant and the housekeeping staff) to be living there. We should have worried when we had to sign a waiver stating that no “drugs, including *********, illegal activities, domestic violence or pets” would be allowed. Never seen that before. Also, they required a $100 “room security deposit” in addition to the hotel rental fee. The hallways and elevator smelled strongly of ****. The floors etc were very dirty and the place was generally beaten up. Inside the door of our building was a large hand written sign warning that any residents who propped the self locking door open would be required to leave, along with their guests. Every time we went thru the door we noticed that the corner of the rug was pushed up into the door frame, which prevented the door from closing all the way (and locking). I am sorry if this sounds snobby, but the only other guests we saw looked like they had recently been living on the street. The car next to ours in the parking lot was in such bad shape - it really looked like it should be in a junk yard. We saw a couple of people circling the building on skateboards and checking the door (the one that isn’t supposed to be propped open). Not sure what was up with that but it didn’t give us a good feeling. The air conditioning does not work well, and our room never got below 78 degrees. We asked at the desk about the A/C and they guy said it was because the thermostat was controlled by motion sensor. Not sure what happens when you go to sleep. Does the A/C just turn off? The photos on their website must be a number of years old. If we had known what it was really like we never would have made a reservation. We ended up deciding to just move and pay for a different hotel rather than risk our car in the parking lot and ourselves in the room - didn’t think we would be able to sleep anyway.

This was my first time to stay at a Hometown Studios and I was happy with the stay. The room was fairly basic, but matched the online description. WiFi service was good and everything in the room was working. My only complaint would be that the room lighting could be improved. An overhead fluorescent fixture provided good lighting in overall, but the dim bedside wall mounted light fixture was dim, great mood lighting, but impossible to read in bed.