Adventures In Lubbock, TX End With A Decent Place To Sleep At The Quality Inn Lubbock, Texas!

Quality Inn Lubbock, TX

Click to reserve a room directly through Choice Hotels!

The Good: Good breakfast, Clean rooms, Nice business center
The Bad: No grounds, It is -at the end of the day- Lubbock, TX, Bed options
The Basics: The Quality Inn in Lubbock, Texas is a good hotel to crash at in a town one only passed through.


One often hears that things are bigger in Texas. Indeed, everything is supposed to be bigger in Texas. Even the little out of the way towns and cities are bigger in Texas. Take your average ghost town in Virginia. It might be a mile or two in diameter. Take your town in the middle of nowhere, Texas and it's at least five miles in diameter. That's Lubbock, Texas. It might be considered an oddity to a Northerner, or even quaint with its active K-Mart and friendly people, but it is undeniably bigger than most places one stumbles upon when driving through Texas to more scenic places.

On my latest cross-country excursion, I had the pleasure of spending the night at the Quality Inn in Lubbock, Texas. The purpose of my stop was to rest up from an overnight of driving, relax for a few hours and proceed on to Carlsbad, NM well rested. With an estimated three hours travel time between the Quality Inn in Lubbock, TX and Carlsbad Caverns National Park (reviewed here!) in New Mexico, this seemed like an ideal stop.

Location

The Quality Inn, Lubbock, TX (TX779 in the Choice Hotel pantheon) is located at 5706 I-27, which is basically an off-ramp to Interstate 27. There is no property for this hotel to speak of. It is ringed by a parking lot, one side facing the ever-beating Texas sun. Cars in the parking lot get hot very quickly and while checking in, it's highly recommended that if you have someone you're leaving in your car you roll down the windows or leave the air conditioning running for them.

The building is a stark multi-story building that could be a Quality Inn anywhere. There is nothing distinctive at all about the exterior. As a (predominantly) business traveler, this does not phase me. If you're traveling for recreation, one must ask "Why are you thinking Lubbock, Texas for a vacation?!" Seriously.

So, immediately, this Quality Inn strikes one as less a luxury hotel and more a place to crash for the night . . . so one does not crash for the night.


Room Size

Inside the hotel - which is easy to get to as it's literally right off the interstate and visible before the exit - the interior is surprisingly inviting. There's a decent sized pool right off the main lobby and the people staffing the front desk are helpful and knowledgeable about the area. They probably get bombarded plenty about what time zone Lubbock is in (Central, in case you were curious) but they seem to take it with a professional aplomb. They seem to know the area well (when dinnertime came, I found pizza easy and they knew right where the nearest Post Office was!) and the desk staff is professional.

I was able to check in early, which is nice because I arrived early in the morning exhausted from a night of driving. I was checked into a room with a single king bed, a microwave, a refrigerator, and everything. The Quality Inn, Lubbock, TX might be one of the last places on Earth where it's less expensive (by a good $10) to stay in a room with a single king bed as opposed to two twin or two queen beds. Sadly, this meant bunking with my traveling companion, but by the time we arrived in Lubbock, we were too exhausted to care (we're cheap before squeamish, I suppose!).

The room, however, was a decent size. This Quality Inn's rooms were approximately twenty-seven feet deep from the doorway and thirteen and a half feet wide. The bathroom was immediately inside the door when one entered and it was a comfortable size.

Our room was dominated by the single bed, though the room did not feel crowded at all. After taxes and such, the room was $71.18 with the internet booking directly from Choice Hotels. Given that I stayed in the room most of the time, this was not a bad deal. Even though there had been a tornado in Lubbock the day before, the room was ready and it felt secure from the moment I arrived.

Cleanliness

This room was exceptionally clean, which was nice because I felt anything but. After a shower, it was refreshing to find clean linens and collapse into a bed with clean sheets, blankets and pillows. The hotel passed the first flush test (the moment I enter a new hotel room, the first thing I do is flush the toilet) and every surface was clean.

In short, the Quality Inn in Lubbock, TX had rooms that felt like no one had occupied them before me, which is the ideal feeling for a hotel room.

Common areas were generally clean, though the breakfast nook became a little disordered as breakfast progressed. Still, it was a nice enough space to eat in.

Amenities

The spacious room had a very functional air conditioner (a necessity in this clime), a refrigerator, microwave, and a nice big desk. The television was a good size and had about thirty channels on it. The usual ironing board and coffee maker could be found here as well.

The bathroom was equipped with the standard Quality Inn shampoo, conditioner and lotion. The hotel's pool was clean, though small (perhaps not EVERYTHING is bigger in Texas!). The breakfast area was convenient and big enough to seat about five families. The breakfast included: make-your-own waffles, yogurt, three types of danishes, three types of juice, and coffee. There were hard-boiled eggs available as well as two types of cereal and packets of oatmeal. The breakfast was rounded out with plain bagels. It was an adequate way to start the day, though nothing to light the world on fire.

The real nice amenity the Quality Inn in Lubbock had was a business center with an internet connection. This convenient room - replaced in many hotels by access if one has their own computer - was a boon to me and helped me stay in touch for the day I spent in Lubbock. The chair was even a comfortable leather number as opposed to something less enjoyable!

Overall

I cannot imagine staying in Lubbock, Texas for any amount of time. However, if passing through it again, I cannot imagine staying anywhere but the Quality Inn. It's affordable, clean and while the breakfast was indistinct, it was adequate. The staff was exceptionally helpful (I had lots of questions for a change!) and while I wish I could have gotten two beds for the same price as the one king, even that was ultimately fine.

For other hotels in the Choice Hotels chain, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Comfort Inn And Suites Airport - Masspeth, NY
Quality Inn North - Altamonte Springs, FL
Comfort Inn North Shore - Danvers, MA

7/10

For other travel reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

Quality Inn Lubbock

Click to reserve a room directly through Hotels.com!