Lake Place Inn: Where the Stay is Hot, the Rooms Smell Smoky, and J.Lo Speaks Spanish
As locals living just an hour away from Lake Havasu City, we decided to book a room at the Lake Place Inn for a night with our three kids. We had to be in town anyway, so we figured why not make a fun night of it? Upon arrival around 7 PM, we were hopeful until we opened the door to our first room. The overwhelming scent of stale cigarettes greeted us like an unwanted guest. It was as if the room had been sealed since the '90s, preserving the aroma of a thousand ashtrays.
The front desk was understanding and promptly moved us to another room. This new room had a different set of challenges. The air conditioning, while present, seemed to be on a permanent coffee break, leaving us to simmer in the desert heat. But hey, we’re troopers at least we had a TV to distract us, right? Wrong. The remote was missing, and after manually flipping through channels, we found ourselves stuck watching a Jennifer Lopez movie...in Spanish. ¡Qué divertido!
Determined to salvage the evening, we headed to the pool, which we were told was open until 10 PM. The kids, as kids do, were having a blast splashing around… until a gentleman in room 109 decided our fun was too much for his sensitive ears. His negative comments about the kids playing made it clear that one side of the hotel was more like a retirement community, while the other side hosted short-term guests like us.