Gordon’s Motel

First, The GOOD:
The phone number works, it’s where it says it is, they do have rooms, the place is smack in the middle of Jasper, not two blocks from Ozark Café (our final destination in Jasper). It’s also very affordable, and we were able to check-​in late (which I know is a hassle for Mom & Pop outfits).
Also, and I can’t express how wonderful this was, we were able to bring our dog. Oh, and they do offer Canoe rentals, which is a big draw in the area.
Now, the not so good, where to start? Brace yourself for a long review…
In order for us to check-​in, they left our room key *in the door.* Which, while convenient, was very strange to me.
When we walked in the room, it was after a very long day of driving, so we plopped our stuff down on the extra bed and got ready to relax. I noticed on the way in that the main light in the room was a bare bulb with no cover, and there was a recently-​patched part of wall in the shape of a smoke detector, but I didn’t see any smoke detector there or anywhere else. I also noticed that the pilot light for the old gas wall-​heater was left on for us (that’s nice!) I turned on the heater because it was getting to be a cold night out.
I went to the bathroom, flicked on the light, which flashed on for a second and then died. The only light. And no windows either. It was late enough I assumed we couldn’t call anyone to fix that, so I just flicked on a cell phone light and rolled with it. While using the facilities I found that the toilet seat aggressively would not stay up.
After I’d finished using the toilet I started gasping, and realized I’d just peed in a toilet bowl full of bleach in an unventilated room (oh, no fan in the bathroom either). So I flushed and got out of there ASAP. I’m a big fan of cleaning with bleach, but I know better than to mess with it without any air flow, and definitely not mixed with Ammonia/​pee.
I came out of the bathroom, and noticed that the room was nice and warm, and that the heater had shut itself off — AND shut off the pilot light while the gas was still on. I quickly turned the gas off.
At this point, we found the gas/​CO2 detector. It was in a dresser drawer, and we found it because it started beeping. Well, at least it works, right? So, we opened the door and swung it a bit to mix in some fresh air, which made the beeping stop. But now the room was around 50 degrees and we didn’t want to turn the heater back on.
This was around when I noticed that the outlets — ALL the outlets — in the room were two-​prong. Something old enough that I’d never even seen before, let alone seen an entire room of them, so it’s a good thing we didn’t bring anything we needed to plug in… Care to guess if there’s Wi-​Fi or not?
At this point, two folks in the room next to us went out into the driveway to smoke. I appreciated that, because they were trying to be responsible and smoke outside — but that’s when we noticed that the seal on our door didn’t do a darn thing, so for a few hours, our room smelled like smoke.
We were laughing our butts off by then, because what else can you do? We had our picnic dinner, piled every sheet and blanket we could find on the one bed, and went to sleep on the threadbare mattress.
Easily the craziest Motel stay I’ve ever had. It almost felt like it had been booby-​trapped. But, we were just looking for a place to sleep, so it worked. But Man! What an experience!

We just spent our 2^nd Annual girls float trip at this motel. Still a lil early in season, so motel was not packed. The lady who answers the phone, took our reservations for rooms and rafts… she even stacked wood by the fire pit with chairs and picnic tables. The rooms are vintage style (amitminities & décor), but we only used for showers and sleep. Plenty of outside space to socialize & cook. There is also a diner across the road for coffee and/​or meals. The shuttle was wonderful helping us load our gear and ice chests… very smooth drop off and pick up. Overall it was a cheap getaway allowing us to have a fabulous experience!

A few friends and I thought that an impromptu weekend float would be fun. Right? WRONG. When we called to reserve a canoe, the woman on the phone was immediately rude. We were unhappy with her demeanor, but she told us a canoe would be $ 25. Ok, it can’t be that bad then? WRONG. We were told $ 25/​canoe, that the drop-​off/​pickup times were between 830 am and 6pm, and we specified that a specific drop-​off point was possible because we were meeting a friend there. When we walked into the office, the woman told us that canoes were $ 50 each, that we HAD to be back by 330 pm and that we WOULD NOT be dropped off at the point we arranged. She also must’ve «forgotten» to mention on the phone that she would charge us $ 40 to shuttle us to the drop-​off point, making the bill almost 3x more expensive than what we discussed. REALLY? We respectfully asked questions about this arrangement, and when we asked for a refund, she kicked us out of the office and threatened to call the cops. Again, REALLY? After about 10 minutes, a slightly nicer gentleman agreed to give us a refund after having to explain our reasons for frustration again. There are many other canoe companies in the area; give them your business! Gordon’s will flat-​out lie about their prices on the phone and they will have your credit card number in the process. Fingers crossed that refund actually makes it on our card. (NOTE: we camped and did not stay at the hotel. But if they run their hotel the way they run their canoe rentals, run in the other direction!)