Over Memorial Day Weekend, we made a trip down to visit friends in Southern Illinois. We left after Andrew was done with work, and knew we would only make it part way so we booked a hotel in Des Moines, Iowa for the night. We opted for the Days Inn near the airport as it was budget friendly, closer to the south end of town for an easy getaway the next morning, and part of our Wyndham rewards program.

The parking lot for the hotel is a little interesting to get into, as it’s behind another hotel and off of a busy street that is rather difficult to make a left turn on when heading south. It also is a very unique building as it appears to be two separate hotel buildings that were joined in the middle to create a hotel twice the size of a normal Days Inn.

We got lucky, and after checking in, our room was in the same building as the lobby, so it was just a short elevator ride up to our room. Upon entering, the bathroom was to the left, and a small closet containing a luggage holder was on the right.

We had a king size bed that faced the TV set. It was later when we arrived to town, but if I remember correctly we did watch a little bit of TV before turning in for the night.

I did find it awkward that despite the closet in the entry area, there was a separate rod on the one side of the bed, along with the ironing board. Why not just stick it in the closet? Just past the TV there was also a desk. As you can see, the lighting in the room really was not helpful in getting decent pictures.

The one other thing the room had to offer was a cozy chair on the other side of the bed. As you can see, for us it turned into a luggage holder for the night!

The Days Inn near the airport worked for the night, and would be a great place to stay if you need to get there the night before a flight or the night a flight returns as they offer transport to the airport, (which is right across the street), and also have deals for leaving your car parked there. It worked for a cheap night stay for us, but I wouldn’t want to stay here long term.

Our breakfast selection was good, and we did end up staying a little longer in the morning while we waited for a storm to roll through. The weird thing was they were broadcasting previous news and weather when we were trying to get updated weather info from the local news channel! The hotel also has a pool, but since it was in the other building, we never ventured over to check it out.

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We experienced our first hotel stay with our dogs when we moved from St. Louis to Groton. Without dogs (and with stops) driving non-stop takes about 14 hours and that just seemed crazy knowing we’d have both dogs and one of us driving a U-Haul, so we decided to make Sioux City our pit stop for the night.

Lots of things played into how we picked our hotel for that night. The first is that we are Wyndham Rewards members, so we wanted to find something in their chain of hotels. The second was that we needed somewhere that would allow two larger dogs in a room for a night. Most of the Wyndham properties in Sioux City limited it to a combined weight of 30 lbs. The Days Inn had nothing listed weight wise, and when I called and explained our situation they completely understood and told me “sometimes small dogs make even bigger messes than big dogs anyways.” The third thing we needed to make sure of was that they had room for a U-haul in the lot, which they assured me they did.

Upon arriving at the hotel around dinner time, I went into the lobby to check us in. As I waited my turn behind a few other construction workers, I grew slightly concerned as the front desk had a sign listing the 30 lb rule. Not sure if this is something they chose to list after I had booked our room, or if they always have the sign displayed, but don’t necessarily follow it. Either way they didn’t question me on the size of the dogs, just gave me the price of my room with the two dogs added in.

Our room was upstairs, but at least right off the stairwell, so it made it easy to bring the dogs in the side door and get right up to our room. I wasn’t sure how they would be with all the noises hotels may have, but as you can see below, they settled in just fine.

The great thing about this Days Inn’s location is it is near several gas stations, which allowed Andrew to take both my car and the U-haul to fill up so it was ready for morning. It also has several fast food joints located nearby so Andrew also brought us both back some Culver’s to the room so we didn’t need to worry about leaving the dogs alone. A Taco Bell was right in our backyard and a Burger King was also attached to a gas station nearby if you were looking for other options.

If you are staying in the area for a longer time (or without dogs to keep track of), they also had a nice pool area right off the lobby, along with a breakfast nook. I can’t remember if we ate their breakfast or not, or if we just grabbed something to bring up to our room and that’s why I’m not remembering. The nice thing was that given it’s proximity to another restaurant, there also was a nice grassy patch in between the hotel lot and theirs for the dogs to relieve themselves.

If you are looking for a cheaper place to stay in Sioux City, I do recommend the Days Inn. It was easy to access and had all the comforts you need for a short stay.