The room was clean, large, nice floors (no smelly carpets!), seemingly newly painted, full-size fridge, new mattresses. The hall to the room was the same, clearly newly updated.
This is an old hotel that is in the process of being refinished and that said, nothing is perfect but previous reviews would leave you to believe that it was a total disaster. Here is where the problem lies: you have to drive by a seriously broken-down building (with all the broken windows, boarded windows that previous reviews are talking about). I spoke to the owners about it and this property not only does not belong to them, but they are actively trying to track down the owners to get the building taken care of including contacting the city for help.
Shady characters hanging around? No, not really. There seems to be a group of out-of-town workers who live there during the week, returning to their homes on the weekend, so there are some extended stay people.
Noise? Walking down the hall to our room we heard little kids in the rooms but nothing from our room and nothing overnight.
I booked the room non-refundable before reading the reviews. When we got there, I decided since we'd already paid, to at least check out the room before we decide to stay there or not. Don't let the outside appearance change your mind. It's not the Hilton at $300 a night but it's a really a pretty good deal at $60 a night.