My husband originally booked us into the Best Western Sandman, but I read through Trip Advisor's reviews and insisted that he change motels. The Governor's Inn is in the same industrial neighborhood, a little pricier, but the reviews said it was safer and cleaner. So, crossing my fingers, we booked it.

We checked in at 12:30 a.m. PST, and the night person was friendly, making sure we had breakfast vouchers for all days and Internet connection info before we went up to our room, and asked if we needed a wake-up call. Our car was in a parking lot surrounded by high walls, but shared a lot with the McDonald's next door (which was handy for getting out onto the road leading to the freeway - I-5.) We had a king bed "mini-studio"; separate toilet and shower from the sink, which was separate from the couch, fridge/coffeemaker, desk and bed.

Very comfortable, firm bed, good pillows. Immaculate room. New or nearly new furnishings throughout. A little road noise, but keeping the fan on the heater helped. No curtains on the windows, but plantation shutters which darkened the room very well, and kept the level of dust down, with none of those annoying gaps between curtains that you get.

Breakfast the next morning was staffed, and was heavy on the carbs, but had a great selection of doughnuts, croissants, coffee cake bread, yogurt, oatmeal, English muffins and the like. Tables were wiped down between guests. You did have to present breakfast vouchers, but the staff person was very friendly about it. My guess is that's how they separate the guests from the local transient population.

Front desk person was very helpful in recommending a cab company and making change. He strongly recommended that I did not walk the neighborhood alone at night, as noted in the reviews for the Best Western Sandman and for this location. This is next to Discovery Park and the freeway on-ramp, and there are lots of transients in the area. Also, it is about 1 1/2 miles through a very deserted industrial area, which we walked during the daytime, to anything worth seeing in Old Sacramento or downtown Sacramento itself.

Maps were available at the front desk. There is a computer with Internet access available in the lobby for those without Internet access; our Internet access in the room was nearly as fast as our DSL at home. The front desk person was very nice and printed out our boarding passes for us without charge (but I did provide him with a token of my appreciation!). We were also referred to a grocery store where I could stock up on snacks and beverages for our stay.

Breakfast the next morning was "cereal morning", with a selection of cereals, donuts and oatmeal. When I asked about yogurt, the staff person fished some out of the refrigerator just for me. As I noted before, the breakfast is heavy on the carbs. There is peanut butter available for toast and the like.

There is also a "Manager's Reception" in the afternoon, which features sherry, tea and cookies from packages, which I found charming, if not terribly high-brow.

The Governor's Inn is all non-smoking, and conference rooms take up the entire first floor. There is also a pool and a hot tub or sauna, but we didn't use those. All looked very clean. All rooms are interior rooms. There are 2 elevators to the 2nd and 3rd floor guest rooms.

Checkout was easy, since we had to check out at 4:30 a.m. We had gotten yogurt and pastries the day before and put them in our refrigerator so as not to bother the front desk person, but he offered to get us some breakfast to take to the airport with us, not knowing we had arranged this on our own. Our bill was quickly and accurately presented.

I would gladly stay here again. The extra we paid for this motel vs. the Best Western Sandman gained us peace of mind, friendly staff, immaculate housekeeping, a good bed and good breakfasts. Well worth it in a budget location.

I stayed there after a disappointing stay at the Super 8 across the street (big incentive).
The inn is very nice and the neighborhood is so-so-yes there seems to be homeless around (a shelter type facility is a few blocks away-probably the reason) and it is adjacent to an industrial area (thus the trucks/noise) but I've been/seen way worse. It's semi close by the Old Town, its a vigorous walk to there. There seems to be semi decent restaurants nearby. The parking area is fenced and gated and the rear gate is closed at night so take normal precautions with your vehicle. In the room everything worked and was clean and comfortable (no broken or badly damaged furnture/fixtures), the bath only had a shower not a full tub/shower-that may matter to some but it didn't matter to me. Interesting that the windows had plantation shuitters on them (rarely do hotel rooms seem to have that). The complimentary breakfast was average. The price was about the same as the Super 8 across the street but a way better value. I'd stay here again should I ever be in the Sacramento area.

Hotel itself was very good, however the area surrounding it was less than impressive.

The hotel lobby and rooms were clean. Our bathroom was very clean, infact i think the toilet and the rather large shower were new. The hotel decor is somewhat dated (think "Dallas the programme" circa 1983). That aside we were very impressed with the size of our room which had a sofa (which may have been a sofa bed, not sure).
The TV cabinet, was very big whereas on opening the "old TV" was not so big!

The surrounding area, is creppy. Drive where you have to (dont walk, it was a mistake we wont make again in a hurry). Nothing bad happened to us, we just felt uneasy. We set on what we thought was a short walk along the river to Old Sacramento for dinner. It was infact a long walk across an abandoned industrial estate that was very poorly lit!

My family and I stayed there one night while traveling through the area. I made the reservation based on trip advisor reviews. The reviews about the inside of the hotel were right on. Here is my list of pros and cons:

Pros: very, very clean-even the carpets, nice lobby, interior spaces, roomy rooms, cont. breakfast ok, very quiet.

Cons: Location. Large number of homeless people directly behind the hotel. We were nervous about all of our camp gear in the car. However, we walked across the street for dinner and not one of them asked for money, nor did they walk through the parking lot. The only other con was the pillows: very flat, stained (under the case), and generally worn out.