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Listings on all the popular lodging websites show the hotel is just off Interstate 10 with a gleaming pool and spacious rooms featuring the usual amenities, for just $50-$60 per night. What a deal!

The reality at 1365 W. Grant Road, though, is shockingly different. Customers figured that out long before a man tried to set fire to the place on July 20, and before another man shot two people, killing one, in the courtyard on Sunday morning.

“Online they advertise AC, Wifi, Pool, TV, Microwave, and Fridge. There is none of that,� , about a month ago.

“It didn’t even have toilet paper or pillows in the room. The door won’t fully shut so anyone can walk in the rooms. There are large holes in the curtains so people can look into the room while you sleep. Also people openly doing drugs outside the rooms. This place is a scam, any photos you see online of nice rooms is a lie.�

The pool? It’s a deep empty basin with a puddle of black water, garbage and leaves at the bottom.

GLH, formerly known as Grand Luxe Hotel & Resort, isn’t really a hotel in the normal sense. Its primary role is to serve as last-chance housing for people one step away from living on the streets.

People like Maria Martinez, who my colleague Mamta Popat and I spoke with as she cleaned rooms Monday afternoon.

Martinez said in Spanish that she lost her work and her apartment after getting sick. Now she’s paying for her room at the GLH by cleaning other guest rooms there and hoping to save up enough money to get back in an apartment, and out of this hotel, as soon as possible.

“There are many problems,� she said of GLH. “Many ugly things.�

People use drugs openly, the odor of fentanyl smoke wafting through regularly; corridors smell of urine; torn curtains and broken doors front some of the rooms.

‘It’s what I can afford’

But of course it is so much better than being on the streets for many residents. Tessa Diego, who witnessed the shooting Sunday, told us a room costs $300 per month, or $65 per night.

It’s pretty clear which deal anyone would take if they can put together the $300.

“It’s just what I can afford,� said Diego, 27. “I’m on my own. I can’t really manage to do first month/last month/security (deposit) on my own. I don’t pass a background check, I don’t have credit, so it’s really just what I have.�

She credits the management with trying to maintain security and conditions in the hotel but acknowledges it can be rough. After Sunday’s shooting, Diego said, she now sometimes has asked to be escorted to and from her room.

You can imagine how shocking it would be to be a run-of-the-mill traveler showing up to such a scene with a reservation in hand.

“This place should be condemned!� a reviewer named . “It is listed on multiple websites. I feel like I got a disease looking at it for five minutes. Very scary and unsafe. I feel the need to report it to someone, but I don’t know what the recourse is. Avoid at all costs! I hope I can get a refund!�

‘Relaxed’ zero tolerance

The owner of the hotel, according to city and county records, is a company called Shri Harikrishna LLC, with an address of 1602 North Oracle Road. That’s the site of the former La Siesta Motel.

The manager of the LLC listed in state and city records is Harikrishna K. Patel. My efforts to reach Patel were unsuccessful.

County tax records show Shri Harikrishna LLC owes $52,403 in overdue property taxes for the GLH Hotel property. The LLC also owes $14,410 in taxes on 1602 N. Oracle Road, which appeared closed when I visited Tuesday.

The GLH Hotel also has been the subject of more 10 complaints to the Pima County Health Department since 2022. Most of the complaints cite cockroaches, bed bugs and other dirty conditions, said Nicholas Ramirez, environmental health supervisor at the department. There also are complaints about the swimming pool’s condition.

Michael Campbell, who manages security and is night manager for the hotel, said the problems at the hotel have worsened for the last couple of years as the presence of homeless people nearby has surged.

“Every time we ask for help, it doesn’t come,� Campbell said. “You know, we call 911, they show up tomorrow. That’s if we don’t get put on hold for 20 minutes.�

“We try to give everyone a fair opportunity,� Campbell said. “We do have a zero-tolerance policy. It had been relaxed because it’s the summertime. Now we’re reinforcing.�

The hotel kicked out about half of its residents after Sunday’s shooting, he said, mostly due to violations of the rule prohibiting visitors after 11 p.m.

‘Should be condemned’

Police have arrested a suspect in the July 20 arson — Cameron Michael Buell, 34. However, nobody has been arrested in the Sunday shooting, which occurred after a confrontation in the courtyard. Police are seeking two suspects in the death of Andrew Jacob Valencia, 32.

The subsequent expulsions may make life safer, for now, for the vulnerable residents of the hotel. But the owners ought to be held accountable for the dangerous conditions that have existed for years and led up to the recent crimes.

They also should be banned from misleading the traveling public on websites like Expedia, which was who gave this review in April:

“This hotel should be condemned. Most rooms are boarded up and unusable. The 1st room I was given, the AC cord was cut. 2nd room given was not cleaned at all. 3rd room given had no TV remote, no bed or bath linens, no lights that worked. Someone else’s food in fridge, and the inoperable toilet was filled to the rim with feces. There were patched bullet holes in the window, and the curtain had 3 bullet holes in it. I checked out and found some other place. I spent a bunch of money and got nothing.�