The Gateway Hotel left a lot to be desired. While I was appreciative that they let me check in about 30 minutes early, the facility and room were a bit rundown, more than you might expect. The hallways needed vacuuming and the room itself had some issues. The fridge would make a strange sound when the motor turned off, sounding a lot like someone knocking on the door, which gave me a good fright several times in the middle of the night. Also, someone left the alarm clock turned on so I had an unpleasant wake up at midnight--not good when I had a hard time falling asleep anyway. (It would be great if housekeeping staff could check alarms when cleaning a room!) It also would have been nice if the air conditioning unit had a "fan on" option for consistent white noise (all hotels should have this option!) I also booked this hotel in hopes of being able to spend some quality time at the pool, but apparently so did everyone else staying there, so the pool was horribly overcrowded. I was amazed to count only 8 lounge chairs at the pool, too. Why so few? I'm not sure how the Gateway compares to the other hotels in the area, but if I need to stay in Yakima in the future, I'll probably try my luck with another hotel. All in all, not the worst place in the world, but could be so much better with a few small changes and improvements.
