There are several advantages of staying in a family owned motel, compared to a chain like Days Inn. To start with, at the Oakland Motel, the rooms have been customized—no similar cookie-cutter appearance to each room. Our room, for example, had a fishing motif. One of the other rooms even has a baby grand piano. Another advantage is personal attention. The owner, Brent, stopped by several times during our stay to see how we were doing, and to ask if we needed anything. Our room was a decent size, and had a king size bed, which was comfortable. With a few exceptions, the room was furnished pretty well. We had a large credenza which provided closet and dresser space, along with a 32” LCD TV. The room had a small frig, along with a microwave. There were plenty of coffee and tea supplies, along with a roll of paper towels. There were a few small end tables, which had little fishing ‘doo-dads’ on them. While they added to the ambiance of the room, having the space on these end tables for our stuff would have been helpful. Only one chair was provided, and a second chair would have helped. Providing a box of tissues would have been beneficial, too. I do want to spend a moment and talk about the rug. The Oakland Motel did a great job of keeping the room, including the carpet, clean. In comparison, my wife and I had been in a luxury entry-level hotel in Ocean City back in late June. We wore our socks there while walking around the room, and they were extremely dirty each day. We didn’t see anything on our socks here, which shows how carefully the rooms are cleaned. Good job! While the sleeping/living area was pretty much up to date, I can’t say the same about the bathroom. It was clean, but in need of a facelift. There was little counter space, which could have been helped by having a shelf, and there was a good-sized crack in the floor. Adding a hook to the back of the bathroom door would have helped. The prices were very reasonable too, so I felt the Oakland Motel represents a good value. The motel checks most of the right boxes, so if you’re going to visit the Oakland or Deep Creek Lake area, you should consider staying here.…