By Michael Stavola/The Wichita Eagle
A west Wichita hotel shut down by city officials had 107 violations in a Jan. 15 inspection report, according to a Wichita Fire Department report released by the city.
The largest single issue at the Economy Hotel Plus+ Wichita, 5805 W. Kellogg, was “no open outlets/wiring” with 32 violations. An inspector comment included in the report said “Electrical outlets, switches and junction boxes must have approved cover plates.” The violation was found in rooms, hallways, in and around the restaurant, the basement, laundry room and men’s bathroom.
Other violations included “three deficiencies” with the fire alarm, missing smoke alarms, escutcheon plate missing on sprinklers, fire extinguishers being blocked or not inspected annually, a gas container not in a flammable cabinet in a storage room and problems with missing tiles under a code about “fire resistive construction maintained.” Although the report listed 107 violations, an inspector commented “I’M GOOD HERE” on one of them.
The report includes photos of the violations.
“100 violations, as I understand, is extremely unusual,” city spokesperson Megan Lovely said in an email. “Around 5-10 is typical and would include things like a missing switch cover, blocked exit or other, small easy issues to fix.”
The owners of the hotel did not respond to emails Saturday and Wednesday, though a reporter was directed to reach them that way by a hotel customer service agent after the business closed.
The document says the hotel will be reinspected on Feb. 14. Lovely said that is usual for the owners to address concerns.
“30 days reinspection is standard to allow property owners to abate issues – in this case, after the inspection was done, because of the amount and severity of identified safety issues, we worked with the state to move forward on a closure,” she said.
The owners will have to address all of the issues in the inspection before the hotel can reopen, Lovely said.
Lovely previously said the findings at “this location poses an immediate danger to anyone present there.”
She said Wednesday that the Wichita Police Department had 489 calls to the hotel between Jan. 1, 2024 and Dec. 16, 2024.
On Jan. 17, 2024, a woman in her 20s was found shot in the leg in the hotel lobby. This Jan. 14, a woman was found shot and critically injured, according to a police report.
In the inspection report, the inspector wrote that a police officer emailed them Jan. 2 with “SAFETY CONCERNS AT THE ECONOMY INN” and that the officer and members of the Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department were doing an inspection. The MABCD lists two active cases for violations found in 2025, but doesn’t say online what they are for.
Lovely said the city didn’t know for sure how many people were evicted from the hotel because “there is evidence people were squatting.” The city helped fewer than 10 individuals and families with shelter, she said.
The hotel owners also have a hotel in Roswell, Georgia, where a 45-year-old woman was killed in June 2022 that led to a man being charged for murder and a July 2015 fatal shooting of a 30-year-old man over a suspected drug deal that led to two men being charged, according to Appen Media Group and online records that link the owners of the Wichita hotel to that hotel.
Here is the full report about the closure in Wichita:
This article was republished here with the permission of: The Wichita Eagle