A hotel near Memphis International Airport is shut down after police and city leaders declared it a public nuisance, pointing to two years of shootings, robberies, assaults and hundreds of 911 calls. Budget Host Inn & Suites, at 2745 Airways Boulevard near Democrat Road, closed this week following a joint operation by the Memphis Police Department, City of Memphis leaders and the Shelby County District Attorney's Office.
Officers were called to the property 792 times between September 2024 and September 2026, according to the Memphis Police Department, as reported by Action News 5. Those calls produced 166 reports and 71 arrests, according to WREG, which first reported the public nuisance declaration. Among the incidents were four shootings in which victims were struck by gunfire, the station reported.
A Pattern of Violence and Property Crime
Police calls to the hotel included disturbances, armed persons, fights, robberies, carjackings, shootings with injuries and drug overdoses, according to Action News 5. Officers' responses also documented aggravated assaults, sexual assaults, burglaries, vehicle thefts and narcotics violations, per the same WREG report. The Memphis Police Department said the closure addresses what it called a sustained pattern of activity that had created significant safety concerns for the surrounding community.
The hotel's troubles weren't limited to indoor incidents. Earlier in the year, officers had already responded to more than 30 calls in the 2700 block of Airways Boulevard, most involving thefts and assaults, the station's crime tracker showed.
Owners Warned Before Closure
Hotel owners received written notice in late April to mitigate the constant calls, but criminal activity continued afterward, including aggravated assaults, armed robberies and shootings, according to La Prensa Latina, which reported that the April 29 notice was issued under Tennessee's nuisance-abatement law. The outlet reported that the closure operation involved MPD's Organized Crime Unit, officers from the Raines and Ridgeway precincts, the City of Memphis and the Shelby County District Attorney's Office. Notices posted on the hotel's doors indicated it was closed by order of the Environmental Court and the District Attorney, per La Prensa Latina.
Not the First Memphis Hotel to Face This Fate
Budget Host isn't the only Memphis lodging property to draw this kind of scrutiny. The Memphis Police Department also temporarily shut down the Home 1 Extended Stay on American Way, where FOX13 Memphis reported the Shelby County District Attorney sought to close it permanently. Police said that property had generated hundreds of 911 calls over a year, including reports of drug overdoses, prostitution and violent crimes, and Shelby County Environmental Court Judge Patrick Dandridge ordered it to remain closed ahead of a trial scheduled for April 7.
