Marc and I took the family on vacation to California. We started our vacation in Redding, CA to attend my Dad's wedding reception (to the most lovely lady). We usually stay with my Dad, but chose to stay in a hotel this time.
My brother and his family (5), plus my stepsister and her daughters (3) were staying at Dad's and Betts (2), we thought we could use an extra cold hotel room with our own bathroom.
To begin, my brother (different brother) was going to book a room at the Super 8 down the street from my Dad's. I went on Priceline to see the cost and reviews. It was $75/night and the first (most recent) review said "sticky floors". I don't know about you, but I'm not staying where there are sticky floors. I wasn't planning on getting a hotel (I was going to use Bett's sister's trailer outside their house), but I called my brother and we did some research online. I decided I would like our own room to spread out and shower and agreed to bid on a hotel.
I've tried bidding once before and it turned out great. I looked at all the 2 star and 3 star hotels in Redding. Since I wasn't planning on getting a hotel to start, I decided to stick with the 2 star hotels. They ranged from $129-169 a night. The Ramada Limited was on sale for $62. I was pretty guaranteed that this would be the winning hotel because of my low bid. I looked at the pictures.
So, I'm into details,
We arrived at the hotel at 4pm. The lobby is nice and desk clerk, not so much. I ask for a room with 2 beds and she informs me that it will be an extra $20 a night plus tax. I tell her a King room is just fine (we can put the kids on an air mattress). She tells me about breakfast and that the lobby is the only way in and out (safety). I thank her and leave.
When we get back again, Marc goes up to the room with 2 kids and tries to take the elevator. The people that get off the elevator say "good luck. we were just stuck in there for 5 minutes". We decide to take the stairs for our entire stay. I was aware there was an elevator problem from the reviews on Priceline, but I would have thought it would have been fixed in the last 30 days. Nope!!
My brother texts me to say he is in a room 2 down from me. I knock on his door and he's not there. I text him to see where he is and he replies "stuck in the elevator". I'm laughing and go to the elevator to press up and down before I go to the front desk. I can hear he and his friend yelling. The elevator opens and they are not happy. We laugh now and everyone takes the stairs.
Breakfast smelled great, but we went to Betts each morning for breakfast, so I never sampled it. It was free and included, so that was good. When you are a family of 6 traveling, saving costs help. Marc usually goes down and grabs food for everyone and then brings it to the room for us to eat as we get ready. I am hyper aware that I have 6 people in a room (my kids are still little), so I clean as we go and make the room nice before I leave. All trash is where it belongs and everything is put away. We try to keep it clean and easy for the housekeeper.
The bathroom was very 2 star. The sink was in the main area and the toilet/shower where in the bathroom. I like this (at times) because I can get ready while everyone else takes their showers. They had moved the shower rod out and replaced it with a bowed rod. I like this, but they didn't patch the holes and there was mold growing there (no where else, just there). I'm assuming it's because there was no fan in the bathroom.
The room looked like this:
not terribly different than the photo, but a lot plainer than we expected. There was enough room for the air mattress (which we rolled up and put in a bag every morning).
Overall, it was ok for $60, but the elevator is definitely a problem. The mold in the bathroom didn't make me feel well. And the staff could have been a lot more friendly. Not put out if you asked a question. Breakfast looked great. If you were driving through and needed a quick place to stay, it was clean and safe. But I would not stay here again.
2 out of 5 stars.
As a local from Redding, I would recommend to never stay at one of the 1 star hotels. Most of them are fairly seedy (drugs, women). The 2 stars (apart from the Ramada Limited) are fairly decent and in more populated areas (near the mall and restaurants).
