Best Western Plus Newark/Christiana Inn — Hotel in Brookside

We are a travel ice hockey team and decided to stay at this hotel as a team. We booked 12 rooms and they don't offer a group rate. Fine, but when we arrived the young lady at the desk advised us that there is a $150 hold on top of the room rate which wat $155. Again, fine. I was annoyed I hadn't been advised this when booking but she told me I would be refunded and I was okay with that. Our players range from 10-12 years old along with family members and siblings joined us. We booked the hotel because it has an indoor pool for the kids to play. A few minutes into swimming we were advised we needed a Reservation to swim. Confused as we all booked a room, one of our party members tried to talk with the lady from the desk. She told us if we didn't get out of the pool she would call the cops. Which she had already done. She told us that only 6 people are allowed in the pool area at a time and a reservation to use the pool needed to be added at the front desk. When we questioned why she stated it was their policy and is posted on their website (which is was not!) We decided to obey her rule. As soon as we exited the pool a larger group of at least 13 people joined the pool from another group. When we questioned this she stated 6 people signed up it doesn't matter the size of the group, and that they were signed up for that time slot... very annoying to have to schedule a time to swim at a pool at a hotel we reserved 12 rooms at. On to the rooms. My room had a shower that constantly dripped to almost a slow run. While showering a cockroach climbed into the shower! We had another group members toilet in which was inoperable. The maintenence guy was drunk and drinking on the job. There is definitely long term residents in this hotel. Breakfast was included and not terrible considering. But after the cockroach incident, I was worried about eating anything not prepackaged. I most definitely will not be staying at a best western again. This is unfortunate, because we travel almost every weekend for 7 months out of the year for Hockey. They rates are cheap, but I guess that's what you get for the price. On the plus side it looks like the hotel is refunding me the extra $150 I paid, but only after charging $305 and $155. They are refunding me $305. I think if their customer service was better and information was provided while booking it could have helped many of our issues. However, the cleanliness and rooms issues would still be there. I recommend spending the extra and booking a...

Here’s a polished and professional rewrite of your review while keeping the same tone and key points:||⸻||I have been staying at this location over six times a year for the past four years, often booking up to six rooms at once for family visits while my son is in school. However, this was by far the worst experience I’ve had.||First, my reservation was for just one night, and I checked in at 8:30 PM—not the standard 3 PM check-in time. Despite having prepaid through a third party, I was initially told that my payment hadn’t gone through. It was only after some back-and-forth that the issue was acknowledged as a system error on the hotel’s end. Then, when scanning my card for the deposit, I encountered yet another issue.||I also paid for my dog to stay, but when I briefly stepped out to pick up food, I was reprimanded in front of my family for leaving him unattended. I understand pet policies, but my dog was barking—which, naturally, dogs do. When I returned to my room, I didn’t even hear him barking. I was gone for a short time, just to grab food across the street, as the hotel doesn’t offer any dining options.||On top of all that, the room I was given had a strong odor and was an outdated handicap-accessible room, which I hadn’t requested. Despite all these issues, I didn’t even complain about that.||Overall, this was a disappointing experience, especially considering my long-standing loyalty to this hotel. I currently have four rooms booked for May, but after this stay, I am seriously reconsidering...

Do not stay here! The owner is racist. The front desk staff is incompetent, snarky, and ghetto. Specifically Lynn, who felt it was appropriate to “threaten” a pregnant woman. The manager is just as incompetent, refuses to return phone calls & is full of excuses. No one can explain why the owner thought it was appropriate to threaten to call the police on a group of women and children rather than attempt to have a conversation and gain clarity. At one point Lynn called her manager and I oveheard her as she said “We are fully booked.. He ( the owner ) doesn’t care how they feel” (shows how they feel about customers). No one can explain why my address was mysteriously changed in my booking. No one can explain why I was charged for a full night’s stay even though I left less than 1 hour after arriving ( I had to call the police on the animals working there just to leave safely ). Lynn refused to provided me with documentation stating that I left the same day. I will say there was a nice maintenance man that I met while in the lobby. He saw the exchange and let me know that the owner is always nasty to guests and tells him to call the police on people who enter the pool without wrist bands lol. Funny, I saw several Caucasian guests exit the pool without wrist bands who were not questioned or harassed.If you care for your safety and sanity. Book...