Red Roof Inn Columbia East - Ft Jackson — Hotel in Columbia

There are quite a few opinions on this location, but I'll give you an honest review.

We are currently homeless and needed somewhere to call "home" for a week. I booked the reservation online with no issue for a week for an accessible room. I'm 100% disabled with low mobility and vision issues. My husband is my full-time caretaker. We also have my ESA, who is now a senior dog with us.

This hotel has no pet fee, no deposit, which was great considering we have very little money to work with. The room I booked was an ADA accessible one.

Check-in is at 3pm, no exceptions. We arrived and waited until 3, but we were informed that the room we had booked was not yet clean, inspected, and available. The front desk clerk was very friendly, but I can't remember her name. I'll update with it if I see her again. She even asked her housekeeper to rush the room, but there's only one housekeeper per the building the lobby is attached to and two per the other one. Both buildings are two-story with stairs. No elevator.

Some sort of computer issue caused a problem at check-in, but we honestly just needed a room on the first floor. The ADA accessible part just ensures the room is on the first floor. (Please dont book ADA accessible rooms for that reason! Call ahead and make a reservation instead!) I can be helped into a normal shower/tub combo. It just takes going slow and extra effort from my caretaker. What I can't take are stairs.

The hotel is tucked away and ppast a Motel 6. It looks outdated from the outside, and the sign itself could use some attention (it currently reads "Red Roo Inn" at night). While we sat in our car and waited on check-in, there was a small amount of foot traffic, but no one bothered us or looked in our car as if they were trying to find something to take. Everyone kept to themselves while we talked and listened to music.

Inside the room we were able to get booked into it's on the smaller side of rooms I've ever been in, but we also booked a king room (which was originally the size of the ADA accessible room's bed). The room size doesn't matter. It's functional and works for us and has enough room to be comfortable and workable. Despite the room being non-smoking and posted for it, there was a faint, older smell of cigarettes, but a little air spray we had took satisfactory care of it (coming from a severe asthmatic). That isn't on the hotel. It's on the person or people who stayed here and didn't follow rules.

Our room has a 42-inch flat screen TV (bigger than the Extended Stay nearby, which is more expensive), and the picture quality is nice, plus with an HDMI port, you can use a laptop or gaming console with it if you have it or wanted to. Sound doesn't travel much between the rooms. The only sound we heard at all was our neighbor's door closing or people talking directly outside the window. No one around us is loud or disrespectful (much more than I can say for the Extended Stay nearer to the fort that I also reviewed).

You have AC and a bar on the wall above the door for heat with its own temperature control. Don't touch the bar if it's on! It gets incredibly hot, and I have no depth perception. I have blisters forming on my index and middle finger due to this accident. This is your source of heat.

The people nearest to us are very nice, greeted us when we arrived just because he was outside, but he was never intrusive or looking at our things. He spoke and went about his way, even when my sweetheart startled him by walking out of the door right when he was just about to walk by. We all had a laugh about it, and he carried on.

It is to note (which we don't care about, but you might) that we were only one of two Caucasian-looking (I'm half Filipino, my husband is part Italian) families we saw while here, BUT that doesn't mean there were not more here OR to say this makes this place AT ALL unsafe. We felt 100% safer here than we did at the Extended Stay and other more expensive hotels we've stayed in all around the Columbia and West Columbia area over the past two years of...

This is perhaps the WORST Red Roof in the country. I have stayed in literally dozens of RR Inns as I travel with a dog and this was one of the poorest and unsettling experiences I've had. Made a reservation as it was convenient to several restaurants - and I expected nothing more that a standard experience. When I arrived, I found the location, behind another business and kind of hidden did not appear to be secure at all. The very inattentive clerk did not greet me, she just said "wait." And that is what I did, for about five minutes as she checked some kind of list with her lips moving silently while she read whatever it was. Meanwhile, one of her "girl friends" dressed VERY inappropriately (and this coming from a liberal) literally was snorting into her phone seated across from the desk. When the clerk finally finished her list, she processed my reservation. She still had not even said hello or welcome to Red Roof. Just "NAME." "ID, CREDIT CARD" then type type type. Only question she asked were how many keys. I took them and left silently. Now to the room. King size bed with springs literally coming out of the mattress. Three tiny pillows. Tiny bath towels that were more sandpaper than cotton. No toilet paper on the holder (luckily a wrapped roll on the toilet). Paint splatters everywhere. Stains on the floor. But all this said, room was reasonably clean. AC unit made lots of noise, door did not close correctly but did lock. We brought minimal luggage to the room. As it got dark, lots of sketchy stuff going on outside. I went to the office to ask for a pillow. Same clerk, but she is now hanging out with three more of her friends. I asked and was told "NO, we ain't got none and housekeeping won't be here until tomorrow - you can get one then." Um, probably 80% of the rooms in the hotel were empty and could have taken one from there but that would mean getting UP from your chair. When I took the dog for a final walk, there was a couple screaming at each other in the next building, there were a couple cars driving through the parking lot and not parking and a few people just milling around. Luckily, our car was parked directly outside our door and alarmed. We left quickly the next morning. As someone that is licensed to carry a gun, I would not feel safe staying there again. Drive to the next...

As someone who travels occasionally with a larger dog, I'm limited to what hotels I am able to use. The only chain I know of that allows my 70-lb black lab to stay at every location is Red Roof Inn. The room amenities and pricing are not the issue I have with Red Roof Inns. Neither is the front desk staff. In almost all my stays, I'm usually struck by HOW POORLY the rooms are cleaned and maintained. Case in point is the Red Roof Inn Columbia East. I entered my room and discovered that the 'wood' floor was 'movie theater sticky'. Also there was a splatter of white liquid that had dried on the television set. I can't imagine that anyone coming in to clean the room could have missed these two issues. Because of a problem with the room locks on our side of the building (apparently I wasn't the only patron who was locked out of their room after using the key once) I was upgraded to a remodeled room on the front of the main building. The room wasn't sticky (and no dried liquid on the TV), but the AC / heater had a broken plastic cover that hung off on one side, and initially the unit didn't work at all (I discovered that the GFI had tripped on the plug and was able to reset it). Again, items that any half-hearted attempt at cleaning of the room should have identified for repair. ||||On the bright side, the front desk staff was very considerate, and even held onto the dog dish I had left in the room until I passed through Columbia on my way home two weeks later. They are responsible for probably the second and third star...