Rodeway Inn Gadsden - Attalla — Hotel in Gadsden

This is obviously an old establishment and quite frankly not worthy of being included in the Choice Hotels family. The decor is not only outdated but incredibly, laughably, mismatched but this is a very low budget motel. Based on other stays, very recently in May of this year, this motel is not at all on the level of what I have come to expect. In reading reviews, it's disturbing that most Choice Hotels appear to use a generic response that reads word for word the same for most comments so I don't expect to actually receive any legitimate response to these concerns. Therefore I must say to anyone reading reviews, caveat emptor. This room appeared to be relatively clean at first glance, but when you begin really inspecting areas, the lack of any real cleaning is obvious. When you look into the corners so to speak, they are full of dirt and dust. We decided not to use the shower after such inspection. The owners choose to leave the air conditioning off at all times and just inform you when checking in to go ahead and go to the room to do this yourself. This may be understandable as it's a low cost motel but when we discovered the refrigerator was turned to the lowest setting and therefore didn't cool our measly bottled water for hours it became an issue. For some reason, even though an outlet is available right with the refrigerator, the microwave is located in the bathroom! What reasoning makes this acceptable to the owners is inconceivable. There is no coffee maker in the room and no coffee available until the morning. The continental breakfast is truly pitiful even at the budget price. It consisted of a jug of Sunny D you retrieved yourself from a somewhat warm fridge, coffee, a basket of snack cakes and not even a named brand such as Little Debby but from a discount grocery store with two options...small honey buns and oatmeal cream cakes...for breakfast??? There was a toaster and stale bread with jelly, no bagels, cream cheese, no pastries, no fruit, no yogurt, no hardboiled eggs, nothing you would expect for an even halfway decent continental breakfast. There was cereal, corn flakes and what may have been Cheerios but I doubt it was the actual brand, and warm milk that again, you retrieved yourself from the fridge. I wasn't expecting a huge spread but my goodness, cheap is an understatement. Another negative was the lack of knowledge on behalf of the check in staff. I was informed upon reserving the room that my credit card would only be used to hold the room and that I could actually pay for the room with a debit card upon check in but when I arrived I was told the room had been charged in full to my credit card. I was then told that I had been "ripped off" by going through the Choice Hotels reservation dept. since if I had called the motel directly I would have gotten the room for substantially less. I thought this was horribly inappropriate for a Choice site to say to a customer! Then upon having to seek assistance from the front desk when my key cards would not work, I was asked if I wanted to use the credit card on file to pay for the room. I told the man, I think may have been the owner, what I had been told upon check in and he said that the person was wrong and that it had not been paid. I am still unsure of if I may have been charged twice for the room. One of the biggest negatives about this room was the horribly uncomfortable beds. The pillows are ridiculously overstuffed and unusable. The mattress was literally like sleeping on bricks but with the springs painfully obvious. I have had several back surgeries so I don't expect comfort from a budget room but this was utterly ridiculous. My traveling companion used her clothing to try and pad the bed! Oddly enough, there was no clock radio in the room so thank goodness we had our phones to use as alarms. There were two tiny packets of shampoo had we decided to use the bath. There is no facial tissue in the room and there was one half used roll of toilet paper. There were two towels and washcloths but no bath mat. There were a few positive notes. The free wi-fi worked with no issues. The room was quiet. We had a smoking room and there were burns all over almost every surface from the sink, to the tub, to the edges of the bedside table yet there was not an overwhelming smoke smell at all. The air conditioning did function properly once the room was cooled off and so did the fridge after we adjusted the temperature. An ice machine is conveniently located just off the office. The young lady who gave me dubious check in information proved to be quite helpful later in directing us to restaurants in the area as we only saw fast food around the property and wouldn't have found the better choices up the road a few miles without her help. While I was irritated with the conflicting information regarding my credit card, both staff members I dealt with were very courteous and friendly. Despite other reviews, we found the lot well lit and did not feel unsafe at all. If coming from one direction you do have to go up a ways and backtrack due to a divided highway but the property was easy to find and to access. While the parking lot was quite full upon arrival, we were able to park within an acceptable distance to our room. I will warn any other disable drivers however that there is a lack of...

Absolutely poor experience and not only will I never stay at this location again, I refuse to stay at ANY Choice Hotels location.

Basically we reserved the room based on rate, location, and positive reviews. We knew we weren't getting anything fancy but we needed somewhere to sleep close to the state parks we would be hiking for the weekend. Check-in was easy, the manager was who helped me. At the time of check-in, I was charged for the full two nights we had reserved.

Arrived in the room and was pretty unhappy with it but again, it was somewhere to sleep and we wouldn't be hanging out there otherwise.

Sat morning we got up early and left for our hiking trip. We returned to the hotel at 4:40 pm (per my Life360 app) to find 4 cop cars in front. My husband spoke to one and learned that a very significant crime had been reported just moments before we returned. Due to the severity of the crime, we decided we should probably find somewhere else to stay. The accused were still on the run and we had our young daughter with us.

I went to the front office to speak with staff about checking out early. Honestly I didn't expect a refund at that time or any kind of compensation because they were busy with the police. One employee told me to leave, that it wasn't safe. A cop followed me as I walked away and informed me to leave and never return, that it is a very unsafe place. We emptied our room of our belongings and my husband went to the front office to return our room key. The manager told him that he was unable to refund us any portion of our stay because we had already paid for it in full (prepaid). We just wanted to get out of there. We left about 10 minutes after arriving.

We drove about 45 minutes up the road and found another place to stay, paid nearly the same for 1 night as did for 2 nights at the first place but it was worth the piece of mind.

Crimes can occur anywhere and we do not hold the motel responsible for that in any shape or form. What we are absolutely disgusted with is when we called later in the evening to discuss a refund for the night we didn't stay, we were only offered half because we left so late. The manager insisted that we didnt leave until after 6 but it was actually 4:53pm and at the recommendation of not only 2 separate cops but also one of his employees.

I spoke with Choice Hotels, two separate reps including a manager, and they told me that refunds are at the discretion of the hotel itself. The motel was not at capacity and if they had offered maid service, the room would have already been cleaned when we left. It is apparent cleanliness is not a priority for this facility. I'm certain that our leaving before 5 pm had zero bearing on their ability to re-rent that room for the night. There was hardly anyone there and the four cops perched out front probably scared off anyone randomly...

My stomach started sinking as soon as we spotted Rodeway Inn down the street. It was a small, dismal looking, groungy place, and I could tell I wasn't the only one thinking 'oh no' as I exchanged looks with my companions as we pulled in. But... the reservation had already been made, the price was right, and we were tired.||||Incense filled our noses as we stepped into the meager lobby to check in. Sadly, there was no complimentary coffee of most motels. The clerk was friendly enough, and we parked outside our designated room. I was the first one in, carrying a small load, and I didn't take two steps before this awful, indescribable, but disgusting scent hit me like a muggy wall, and I stopped in my tracks with a grimace. I couldn't take another step. Retreating to fresher air, I informed my companions, and we returned to the front and were provided politely, but without apology, with another first floor room. This one smelled of old cigarette smoke.|| ||Since second story was out of the question for our needs, we reluctantly took it as the only other room available, smothered the place in room freshener, unloaded, and gingerly sat on stained quilts to eat our fast-growing cool supper. ||||Stains of anonymous yellow and grungy black marred the lower walls and ceiling. A dismantled smoke detector decorated the room with bright orange cords hanging in twirls. Smudged and dusty floors prevented us from walking bare. Really, though, it was the three beetles - one dead and trapped in the vent of the AC, the other two crawling up the walls - that prevented us from finishing our meals. The brave male in our small company took away the beetles, and we sat huddled on our beds, the muffled TV playing as we tried to forget.||||I could list another dozen grievances including stained, musty towels, too-short raggedy curtains, and soap that spawned acne, but instead, I will only conclude that the continental breakfast was meager even by motel standards and we left, poorly rested and unhappy, with only an apple.||||Needless to say, I would sooner sleep in my car than pay a dollar to stay there ever again, and I have no doubt this is the motel I will shudder about before ever vbooking...