Best Western Plus Galveston Suites — Hotel in Galveston

We went to Galveston for my daughters 5th birthday, as she wanted to go to the beach. I chose Best Western because I've stayed at them several times before on our annual trips to Disney in Florida.

This Best Western, however, did not hit the marks that I expect from a moderate quality hotel.

We booked a room in advance of our stay, and I booked a king-size suite, with a view of the Gulf.

Upon arrival, checking in was standard, however, I was told that the floor we were on had significant activity as they were in the process of renovating rooms... Guys, it's the beginning of summer.. at the beach. Why are you doing remodels during peak season?

This should've been my first red flag to get my money back.

The second, we were offered another room on another floor - we took it, although, it was a 2 queen room. We got into the room, and the AC was broken. 80° in a room that was set for 65. We told the front desk and went out to eat - they told us maintenance would be on it right away. We came back 3 hours later, and I asked if maintenance had checked the room out. I was told, "I dunno, why don't you go look?" ... Uh, excuse me? What type of customer service is this?

We went up to the room, and surprise! It was never looked at, and in fact, it got HOTTER.

To top it off, my five year old turned on the water to wash her hands, and was scalded by the temperature the water was. I thought she was kidding when she said it was hot, but no! If I kept my hands under that sink, I'd have 3rd degree burns because of how hot it was. That should've been my third sign to just get my money back on this hotel room and go to another hotel chain, like Holiday Inn!

I called back down to the room, told them that the room got hotter. We came down, they gave us another room. This room, was all the way in the corner, on the first floor, behind the pool & pool shed. There was no view to be had, unless I wanted to see people doing bellyflops into the pool.

These pictures are just what I saw in this room in terms of how this room looked - the railing on the balcony was pieced together by a wooden board. The floors were all scratched up, and the shower handle to get in was falling apart.

Needless to say, I don't think I'll rebook at this hotel, and I'm not sure if I'll book at a Best Western hotel in the...

Prepare for an underwhelming welcome at the front desk, and that's of someone's there to greet you at all. I saw a family wait several minutes for the receptionist to finally come to the window during my 2 trips from the car to room to bring up my luggage. However, the receptionist did automatically offer me a double queen room on a higher floor since the only king rooms left were on the 1st floor. I appreciated that. And, I had several super friendly conversations with the housekeeping staff in passing.

The rooms are quite spacious and, with the exception of the bathroom, clean both in scent and appearance. Now for the gotcha: I would call the bathroom sanitized at best. I've attached pics of the hairs in the shower and on the sink, the dirty toilet, and dirt in the sink. There was no towel to use as a floor mat, so I had to used a hand towel. And, dead bugs are very visible in the light shade. I've stayed here 3 times over the past 4 years and the bathroom was always clean. I'm not sure what happened this go-round.

On to the wonderful... I'll stay here again because the balconies allow you to sit almost right on top of the Gulf (there are 2 metal chairs on each balcony, but I bring my own for comfort). The sea gulls put on an up-close air show every morning. The sound of the waves after the daytime traffic dies down is the same as if you sit beach side (the traffic on this end is far lighter than as you go east). There's a pier about a 5-minute walk away with a grocery store, restaurant, souvenirs, and fishing gear. The TV has plenty of channels, the parking area is well-lit and free, there's a coin-operated laundry room, and I feel safe when I'm here.

If everything needs to be perfect, this might not be your place. But, if you can overlook a few menial things for the amazing bigger picture and make it work, you might become a...

We stayed on 8/20/21. Front desk was lacking in confidence and short with us as we tried to check in under my sons credit card. Very easily flustered. He seemed to have regained his composure and offered us a business card for a taxi so we could leave our car there for our cruise. We didn't end up leaving our car there and paid the 122 for express cruise parking. The lobby, pool area, front area and breakfast area were all nice and clean. The elevators are slow and ancient maybe. Not air conditioned so humid and hot inside them. We didn't spend a lot of time in the rooms. We paid extra for 2 balcony rooms. Upwards of $300 for each room for 1 night and did NOT get anything close to a balcony room. It honestly didn't look like they have any true balcony rooms, although it does overlook Stewart Beach in the distance across the street and across the expanse of the beach where an RV park is located. Let me reiterate, a balcony rooms has an area which you can step out onto outside of the room. They do not have these here but you pay extra for it. Absolutely false advertising, they do not have this so dont pay extra for it. You can see the beach from the window. The bathroom was not properly cleaned 3rd or 2nd floor rooms, we had 2 rooms. Found hair and a dirty sink. The hot water took forever to start coming out for a shower so much that I called down to find out if there was a trick to getting hot water out of the faucet. Breakfast was really good. Absolutely no complaints. The attendant was very friendly. Would stay here again, but the hotel isn't worth the amount we...