Best Western Riverside Inn — Hotel in Macon

The three requisites any hotel must have are clean rooms and beds, hot showers and strong customer service. At this Best Western you get one of three. Simply put, the beds are clean but the shower ran out of hot water leaving 3 people without a hot shower in the morning. Upon addressing with Dia at the front desk, the playscript was the offer to move rooms to a new shower. This normally a reasonable solution but one that wasn’t going to work for us as we were already dressed & ready to walk out the door. I was at the front desk to simply point out the problem. No apologies offered. No empathy. Just a dissertation on the infrastructure and problems of a 50 year-old building. Which actually kinda explains why you should not stay here. The art of customer service is absolutely lost on Dia, who somehow made the problem much worse from a service standpoint with her indifference and insistence on projecting the problems of an old building onto the customer, who really doesn’t care about the failings of the building. Absolute hotel stay fail.

THE OWNERS COMMENT IN RESPONSE perfectly sums up the service experience you will get here and the hotel's commitment to blaming customers for the problems they experience. The old "sorry not sorry." Blaming me for not carrying a key just because you say "it is common practice for customers to..." and therefore implying the fault is on my part for not being able to exit your courtyard because I didn't follow YOUR common practice? Really? Let's ignore the fact that there is no signage whatsoever to denote that all courtyard doors are locked. And I didn't think I needed a key just to make it to your lobby. Far easier to blame the customer and blame the building instead of taking accountability for fixing your customer issues. Let's also ignore the fact that you just addressed an issue not raised in the original complaint. Why? Maybe to try and reinforce the case of your perceived lack of fault for the original issue by trying to make your customer look stupid? We all see right through that. Fast Travel Tip: Whenever the staff (Dia) is immediately eager to offer the owner's contact info as the escalation resolution, you know exactly where they are getting their poor service...

The room accommodations are nice there is a pool that is closed, a fitness center and laundry which is nice and convenient. My only complaint is about some staff members. The afternoon shift lady is very nice and professional. The morning staff how ever leave much to be expected. The Indian non-gentleman who cleans the room leaves much to be expected. My contact with him was very unpleasant. He is rude. Kicked me out of a room that was paid for, the next day. I had a late check-out that was not communicated to him. I was told to put a do not disturb sign on the door. He barged in the room without knocking demanding very rudely to give him towels. When I closed the door to gather them and brought them to the door he walked off and ignored me when I tried to give them to him. Then went to the office and lied and said I stole the towels. I dropped them outside the door since he pretended not to hear me. When I called to tell the front desk the light skin woman at the front desk caught an attitude with me. When I spoke to her in person she had her lips twisted with a smirk and said the manager ain't gonna do nothing and he won't care. And she appeared very annoyed with me. I apologise for giving you my business. I'm not racist but Indian ran establishment places such as these all of them they don't appreciate or value business because if you are darker than the your probably just another undesirable that they are used to mistreating in their own country. So if you check out before check out time and don't have the misfortune of dealing with the morning staff then you most likely will enjoy your stay. I only left the review because I was told it would be pointless of even complaining to the manager because he won't care. Maybe if you are light enough he might care. Thanks for the nice accommodations no thank you to the morning staff. They get away with bring rude because we allow them in our country to get rich off of us and mistreat us at...

Do not make a reservation at this hotel. The room was unsatisfactory and they refused to refund the charge. I checked in on Friday 8/11 around 6pm in town for my nephew's baptism. The air conditioning was not on in the hotel lobby and the carpets were dingy. A man and his son were complaining about the mattress and an employ went to go inspect it. I went to my room on the second floor. A spot on the wall was painted in a different color, as if to cover up a hole. The hotel was not maintained and I didn't feel comfortable. I went to the front desk, explained the room was not satisfactory, and returned the keys. I then called American Express (I booked the room prepaid through American Express Travel) to report the room was unsatisfactory and I found a different hotel (there are many nice hotels in Macon). AMEX disputed the charge but the hotel refused to remove it. I spoke with hotel employee Alicia on 10/3. She was kind but explained they have no documentation of me checking in, complaining, and checking out. I was told to call the hotel manager Bonita Whitaker the next day between 9-3. I called on 10/4 at 2pm but hotel employee Keisha said Bonita had left work for the day. On 10/5 I spoke with Bonita. She said she had no documentation of me checking in, complaining, and checking out, and she was defensive. I requested her to remove the charge and she refused. I submitted another dispute with AMEX and I contacted the Best Western corporate offices. I then got so tired of fighting (I have been pregnant during all of this) so I put it down. 5 months later it is still not resolved. I have some time over the holiday and I hope to resolve it before the baby comes. My advice: do not book this hotel. It is poorly maintained and poorly managed, and you will waste a lot of...