Riverboat Inn & Suites — Hotel in Madison

My boyfriend and I reserved a room at the Riverboat Inn & Suites June 19th - 20th, 2020. We ended up in room 101. We needed a hotel that would take a larger dog. The fee for our dog was $40 for up to 3 nights which wasn’t bad since we were staying 2 nights. When we arrived we were told we had to have a kennel with us but when we booked the room it was never mentioned and it is not on the website. Luckily they let it go.

We checked in about 2:15pm and were taken to our room right away. When we got there, the lady that showed us the room had to adjust some plugs so everything could be plugged into the outlet (TV, fireplace, and mini fridge). When she plugged in the TV it had static but she changed the channel and the static went away. She was frantic and seemed unprepared. After she left we noticed the room was very damp like they had just turned on the A/C. We unpacked some things and left to take a walk around town. When we came back before dinner to change, we noticed the picture frame above the bed was badly warped from the moisture. It smelled very musty in the room, like a basement. The moisture was so high in the room even the plastic veneer on the bathroom cabinet was almost completely peeled off and just barely hanging on. The door to the room was not sealed so you could see light under the door and halfway up the right side. This was also a door to the outside so there were plenty of creepy crawlies to keep us company including spiders, flies, and crickets. The floor was absolutely filthy. We had to wear our shoes in the room it was so bad. We wiped a napkin on the floor and it was black. We decided to watch some TV and realized that once you get above channel 20 the rest were very staticky. We decided to stay that night because we wanted to enjoy at least one full day in Madison but definitely couldn’t stay the second night. We got up about 7am to take a shower. Before I got in the shower, I could see the grout was falling of the wall in spots and there were spots of mold above the shower tile.

We understand this is an older building and we were not expecting the Taj Mahal but the room definitely should’ve been cleaned and maintenanced. This room cost us $140/night with the pet fee for two nights. That is WAY too expensive for this room even if the problems were fixed. As you can see from the pictures half of the room is cinder block walls (like jail cell from what I have seen on TV). When we checked out the lady asked if we enjoyed our stay. I told her we were actually checking out a day early and described the condition of the room. She was very apologetic and left a note for the owner. She ensured me the owner would be calling to discuss the problems and a refund. This was all on Saturday the 20th.

Apparently the owner was not concerned. My boyfriend called and spoke with her Sunday evening and was told the she was going to charge us a $25 cancellation fee for my Sunday stay but refund the rest. She didn’t say anything about our complaints. We spent $275.20 for the two nights and she refunded us $92.60 for Sunday.

I cannot fathom how this establishment is highly rated. I would highly recommend anyone considering a stay here to take your money elsewhere. If you have a larger dog try the Bestway Inn. If you read some of the other complaints you can tell the owner doesn’t care if you have a problem. I would also add that they say they have changed their breakfast because of COVID 19. This isn’t true. We found a review from over a year ago that said their breakfast is just frozen Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches in a bowl of ice, orange juice and coffee. That is also what it is currently.

My only thought is they took three old, run down rooms and decided to charge a premium for them if...

I have been staying at the Riverboat several times a year for the past 14 years and have probably stayed in each room multiple times. It has always been a relaxing time but my last stay in June was not as comfortable as usual.

The upgrades that have been done look very nice, and I appreciate that the quirkiness of the hotel has remained (i.e. the whole thing hasn't been painted gray, black, and white). But it was disappointing that the refrigerators had been removed from the room, as well as the complimentary glass of wine with check in. On top of the increase in rates and surcharges, it was unwelcoming.

Also, it was an incredibly hot weekend, and I was looking forward to spending some time in the pool, but it was out of commission (understandable) yet no one bothered to notify guests prior to check in (not a huge deal, but definitely something the prior owners have done).

The worst part, however, is that the quiet inn was completely overrun with folks that were not guests. In the past, that was the case on weekends when there were bands, but it was fairly contained. The weekend we were there, we struggled to find parking and seating on the patio.

Finally, I have held off on writing this review to give management time to make amends** but it is clear at this point that they have chosen not to. I had a gift certificate that they refused to honor until they had verification from the prior owners. I have attempted to follow up and resolve this, but have yet to receive any closure on the matter. I understand not wanting to be scammed, but it is humiliating to be accused of trying to defraud an establishment that I have felt at home at for so many years (the gift certificate didn't even cover the price of our stay).

I am glad that the Riverboat is being taken care of and will be around for many more years, but it's sad that "progress" feels so impersonal.

ETA following their response** I checked out June 3 and was told the owner would be following up with me about the gift certificate issue. I waited until June 16 to hear from them until reaching out myself. Since then, I have had to follow up 3 times after waiting for a follow up. The last time was on September 6 and as of writing this review they had not responded...

Rooms are very small, dirty and moldy in the pilot house. The staff sprays a ton of air freshener in rooms to hide the damp smell. Shower and bathroom were full of mismatched loose tiles. Plumbing issues the whole stay in 2 of our rooms. Plumbing and another issue were asked to be taken care of multiple times. They left a plunger and offered no assistance beyond that. If you showered, water stood over feet and didn't drain. The toilet and sink wouldn't drain. Staff were not concerned at all. Bathroom door did not shut. Parking is minimal. Evening crowds on weekends come in for live music and are drunk and loud until midnight. Upon check in the owner had given one of our 3 rooms to someone else (when bookingthey give the room number) . Then commented about where did we plan to have everyone sleep and did we bring sleeping bags. She asked multiple times why we had kids with us. I told her when I booked the room and spoke to her I told her we had kids. They moved the people from the 2 bed room we had booked but never offered to clean the room. One bed was taped in all 4 corners of the frame to keep it together. The pillows smelled disgusting of sweat and body odor. Holes in the ceiling. There was something all over the inside of the room door and that had mold growing on it. There was dirt in corners. Bathrooms in 2 rooms had 2 of the 3 bulbs unscrewed. When twisted on you could see that it was even grosser than we thought. Beds did not have box springs in 2 rooms. One of our rooms had the smoke detector and over head light taped to the ceiling with clear tape. Housekeeping was beating on doors at 830am to drop off clean towels. That was the extent of cleaning done. There were liquor bottles in the grass the whole time we were there. I would not recommend this hotel to anyone. We try to stay at local owned hotels but would never support this one again. This place needs a really deep clean and lots of...