Best Western Plus Holiday Sands Inn & Suites — Hotel in Norfolk

Booked a room, Tuesday - Friday. Needed the room Wednesday morning undisturbed for work. Was told upon check-in that they are swapping out the beds at 9 and will need in the room, told not asked. I'm scheduled to conduct an interview at 9 a.m., they took notes, but no one is willing to confirm that they will leave our room undisturbed during this window, no one is offering a quiet space where I can work since they need access to our room during my work hours. We even called ahead of time asking about a meeting room, which they don't have, and I feel that would have been the time to mention that they would need in the room Wednesday morning. In all reality if there is a window of time within your reservation that your room will not be yours to use, you should probably be notified before it's too late to cancel. Talked to the lady at check-in, tried to talk to lady at the desk in the morning a little after 6am, who told me to come back later when the manager was in, mind you this is during my tour of duty, so was told to come back later wasting more work time to try and see if I can be left alone in our paid room during 9a-1p. Called front desk at 730 and asked for the manager, started asking about the bed swapping situation but was met with silence so asked if she knew what I was talking about which sent her into a tirade of yes she knew, yes they need to get into the room(told not asked yet again), then went on to say the hotel was closed for 5 days in regard to this project, the whole hotel was getting new beds, etc. (not sure what the hotel being closed for 5 unrelated days had to do with them wanting to interrupt my current reservation), I let her finish her rant and said I have interviews to conduct and meetings to attend, if absolutely necessary they could have access from 1-2 when I would take a lunch break. She took notes, said they would try, and they would let me know if anything changed. Next thing I know, I'm getting a call on the hotel phone in the middle of one of my interviews, just after 10 am, thankfully my partner and niece were there and my niece was able to answer, only to convey to me it was the hotel demanding entry to our room to swap the beds. Niece told whoever on the phone her aunt was in an interview and that couldn't happen, they told her they needed in the room and seemed to be insisting so I excused myself from the interview and said loud enough for the person on the phone to hear, they said I could have the room from 10-1 and I wasn't notified of any changes, other than the demand that came at 10 for entry. Niece got off the phone and there was an immediate call back and apology as they hadn't "read the notes". 1 pm rolls around, no workers, no phone calls, we have to track someone down just to be told they weren't doing our room. Why all the hassle, and demand for entry, interrupting in a time window that we asked 3 different staff members to be respectful of if this was obviously an option all along. They never asked if they could access the room during our stay, it was simply demanded our room be available to others as early as 9 am until? No one said because communication isn't key here. We weren't offered another space to move to for me to work and watch our dogs. We were treated as the inconvenience for having reserved a room, not having crates for our dogs so it was safer for all the workers who needed in the room while we were in it, and because we needed for the time it was reserved and how dare we not have secondary accommodations sorted out! It's not like we hacked best western and accepted our own reservation, if it was closed or unavailable we could have easily booked a different hotel.

All that aside, floor was dirty upon arrival, broken plastic shards were wedged under one of the beds that we or our dogs could have been cut on. Ants in the bed. Pet fee is misadvertised online and verbally at check in, read the fine print before you sign. Will never stay Best...

In short: Make sure to reserve a room if possible to prevent from having to switch rooms during a long stay, and make sure you have data on your phone in case you're staying far away from the lobby. The breakfast was really good, there were lots of choices that changed every day. Amazing location, literally a minute walk from the beach. Perfect view of the water out the room windows. If you get cold easily, ask the front desk for blankets, because the rooms didn't have blankets on the beds, just sheets. Also, you have to tell them if you want housekeeping done. Apparently the signs on the door saying "please clean" or "do not disturb" don't really serve a purpose.

A longer, more detailed review: Best Western saved my husband and I's vacation. We were supposed to be staying in Motel 6 further down the road, but they were awful, so we found this place instead. We didn't have a reservation. They had a 2 queen bed room for us to stay in. The room was cute and clean, however one of the two beds was slanted, probably due to a broken board. We slept on the other bed and used that one for just holding our suitcase. The beds didn't have blankets, so we went to the front desk to ask for blankets and they were brought to us. I could have sworn I saw a cockroach on the wall during our last day there, but it could have been a fly. We were told we would have to move to a different room due to ours being booked for someone else, which we understood. However, we packed all our bags just to be told we could stay in the same room, and this happened twice. It was a little inconvenient having to take our toiletries in and out of our bags that many times, but it was okay. After the experience we had at Motel 6, we weren't going to complain a lot. The only big issue was the wifi. I was trying to keep in close contact with my family quite frequently due to the rough start we had to our vacation. I didn't have data on my phone so I really needed the wifi. It took forever to connect the first time, and then after connecting, it would stay on for about a minute and a half, and then would go out for about 5 or 10 minutes before connecting again (and then only working once again for about a minute and a half). This happened constantly. Unfortunately during our weeklong stay, there was nothing done about it even after telling someone twice. The first time, they told us "try forgetting the network and then reconnecting" which didn't work. The second time we told the front desk about the issue, my husband was told that no one else complained about the wifi, so it seemed like they didn't believe us. I think the people there got annoyed at us coming into the lobby constantly to get a better wifi connection, but we needed to anytime I needed to contact someone or get an Uber ride. The wifi only stayed connected for longer than a minute and a half when close to the lobby, and our room was pretty far away, so I think it was the distance that caused the issue. Lastly, we had the sign on our door that said "please clean" for three days straight so that housekeeping would come by when we were gone to empty trash, change towels and make the beds, however when we went to the desk to ask why they haven't cleaned it yet, they told us we had to request it and that the signs on the doors don't really matter, which was kind of strange to me.

Overall, we had an okay stay. If we reserve a room in the future and I make sure I have plenty of data on my phone in case we stay in a room far away from the lobby, we will definitely consider...

We stay at BW@OV Norfolk, VA, my husband/family is a Best Western Rewards member. My family and I stayed at BW@OV Norfolk, VA for 4 days. First, the location of this hotel is amazing. It is on the beach with great rises, sunsets, lots of wildlife, on the fourth the fireworks off 1st view were the best. This BW@OV is near all types of restaurants, a couple of grocery stores and near to shopping or sightseeing. Totally, a 5 out of 5. However, I rented a kitchenette suit with a sofa bed. Inside the sofa bed was dirty with grit, sand, etc. When I asked for a blanket, the office staff told me that the hotel was out of blankets. I would need to wait until someone who had a blanket checked out. Note: There are no blankets, extra sheets, or clean pillows in the room. The blankets did become available on the 3rd day, when I saw a blanket on a cart. The housekeeper gave the blanket to me when I made a request for it. So be sure to bring your own bedding supplies. Another issue was that the kitchenette did not have a kitchenette kit. The room has a small refrigerator, a stove, and a microwave, but the room was not equipped to use as a kitchenette. No plates, silver/plastic ware, no cooking utilities, containers, pots, or pans. The staff who checked us in did not explain that the kitchenette was not equip when I checked in. I went back to the office to inquire if maybe they forgot to offer the kitchenette kit to me. The office staff was very professional as they explained they had a limited amount of kitchenette kits, and they were all distributed. I later learned the BW OV kitchenette rooms had less than 50% availability for the kits. This fact alone is disconcerting since the management knows the number of rooms with kitchenettes and therefore, the number of kits that would be needed. I am very solutions focus so for less than $30 and a quick run to Dollar Tree I equipped my own kit. Ultimately, my family and I overcame these challenges. Despite these challenges, we enjoyed our stay. The pool is open from 10 AM to 10 PM. The deck/pool is located on the beach with the Chesapeake Bay a short walk up a nearby path. The morning breakfast is nice and offers a variety of items to choose from, including breakfast eggs, meats, pastries, waffles and, of course, coffee for us. The office staff, housekeeping and the janitors were delightfully friendly, helpful, and professional. I would say the positives outweigh the negatives as long as one is prepared to be solution focus and take care of what you may need. Also note, there are no roomrate adjustments for anything lacking. I hope you enjoy your stay at the beach if you decide to stay...