Red Lion Hotel Redding — Hotel in Redding

Updated Review 27 July 2022: Still won't change my rating, as this is still one of the last remaining great original hotels in the RLHC portfolio.

But . .. your corporate policy states: "RLHC Government Rate is valid for active-duty military personnel and government employees - federal-state-county and local governments." Given that, I am a government employee. I provided two forms of ID to demonstrate that fact. If your manager is going to arbitrarily change that definition, it needs to be clearly noted on the website.

Thing is, I have stayed here dozens of times. Never asked for the GR. Why did I do so this time? Simple. I was doing something related to my job and the rate was better. But I gladly paid, without complaint, the higher (by close to $100 . . . or more, given that my account doesn't note, at this point, that it is honoring my Hello Rewards points that I also used for this stay) rate because I like this hotel. I should also add that the front desk worker was great too. I just think you should honor what your policy states or state that you won't honor it . . . prior to a person arriving. It would also help if the manager on duty stepped up and explained the issue to the guest, rather than leaving that to the front desk staff.

You are surrounded by newer properties that offer as much or more value. Keeping that in mind means keeping long term guests happy. Just a series of observations.

Older Review: This remains one of the older RLHC properties that is still trying to attract and keep customers. These properties are easily identifiable by their look and layout (think: RL Kelso; RL Eureka; RL Jantzen Beach; the now shuttered [sadly] RL at the Quay in Vancouver, Wash.; RL Bellevue; RL Post Falls; the now shuttered [not so sadly] RL by the River in Spokane. They are very large properties, often offering large front desk/gathering areas, bars and restaurants, interior and exterior entrances for rooms, unique pool areas and plazas, and rooms that are generally bigger than newer hotels.

RL Redding is typical of this style. Yes, it is a bit worn around the edges. But it is, again, a massive property. Thing is, they are doing upgrades, esp. in the lobby, while business is down. Smart idea. The front desk staff are always friendly and prompt. Appreciated. They still offer coffee in-room (which is not the standard in a bizarre change that was adopted in a piecemeal fashion across other RLHC properties around the time they launched the laughable Hotel RL sub-brand and just before they acquired Vantage). Welcomed when you don't want to walk to the lobby. The rooms are typical too. Good toiletries. Comfortable beds. Basic features.

You can get a room for a bit south of $100. Thing is, given all they do and are trying to do, this is a RLHC property that deserves support. RLHC continues to tarnish their old reputation as a Northwest/West Coast leader in a rush to add low-tier brands (America's Best, GuestHouse, etc.) and adopt a 'property-light/franchise-fee-heavy' mentality. In contrast, RL Redding shows what used to be so good about RLHC . As a long-time customer, I appreciate that. Is it squeaky clean and sparkling? No. But you do get what you pay for...

First off, the service and check in was nice! Service was fast and friendly, we stayed here for 2 nights! However there are some noticeable cleaning, and maintenance issues with room 419, first off I usually don't prefer 1st floor rooms though this is subjective. What isn't though, is the sink bowl in the bathroom looks to have a coffee stain throw-out and was either not cleaned or just not cleaned properly, little residue can be wiped away from a finger. Noticing the bathroom there are wear marks al over the door that looks like time hasn't been nice to it, though the full length mirror is a nice touch. The granite counter wasn't wiped down right and still had little soak puddles when we got into the room. The tub seems to be clean enough with a nice little light inside, though the water coming out can be A LOT hotter! The nice point is that the curved shower rod that every hotel seems to keep breaking looks pretty solid here. Coming out of the bathroom, the closet is large and spacious but seems to be pretty abused by people sliding it in and out of its tracks multiple times and the results can be seen externally and when you operate it. Same can be said with the porch door in the back, really nice and big and open and comes with nice little furniture but looks to be out of its tracks, hard to open and maybe needs gallons of WD-40 to get it rolling again nicely... It has a light at least... Because of its spastic nature, it doesn't even lock! I tried rolling it in and out many times before just slamming it shut looking to never be opened again! Thanks goodness for central AC! Housekeeping also seemed to be an issue too as our room wasn't cleaned, and by wasn't clean i mean not even touched, it seems like we put up a do not disturb sign or something but no, they just never touched our room, bedsheets not tucked in, garbage not thrown away, towels not replaced muddy footprints still on the hardwood floor! Now I heard from one of the housekeepers is that there's so few to go around, some doing 3 wings! So I can understand if its COVID related issue, but honestly I thought they'd at least look at some rooms and try to clean and refresh the room somewhat, took 3 phone calls from our room to the front desk to resolve towels and garbage, but the mess remains... To end off on some nice notes the beds are really nice and a lot better than the holiday inn next door, and the directTV has a lot more channels than holiday inn, FS1 and 2 NBCSN and CBS sports network anyone? The pool is large and really deep at 8 feet though the hot tub is closed due to COVID-19... Overall it just turned a positive experience at this hotel into a somewhat...

I’ve stayed here many times the past couple of years. First off the good is we’ve always enjoyed the pool with our kiddos cause it’s super chill. We all know as parents we trying out weigh the bad when it comes to picking places to stay cause kids can be kids at times.

Now the bad everytime I come here something is wrong with the room. First time I came here my room wasn’t ready until 6pm, then after they stated our room was ready they gave us keys to someone’s room with all their belongings in it… mind you it was on the second floor and we already unloaded all our stuff.. well then after that they got us into a room finally and the air conditioning was stuck on all night. They had no other rooms and offered to refund us 50% (mind you is was during fire season) so no motels had any rooms available so we had to stick it out being that we were 3 hours from home.

Now on to the next time I came here was late at night around 1am and was with my mother. We got put in a room with the heater stuck on. I told my mom it shouldn’t be a big deal and then we woke up in around 3ish with the heater full blast broken. My mom told me she couldn’t breathe and we needed to get a new room. We tried to use the room phone and it wouldn’t work so we had to call on our personal phone. They sent someone to trying fix the heater 🤦🏽‍♀️ and he couldn’t fix it so they finally had to give us a new room.

Now the third and last time I’ll ever come to this motel…. We got our room there are cigarette butts all over right out side the door of our room as well as someone’s broken finger nail. We sent our teenage sons to go get the complimentary waters (front desk said we could get one per every person in the room for free) well she charged our room. Then when my sons returned to the room I tried to call the front desk and the phone in our room doesn’t work 🤦🏽‍♀️ so I called on my personal phone. The front desk argued with me about the $10 water charge that I was in the wrong even though she told my husband and me the waters were free one per every one in the room.

Anyways it is all the little things that add up that has finally been enough for me to not want to return ever again to this motel. Then the fact that they thought all I was owed was $25, this motel...