Riverfront Hotel, Surestay Collection By Best Western — Hotel in Richland

This was my worst experience in a hotel. Several reasons, there were several families in my group at this hotel. Pool was closed and we had not been told, even though we made sure there was a pool. We received several different reasons from employees as to why it was closed (the kids kept asking) one employee even said it was opened. Several rooms were filthy, sticky floors, hair in the showers and pee stained bath mats, cookie crumbs, candy sprinkles and even hair in the made up beds. Worst of all, black mold. Many things in bad repair- such as toilet paper holders loose so the paper falls off, toilets not bolted so they move when you sit, loose or broken tiles. Breakfast is provided but not very well. Meat tasted like freezer, everything running out before it being refilled. The wall outlet couldn't handle the waffle maker and toaster at the same time and shorted out. We discovered one person making the food alone on a griddle and in microwaves. This is a bit silly when they knew they had a large group that weekend. I understand that everyone is short staffed right now, but this hotel did not try. Knowing they had this large group, they left a new person to check us all in alone. He was very nice but also overwhelmed. When I checked in, I was put under my sister in laws name. She had been put in mine. And yes, he glanced at our IDs. It wouldn't matter because we had the same room type, but we later found out they charged her card for both rooms. This was reversed and we were assured it was corrected in the computer. When I checked out, her card was again charged instead of mine. It had to be reversed again and they had to reenter my card that they had apparently deleted. Monday my sister in law checked with her bank, had 2 holds on her card still While, I was checking in, I found out they had given my brother room cards that didn't work, then had redone them. They still didn't work and the device in the door had to be changed. They told him they'd bring up the new cards, but never did. He had come down looking for them after waiting an hour. Another family was locked out of their rooms for the night. See his review below. One family had a room so filthy they cleaned it themselves before staying in it. There was no housekeeping or maintenance. Then there was a family who came in later in the evening when a different staff was working. He told her the previously approved card wasn't working. Said it was coming up invalid card number even though it had been preapproved. After several attempts to resolve this, my sister in law (who had already been charged twice at this point) said to put it on hers. The other gal needed to get her kid fed and to sleep. We were all exhausted by then. After the employee being very disinterested in the situation except for comments like "that sucks", he became rude. As my sister in law tried to pay, he wandered off to help another customer. She, frustratedly asked why he wasn't finishing with us first- he accused her of having a meltdown. She explained that she was just trying to get our friend checked in and was trying to give him the card. He then decided to charge more for this person than the rest of use were paying at a supposed group rate. We ended up having to have my brother come complete the transaction due to the employee being rude and uncooperative. He was nicer to my brother but trying to accuse my sister in law of running off while he was helping us. During the wait on the card approval, he had another customer check in, asking about the handicap room. She had checked ahead of time and had been assured they had them. She had then been booked on the second floor. This same employee, told her "Well, your first mistake was you should have checked what floor we put you on" as if it hadn't been clear for them to put her downstairs when needing a handicap room! By the way, their "handicap" access rooms are up a steep ramp after going between cars to get to it. Not easily...

I was worried about staying at this motel after reading the previous bad reviews, but the conference I was attending was held here and I didn't want to be driving back and forth.

It certainly is in a lovely location. The room where the conference was held had a lovely view of the river, and on the way in to the motel the river view and green golf course, and sight of Canada Geese and goslings was wonderful and gave me hope.

However:

First, I really resent the fact that my credit card was charged for my stay before I even got there. As in a month ahead of time. I have never had a motel do this before and it makes me upset. Also, at check-in, I had to give them my credit card again in case I damaged anything. Never had this happen before, either.

I was tired, so after dinner (buffet provided for the speakers to which we were invited), I went straight to my room. I wanted to take a shower, but oops... the shower handle didn't work and I didn't want to take a bath. I called the front desk and they sent someone out right away who couldn't get it to work either. Fortunately, the adjoining room was empty, and I was told I could shower there, which I did. The bathrooms were both clean, and soap, shampoo, and lotion were provided. No complaints there.

But a couple of the lights didn't turn on, and the switch at the front door that should have worked hadn't been connected yet. And at 5:30 a.m. the next morning, I was awakened by extremely loud water pipes from another room where someone was showering.

I had asked for a ground floor room and was told at the front desk that my room (and my friend's, with whom I'd driven up) were ground level, when in fact we had to walk up a ramp in order to get to them (she has a handicapped sticker in her car and really needed a real ground floor room, but there were none to be had). . I asked specifically at the front desk if they were street level and we were told that they were. That's kinda like false advertising, or at the very least, a huge difference in definition of street level.

When I found out that my room was at some distance from hers, the woman at the front desk very kindly moved my room to be next to hers so I didn't have to walk so far to the car. Big plus.

The room was clean and the bed was comfortable. The people at the front desk were very friendly. But with all the other problems, I doubt I'd...

Where do I even begin? I can’t believe this place is still in business. First off, there were actual flies coming out of the bathroom sink. I immediately took a video and went to the front desk, completely baffled since I've never seen anything like that in my life. The woman at the front desk looked at the video and casually said, "Oh, the river flies?" Excuse me, did she just say RIVER FLIES? They then told me there was nothing they could do because I booked through Priceline and offered no solutions. So, I contacted Priceline myself to handle it.||||However, the hotel staff became upset with me for managing the issue on my own, as they clearly lacked both the capability and basic customer service skills to address it. After Priceline informed me there was nothing they could do at that moment, I requested to check out immediately. When I first arrived, I had been charged a mandatory $12/night fee without any explanation. During check-out, I asked for clarification and requested a refund since I wouldn’t be staying. The woman at the front desk said, "You booked online, you should have done your research," and then proceeded to ignore me.||||At one point another staff member kindly printed out my charges and was polite, but when I noticed a discrepancy between the statement and my card charges, I asked for clarification. The first woman started making rude comments like, "Are you done yet?" and "You can leave now." I was shocked, especially since I had been nothing but respectful while dealing with how disgusting their room was. Even after I asked questions about who owns the hotel and who the managers are, she continued with her attitude.||||I respectfully expressed that her comments were unnecessary and uncalled for, but she didn’t stop. I left the hotel and followed up the next day, only to receive the same treatment from a man on the phone. Eventually, Priceline resolved the issue and I got my refund. But, to top it all off, I was informed by Priceline that the hotel would like to let me know they are banning me from ever staying there again! I couldn’t help but laugh. After everything they put me through, they had the nerve to ban me—as if I’d ever want to go back!||||I’ve also attached photos of the flies as proof. Please, save your money and...