Red Roof Inn San Antonio - SeaWorld/Northwest — Hotel in San Antonio

Don't take a star rating as anything less than 5 was "bad" because I'm just being honest. It's a decent room with a bed. Flat screen TV, basic Time Warner cable, spring mattress that isn't terrible, Wi-Fi that chugs at times but works, mini fridge and small microwave that do their job, clean as you should expect for their average price.

Getting detailed now..

Cleanliness. Don't expect the nooks of the bed frame to not have a stray fuzz or fair. A random bug may roam in from the generally bug filled San Antonio eco-system. Short of spots of rust rust on the vents, and wrinkled sheets, cleanliness is as desired for me. Stay somewhere else if waterspots make you itch.

Safety. Dim parking lots surround the hotel, first floor is exterior entrance only. Upper floors are interior access. Bright stores nearby and highschool surrounding seems potential to deter dangerous activity. Neighborhood seems mostly business, not a slum. Further East on the freeway seems like a worse area but not so much here. Go to the Walmart southwest of here on Military Drive if you need something. NOT East. Its scary. Not a long term stay hotel so people are come and go. Mostly work professionals and those looking for somewhere cheaper for Sea World. It's safe, but just watch your kids and lock your car. (Duh)

Quality. 'Updated' rooms feel like fresh paint, furniture that happens to look modern now because of the 70s modern style coming back. Flat screen TV nice enough if not on small side, lighting is alright but not great. Desk is a desk, chair is rickety and not worth much if you have alot of work to do. Wood floors nice but wish the whole room had it. Carpet around bed and door entrance looks like it was leftover from remodel, improperly cut lazily installed against wood floor. (Seriously, fire your contractors Red Roof)... Shower / toilet room looks like something from your Aunt's cheap 80s apartment. Sink vanity nicest area, new basin sink, large enough counter, bright light that provides most of the room's light. AC works well, room stays cool, cold at night. Fan doesn't blow hard but it's quieter for that. Can hear toilets flushing upstairs. Dresser is a dresser. Nightstand plugs don't all work. Alarm clock and phone. Safe. Has those old unnecessary shared room doors are always an eyesore and worrisome if you care about that sort of thing.

Amenities. Pool is an inexpensive hotel's pool. Not my cup of tea as a married, male with no kids, but enough wear out the little ones on a slow day. Safe enough. The free toiletries sucks as usual but that happens in even my "five-star" hotels. Coffee in lobby meh but it's there, snack and drink machines. Disgustingly old freezer food machine in lobby that needed to go a decade ago with the smoked ham sandwich that sits lonely inside. Please red roof inn if you read this, get rid of it, give it to a cleaning lady, let it go. It's bad and I feel bad for anyone that dates to eat one of the five freezer burned items inside. Tiny coffee machine in room, works, whatever.

It's fine for taking the kids on an inexpensive vacation to Sea World and Six Flags isn't far. Wear family out, rest here, go out and play again. This isn't a resort or a pricey hotel. I've had way better at this price but not near here. Romantic dinner at Riverwalk with the spouse is a short drive. Just be realistic and enjoy the real parts of your vacation. If its for work, get real, it's plenty but you won't impress the ladies from the bar with this room. Your marriage will thankful for that .

Anyway this is getting long. I was bored waiting for sleep on this hotel bed to come...

I could write a Steven King-esque Novel about my stay here. I'll try to be brief, but it's not going to be easy. Anyways, when I check in, my carpeting is full of white flakes of some kind. I told them about it and I guess they don't really vacuum? I even asked them if I could borrow their vacuum to save them the trouble and they wouldn't let me. I guess bring your own vacuum if you're going to stay here. But the part that really takes the cake is the sprinkler incident. I get back to the hotel one evening. About 5 minutes after getting into my room and starting to unwind, I hear a lot of commotion in the hallway. Somehow the sprinkler system went off. Okay, whatever, not the hotel's fault. Probably a stupid customer set it off. But it takes them like 45 minutes to figure out how to shut it off, and by that time the third floor is flooded except a few of the rooms. I was one of the lucky ones. No water in my room. But this super casual lady starts screaming at all the customers to get off the third floor. Her lack of professionalism made me think she was just a customer, so I ignored her for awhile, until this persistent screamy lady actually starts going door to door to make sure everyone's out. Ah great, I thought, well, maybe they're shuttling us to a partner hotel free of charge. That's what any sensible hotel owner would do. Nope. She was kicking us all out at like 8pm with no concern as to where we're supposed to go. So I'm just standing in the parking lot (I don't have a vehicle because my motor scooter was stolen from this very parking lot days before). Standing there with the other bewildered customers, it felt like we were refugees after a missile struck our building or something. Except unlike war refugees, nobody cares about evicted hotel guests. So my survival instincts start to kick in. I manage to sneak back up to the third floor (which was way easier than I make it sound) and slip back into my room. Still not wet in the slightest. I figured there's no reason I shouldn't stay there. It would have been difficult and expensive to try and reserve a room at a different hotel that time of evening, especially with no car. I knew it was either sleep in that room, or sleep outside like a homeless person. I wasn't going to let them make me homeless. But oh, here comes yet another employee going from room to room to make sure everyone's out, this time a man. I end up hiding behind my shower curtain like some kind of fugitive, and I manage to go unnoticed. After that I stay hidden in the tub for like 20 minutes in case there's a third inspection. After that I was safe to finally leave the shelter of the shower curtain and enjoy the hotel room I had fully payed for. In the nights following, it was unclear if the third floor was still off limits, so I tried to keep being pretty discrete about when I would come and go. At one point, I believe some insurance appraisers and carpenters saw me leave my room, but they didn't get involved. Maybe I'm crazy for leaving a two star review instead of one, but there was a really nice old lady front desk clerk who is the entire reason for that. Anyways, I'm not saying you should stay here and I'm not saying you shouldn't. But this is all a true story. It was a new perspective of the third world country America really is. And for better or for worse, I won't soon forget the experience. End credits roll over fading backdrop of the hotel with Simple Mind's 'Don't You Forget About Me'...

The front desk staff is very kind and accommodating. They even allowed my boyfriend and I to pay for an extra night past checkout time and didn't charge any additional fees for us paying late which was very nice of them to do. Any request we had was tended to fairly quickly and without hassle. However, I have to give the hotel a 3 overall due to the cleanliness of the room when we arrived. It didn't represent their cleaning staff very well at all. I understand there are a lot of rooms in a hotel to go in and out of everyday and clean, but that doesn't give businesses like this an excuse to take shortcuts while doing their jobs. If time management is an issue, they need to hire more workers instead of trying to keep labor costs down. The rooms are supposed to be made ready for the next guests, and it seems like the cleaning staff just did the bare minimum that was necessary to make it look nice when the next guests arrived, but I pay attention to detail as any clean person would when coming to an establishment like this. The shower and toilet definitely could've been cleaned way better. The walls weren't even wiped down it had seemed. The sweeping job of the cleaner was mediocre. There were stains on the pillowcases and sheets upon us arriving and I had to switch them out for new ones. The inside and outside of the refrigerator was dusty and could've been cleaned better (an appliance where obviously guests would store their FOOD if they had any). The microwave was dirty. The same goes for the inside of all the drawers that opened. When choosing to come to an establishment like this, I'm not expecting 5 star efficiency but when people are paying $70+/night dollars to stay somewhere, I would expect the business to put in more effort to make the unit not just APPEAR to not be filthy, but ACTUALLY not be filthy when they arrive. It's comparable to a person spilling Big Red on a couch cushion and then turning the couch cushion over and saying that the cushion is now clean. Not really the same thing lol. You get what you pay for after all and this hotel for what you pay for in my opinion does serve its primary purpose pretty well for a person or a couple that was looking for a decent place to lay their head for an...