Best Western Garden Inn — Hotel in Santa Rosa

Bottom line: Best Western Garden Inn in Santa Rosa CA is not a 3 star hotel - it is a 2 star hotel, at best.

My wife and I have been staying at 3-star Best Western hotels, so we know what a 3-star feels like, and I have to say that this is DEFINITELY a step down, for these reasons:

1. Our room, 107, had serious filth issues: (a) the bathroom floor had not been mopped; a damp toilet tissue wipe came up black. We cleaned it, because that's who we are, but we shouldn't have had to. (b) the bathroom mirror frame was likewise filthy, and although I tried to get it completely clean, it still showed black from the crevices. (c) our room carpet was disgusting, with stains and marks that should not be there. Like a dive bar carpet, but without the stink of stale beer. Nasty. Nothing I could do except keep my shoes on, and try not to look down. I have a disgusted look on my face as I type this. Finally, (d) exterior entry carpets were not only filthy, but also stinky; I moved our entry carpet (and our neighbors entry carpet, which was next to ours) away from our entry way, next to the housekeeping garbage can, and our open-door air quality improved dramatically. All of this can be easily addressed with a mop and a carpet shampoo, but will it?

2. Breakfast. Yikes, this was not the yummy sit-down Best Western breakfast we had become used to (and looked forward to); a yummy complementary breakfast is a big reason why we've come to appreciate Best Western hotels. At the Best Western Garden Inn in Santa Rosa CA staff called breakfast a "grab and go". We did a "grab and throw away", (a) after smelling the bread used in their "breakfast sandwich", and "breakfast burrito" - it's the nasty kind of bread that's used for sandwiches at all-nighter gas stations; it smells funny, and is the opposite of good. And, (b) the "orange juice" was nasty too - what?? We ended up throwing away the entire "breakfast" - it was really that bad.

3. Oh, and our room curtains were dirty, and a little stinky. I ended up using some string to fold them up to help contain the smell.

Our experience of the Best Western Garden Inn in Santa Rosa CA is that the owners are not properly maintaining their suites, or their property (for example, several of the nice stained glass lanterns along the front of the property were broken and in sad shape, but I don't know for how long).

In conclusion, in my experienced opinion, the Best Western Garden Inn in Santa Rosa CA is a 2-star hotel, at best, and calling it 3-star is an insult to all the actual 3-star Best Western's we've stayed at, and...

The room is clean and large, and the staff nice enough, but that is the only good thing I can say about this hotel. We arrived after 6+ hours of driving with a 6 year old to a room without working TV or air conditioning. In California no AC is a problem, and a cranky kid without cartoons to watch after a long day of driving is no fun for anyone. To add to the frustration our in room phone was broken (could only call the front desk) and there was no answer from the front desk after 9:30 pm when we realized the AC was NOT working. For all of this we were not even offered a discount!!!

The hotel itself is in a pretty sketchy part of town and not in walking distance to anything decent. Although I don’t expect any kind of consideration from the company for that, I did want to mention it to anyone thinking of booking here.

Not at all worth what they charge, this hotel is barely a 2-star, definitely not a 3. Will not be back here or to any Best Western for that matter. Holiday Inn Express is way better if you want something on the cheap. I originally gave them 1 star but upped it to 2 because they did adjust the bill without a fuss on check out.

Turns out the AC did work but somebody thought it would be funny to change the switches on the machine to make heating look like cooling. I would have upped this to 3 stars if the staff had answered our call at 9:30 pm when we might have learned that the dials had been switched in time to have a decent night sleep. Since the staff is advertised as on site 24/7 they should have been there to address this issue when it was noticed. Nobody was there to help, which is why I only upped my original review by one star.

Note: The manager responded telling me I need to dial 9 to make calls, which I did multiple times to different numbers so that wasn’t the issue. The TV was apparently fixed by 1pm Sunday which was not true as it did not work when we checked in Sunday evening. The manager was also the one who told us the dials had been switched, so I’m taking her on her word that this was indeed the issue, as I have no reason to distrust what she says, although I didn’t see this for myself.

I would still choose another hotel in the future as things were kind of in disrepair even though it seemed very clean, but will concede this one is probably among the nicer hotels in this kind of sketchy...

We have stayed at this best western before and it has been really nice. I'm not sure if management has changed in the last year or something else but was very disappointed in our experience this time.Upon arriving we were placed in a room on the upper floor. We unloaded our vehicle and went to put a few groceries in the small mini fridge and there was moldy food left there from the previous guest who knows how long ago. We went down to the front desk and the attendant was very nice and apologetic and moved us to a new room.Great, thought that would be the end of that. Once in the new room we found it was INFESTED with ants. Crawling on the bathroom counter, the night stand, and the table provided. I know ants happen but there were so many. Again I went to the front desk and the new attendant was again apologetic but said he was alone in running the place so the best he could do was give us a very pungent ant kill spray and since they were booked to capacity we could only get a new room in the morning. Sprayed everywhere we saw ants and spent the next hour coughing with the room door propped open for ventilation.Went down in the morning to see about switching rooms and the supposed manager and the "head" maintenance worker were SCREAMING at each other at the front desk. They looked over at me and said nothing but then continued to scream and curse at each other about being short-staffed and getting everything done. So incredibly unprofessional. Ended up just walking out without ever being addressed.Summarized:Pros:Nice front desk attendants that are clearly overworkedBeds and pillows at least remained comfortable, though not free of antsCons:Moldy food in the fridgeANT INFESTATION! Incredibly rude managementNot at all worth the price.I've attached a picture of the ants I killed on the table simply sitting there for less...