Quality Inn & Suites Gorham Riverside

I felt deceived and taken advantage of during this booking, and I won't stay at a Roadway Inn or Quality Inn in the Choice Hotels group again. This hotel is somehow both brands at once. I found it on Google Maps and saw a rate of $122 through Super.com, or $132 with taxes and fees. When I asked about a room, the younger of the two women at the desk offered to give me one if I paid $135 cash. She then suggested I go about half a mile to an ATM and bring back $120. I didn’t feel comfortable with that. I can’t say what she intended, but it seemed fishy, like she might pocket the money. I just wanted a better rate than $155, not anything unusual or illegal. I booked through Super for $122, with $132.54 total including tax. Since it was non-refundable, the desk staff then said I also had to pay an $8.63 amenities fee, despite Super saying there would be no other fees. I paid $141.17 altogether. Super paid Roadway Inn $115.50 from the $132.54 I paid them. I felt slimed, and neither woman apologized when I said I’d leave an honest, detailed review. Update: A couple of employees told me the rude, shady woman was named "Sweeney" and that she was one of the owners. They said she regularly did questionable things in front of staff, treated many people badly, and that her actions could ruin the hotel and cost them their jobs. They apologized for her behavior. I had already discussed the rate with the desk, felt uncomfortable, and then booked through the website source. The third-party site paid the hotel $115 for my stay.

I expected an ordinary motel room from the photos, with a regular window, and wasn’t expecting much given the price. Instead, I was put in a strange interior room in a separate Groverhaus-style building. It had no windows, only two presumably former skylights that were boarded up and water-damaged. I’ve stayed in plenty of hotels and motels, and this was one of my worst surprises. Rooms like this should be listed as their own category when booking, maybe with a different price.

I paid over $200 and ended up doing the property's work myself. The tub wouldn’t drain: my wife found about two inches of standing water while running it for a hot shower. Nobody was available in the lobby, so they offered a toilet plunger and a few ounces of drain cleaner. I spent twenty minutes plunging it. In the morning, my quick shower left the tub backed up again. At checkout I explained how unhappy I was and got an “oh sorry,” with no alternate room the night before and no discount or other compensation. The pillows were about half the size of their cases, which is a pretty basic thing to get right. The air conditioning was weak, but the Wi-Fi worked. The walls were thin, though other guests kept quiet. There aren’t many branded hotels in this area, and the dog-friendly policy caught our attention. The room was clean and decent enough otherwise. If tubs are cleaned between guests, housekeeping and probably management must know when a drain doesn’t work. This shouldn’t happen. To me, Choice Hospitality has no real customer-service commitment across its brands. I gave up on Choice 20 years ago after similar problems at different locations. I left as a fully paid, fully dissatisfied customer, and that sticks with you. I’m not important, but it sucks to be made to feel that way.

Customer service was horrible. We tried to cancel because of a family emergency and were curtly told they couldn’t help us. The room also cost $80 more than comparable nearby hotels. I won’t recommend them and will take my business to other lodging companies.