James River Inn & Suites

This place is old and basic, but it's clean and well maintained. Check-in was easy, the sheets were clean, and it's serviceable. The towels are small, but one dried my fat butt just fine. There's no iron or ironing board, shampoo, hair dryer, coffee maker, or USB ports in the room. Rooms are being renovated. There's plenty of parking around back if you're towing a trailer, and getting from the lot onto the highway is easy. Restaurants are a bit away, about 3/4 mile. The courtyard has a good amount of lawn where kids can play corn hole or lawn darts. I didn't see any dopers either. Someone had posted about a hooker walking the halls, but there are no halls here. The rooms are at patio level or on a balcony. I'd stay here again.

The room I was first given had no heat, and with snow and cold outside, getting it changed was a struggle. Staff came across as somewhat rude and unhelpful. For what the rooms provide, the price feels a bit high.

The place felt expensive for what I got. My room had two double beds, a small apartment-size refrigerator, a sink, two flat-top burners, a microwave, counters, and cabinets, but no pots, pans, or utensils. The sink hadn't been cleaned, and there was what looked like hot sauce or spaghetti sauce on the kitchen counter. The bathroom and bedding could have been cleaner, and the cabinets, nightstand, floor, and rest of the room needed dusting and a proper sweep. The bathroom wasn't clean either. Its showerhead felt loose, and the drain backed up so the tub filled with water. I had to wedge a plastic fork between the drain and the other piece to keep the water from collecting. There were two small bars of soap, but no shampoo or conditioner. The soap made me itch and dried my skin badly enough that scratching left red dots and bruises. The TV was small, not a smart TV, and kept freezing after I changed channels. A man from the office pulled out the shelf beneath it, unplugged and replugged it, and got it going again, but it failed a couple more times. I had to reset it myself. The Dish service had few channels, and the local TV guide didn't match the channels or shows, even when I tried the Norfolk area listings. Two HBO channels were showing the same program, with one a few seconds behind the other. The room phone was very dirty and didn't work. On my second day the front desk man said I could call the office, but when I tried the next morning, I couldn't reach anyone. My cell battery had died and I was waiting for my charger, so that left me stuck. If there had been a real emergency, I would have been in trouble. I told them the phone was broken, but nobody fixed or replaced it. I noticed online booking looked cheaper, including for the room I was already in. When I showed the rate to the man in the office, he said it was for a different room and other things, then told me that if I wanted the Sunday rate I'd have to check out and wait about two hours while rooms were cleaned before checking in again. I didn't have a car or anywhere to go with my things, and the trip wasn't planned. It felt dishonest that I had paid more for the weekend when the rate dropped the next day, and the online rate on Sunday was lower still. From my second-floor window there was a grassy courtyard, the office diagonally across on the first floor, an ice machine, and an old drink machine.

The staff were nice, but that was about the only good part. The place frightened me. I saw someone who looked like a prostitute walking around, and a man peeing on a door used for exiting. I locked my door and pushed my suitcase in front of it because I felt so uneasy. The room was missing tissues, a toilet paper holder, a shower mat, and had just one trash can. When I pulled back the sheet, the mattress pad had more stains and other marks than I've ever seen. Behind the end table and lamps was filthy, and there was dirt under the bed along the wall. The online photos don't show what you find at check-in. This was the worst place I've ever stayed.