Rodeway Inn Santa Ana - Garden Grove

The rooms were actually nice, but the service made the whole stay hell, from arrival until I left. They charged extra fees for what seemed like stupid reasons, and I ended up paying three times what other motels were charging. My friend and I only chose it because the weekend price looked good. It was such a stressful experience, with the worst customer service I’ve ever had.

I stayed for a weekend in August and had no real complaints. The place was cleaner and better furnished than I expected, and it seemed dependable.

The front desk person was lovely. Stay beautiful and awesome, whoever you are. At $120, though, the room didn’t make sense to me. For $70, maybe. There were odd details everywhere: the water heater screamed behind our wall all night like some surreal white noise machine, the laminate floor bubbled, there was graffiti on the mirror, and packing tape on the dresser. The wall art was something else too, a “beautiful chaos” and “ENERGY” sign. A vibe, if nothing else. The sheets reminded my sister of her army days, like a brillo pad, and the only extra blanket was a decorative gray sheet. It’s an okay place to sleep if a bit of urban camping sounds fine, but it didn’t feel like a comfortable hotel.

When my partner and I later asked for a pillow and towel, we were told a one-bedroom suite didn’t come with extra pillows. We’d reserved a king room for two and had only been given two flimsy pillows. They also said hotel policy meant no extra towels. After we persisted and were obviously frustrated, they finally handed over a towel from the cabinet right behind the staff member. Earlier, my sister had come by with her two teenagers and five-year-old, and we went to my room to get ready for the pool. I called management because the gate wasn’t working, and they let us in. After about two hours, everyone went back upstairs, changed, and left. When I returned from getting food, the manager called me to the office and yelled that I must never do it again, there had been too many people upstairs and in the pool, and it better not happen again. I just nodded and said okay because I’m not confrontational, but I was fuming afterward. He could have raised it when he opened the gate or during those two hours he was watching us on his 20-plus cameras. Here’s the pool, if you were wondering.