Rodeway Inn By the Bay

It took me a while to decide that the title of this review was truthful, seeing as how I have been in a couple of sketchy hostels in my time, but this is the absolute worst. After the $16 cab ride from the Atlantic City strip (yes, only 3 miles away...), I wandered to the front desk. The lobby wasn't open, instead the manager was checking in people through a window crack into his bedroom which was attached. It was late, I understand, but it was also February. This should have been enough for us to turn away but I really didn't want to pay the cab fair back to an unknown location when we had already made reservations. While we were checking in a guy was walking back and forth behind us cursing at the window. It turns out the manager had taken his credit card, lost it, and claimed he didn't have it. After he gave us our keys, the manager had finally stumbled across the man's credit card and returned it. Going into our room, first impression were that it was smelly and the mini-fridge compressor was broken and making rhythmic noises. Pulling off the sheets, there were burn holes in the blanket and instead of using a fitted sheet, another flat sheet was just placed over the 3-inch mattress which was covered in plastic. After realizing that the TV didn't work, we decided to just call it a day and go to sleep. But here was the absolute worst part, it quickly became apparent that THERE WAS NO HEAT! So instead, we slept on the springy 3 inch mattress in all of our clothes. Unfortunately, we had reserved two nights instead of one. In the morning, we went to the front desk and asked for a refund for the second night. The manager, who understood English just fine the night before was having quite a difficult time understanding us in the morning. Eventually, he told us that there are no refunds and to take it up with the parent company, 'Choice Hotels'. Rather than stay there another night, we decided to just cut our vacation short. I have now logged a formal complaint with Choice Hotels and, depending on how that goes, may also file some sort of complaint with the state of New Jersey since I am pretty sure that the heat has to be working in a legal hotel room.

We had a very late check in, and they were very nice and helpful service....