Rodeway Inn University - Downtown

This place looked decent online. The price was good. That should have been my clue. Austin is expensive. I booked on their website. The night I showed up, I didn't even have to check in. I could see clearly what I was in for. It was an absolute dump in a bad part of town. I told the man at the check-in desk that I wished to cancel because it was not a nice place. He said he would cancel but that I would still be responsible for the first night. I appealed to him and said, "this isn't a nice place. It doesn't look like the photos". He said it didn't matter. Obviously it should matter, but my card was charged. I think this place make money by doing this. The reviews on other sites, which I did not see, demonstrate absolute filth. I called Choice Hotels. They said that this guy put me down as a "no show" which was not true. The Choice rep said they would tell the hotel to issue a refund. That has yet to happen. It's frustrating that I have to spend time chasing this money when a location of a major hotel chain is dishonest and practices false advertising. I can't recommend avoiding this place enough.

The only reason I stayed here was because of location, but it is a horrible motel! The owner acts like the customers are his servants, and they should be indebted to him. Maybe that might have been his upbringing? The room was a dump! A dying giant roach greeted me by the bathroom. The tub had mold. The tile repair was beyond horrible - see the pictures. It was so gross that I didn't shower. I should have checked out right then, but it was very late and I was exhausted. My bad for not leaving! Instead of driving super expensive cars, he should spend just a little on his dumpster of a property. Choice Hotels should be embarrassed for having this property under their banner! The topper was he accused me of stealing his cheap bath towel! The gall of this man to take part of my deposit in order to afford his S Class!

I know this is a motel, and didn’t expect much other than a clean room, but I didn’t even get that. Arrived at my room to find the door ajar. The bathroom had trash on the floor, long black hairs on various places around the bathtub and floor, and even on the clean towels, hair in and around the sink. Linens were very worn, including tears in bedspread. The juice machine in the lobby for continental breakfast was out of order (evidently had been for a while). No bottled waters in its place so had to buy a soda to drink with breakfast (there as a coffee machine, didn’t try it as I don’t drink coffee). The only reason I stayed at this motel is that is is walking distance to the stadium. Next time I’ll find a clean hotel/motel and take an Uber to the stadium.

Please do yourself a favor and don't stay here. Some friends and I stayed here because we had a conference at UT Austin, it figured on the list of hotels (since it was SXSW weekend, the rates were outrageous), and the location seemed good. We nicknamed it "The Bates Motel." Enough said. It needs to be demolished or renovated. The administration doesn't care about customers and minimizes expenses in maintenance. It actually looks way better in pics than in real life, so please don't be deluded. Put it this way, as soon as I got home, I cleaned and washed everything that was in the room.