I was put up at this Hotel by US airways when they messed up my connecting flight from LA - so needless to say, I'm happy I didn’t have to pay. Upon walking into the lobby area, it would be easy to fall into the illusion of believing you are in a place of luxury. I must admit, I was quite impressed with the feel it gave. Nice sofas, complimentary use of internet, and interesting décor to give a feeling of elegance. The rooms however, tell another story.

Location
I don’t know the town very well, all I know is that this Hotel felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. Maybe if I was a local and knew the place, I would be able to give a better review…but as a traveler from out of town, I felt I would have been just as comfortable if the Hotel was situated on an oil rig.

Room
The rooms aren’t bad but from the look of the lobby area I would have expected allot more. The rooms are very basic and don’t feel homely at all. Beyond the lobby everything just felt old and worn. That’s the only way I could explain it. Oh, and there was a Pizza box outside a room nearby that was there for the entire duration of our stay.

The breakfast however, was great. I would probably recommend going there just to eat it.

Bathroom
Bathroom was clean, but again, just basic.


Pros:-
I didn’t have to pay for it, if I did, I would have been les impressed than I already was.
The breakfast they serve was nice. I’d give them that.

Cons:-
The place feels run down and old. The book, “The Shining” comes to mind.
Not in a tourist friendly place. It felt safe enough to walk around, but, there was just nothing there!

Saturday March 27th my children and I were guests at the Ramada Inn and Conference Center on Woodlawn Rd in Charlotte North Carolina. At approximately 7:55 PM we returned from seeing a movie to find a man in our room. He claimed to be from maintenance and said that our fire alarm had gone off and asked if we could give him 10 or 15 minutes to fix it. We were close to the hotel lobby so I said that I would take my children there for the wait. The man stepped from the room to give us directions to where there was a seat with a plug for their video games and used a key to re-enter my room. I took my children to the lobby and asked at the desk if they had sent a repairman. When the lady at the desk said no I immediately asked her to call security and ran back to my room. The man, my laptop computer, my camera and my checkbook were gone. Now here is where it goes from unacceptable to totally ridiculous.

1. Security never showed up.
2. When the police arrived to take the description and my statement the officer casually mentioned that they came to this hotel “all the time” and stated his regret that the security cameras “never work.”
3. When I told the Desk Clerk that the thief had a key to my room her only reply was “I didn’t give it to him” and when I suggested that it might be a master key and that they should reset all the locks in the hotel she said “only the manager can do that and there is no way she will come in before Monday morning.”
4. When I told the Desk Clerk that the man was familiar enough with the hotel layout to know where to find a chair next to a plug I got another shrug and “he doesn’t sound like any of our employees but I don’t know everybody.”
4. After my children went to sleep I began looking hard around the hotel and discovered that a large door from the hall to where my room was to the outside was unlocked. About then I ran into the elusive security man who told me that door doesn’t read keys very well so it is usually left unlocked.
5. The next morning I began looking around again and discovered that a fire door that also allowed entry into the hall where my room was not only wasn’t locked, it had a rusty hole where the lock was removed long ago. I took a video with my cell phone of my 9 year old son entering the hotel with no effort at all and several still pictures of the rusty hole.
6. When I informed the morning desk clerk that my room had been robbed the night before she expressed surprise. Something which gave me the impression that having a guest be robbed isn’t an unusual enough event at this hotel to warrant communication between shifts. To her credit the morning clerk was the first employee who stated regret that I had been robbed and actually seemed to care the least bit.
7. In spite of seeming to care at least a little bit about her guests that same clerk could not be bothered to go and look at the door with no lock when I told her about it.
8. When I told my waiter in the hotel restaurant about my experience at breakfast he also expressed sympathy at my experience and told me that another guest had her laptop stolen just two days before then commented that there was “a lot of thievery here.”
9. When I went back to the desk and asked if the other theft had really occurred she confirmed that it had. When I asked why that didn’t strike anyone as a reason to lock the doors at night she had no answer except to refer me to the manager who “never ever” comes in other than 10 to 6 Monday through Friday.

I thought this place was really nice and the people were great. Room was clean. Location was great - ten minutes from the airport. Travel to CLT all the time and I like it a lot!

In full disclosure, US Airways put my wife and myself up in the Ramada Inn for the night after our flight had mechanical problems. So needless to say, we were in a bad mood before we checked in. However, this hotel did not help the situation. Granted, the airport shuttle was very prompt in getting us to and from the hotel, and the staff was nice enough, but the room was disgusting. It looked like it was way over due for an update. The carpet was covered in stains and the comforter and the sheets on the beds also had stains. This is one of those rooms that you keep all of your clothes on while you are sleeping in the bed. Also, the drain to the shower was not working properly. Other people from our flight were complaining about the heat in their rooms not working. While our room had heat, the thermostat did not respond when we tried to adjust it. Also, as stated in previous reviews, the hotel does not appear to be in a good area. There is a strip club and billiards hall next door to the hotel. Both which appeared pretty busy late at night. That is not exactly what I want to be staying next to when I am on the road. Once again, the US Airways situation could have jaded my view of the hotel, but we seriously considered checking out and paying for a room at another hotel.