Rodeway Inn & Suites El Cajon San Diego East

ZERO stars. Their pictures of the hotel are FALSE! How dare they even use those!!! SO NOT OKAY!!! The pictures that reviewers posted are the real deal! I should have looked at the reviews before booking. This was the most scary place I have ever been to! From the time I pulled in the lot to the time I left I was scared to death! Pulling in the lot the first thing I see is someone in the lot that looked like she was on some sort of substance, on her phone yelling and her luggage and what not strewn across the lot. As I drive down trying to find the «lobby» I drive by several «shady» looking people. I didn’t want to get out of my car but thought I should give it a chance. I found the lobby and it was scary in itself. The lady at the counter was indifferent. Not too thrilled to be there. Everything in me said RUN! Get OUT! I didn’t go with my gut feeling. Made it to my room by passing MANY shady, scary people. Got to my room which was HORRIFIC, smelled like smoke, had cigarette burn marks all over the carpet and sink and was considered a «non smoking» room. To be fair, the bathroom was clean and the actual bedding looked clean. The rest of the place — OH MY GOSH!!! EVERYTHING else was disgusting, scary, falling apart etc. I sat there shaking trying to figure out what to do. Everything in that room was scary and disgusting. I left to go for a walk and tried to talk myself into coming back and thinking I could make it through one night and I would check out the next morning and find somewhere else for the next two night. As soon as I pulled back in the lot it was more of the same with what looked to be like some sort of dealing in the lot, several different groups. I go straight to my room, scared to death. I sit there for 30 minutes and I feel so scared I book a room up the street with another hotel and get my things and go to the lobby to check out. The girl is behind the counter and is talking to a man who seems to her boyfriend /​husband. I am not greeted. I tell her I know I just checked in but I’m checking out, I don’t care about my money for that night but would like a refund for the next two nights. She says nothing, just clicks away at her computer. I ask her if she was able to do it, she says yes. That’s it. Done. No question as to why, is there something she can do etc. I’m sure she knew and I’m sure it happens all the time. I called customer service for Rodeway Inn. I was hung up the first time. I called back and am still on hold — 20 minutes so far. Do NOT stay here!!!

The lobby looked okay but once you get into the elevator, you feel so unsafe. One of the buttons on the elevator was missing! Our room looked okay but it smelled like cigarettes even though it was suppose to be a non-​smoking room. When we checked the restroom the paint on the tub was chipping and looked stained. Also walking in the restroom it felt humid and smelled like someone had just taken a shower seconds before we walked in. The carpet and ceiling was stained. No fire alarm! The curtains were ripped to shreds but tied up to play it off. When we checked our bed we found a spot of what seemed to be fresh blood and dried smeared blood on the sheets, the blanket, and the actual pillows not the pillowcases. There was also dirt on the sheets like they had not been washed or changed. At 1:30 in the morning I had to go to all the way downstairs cause the phone in the room didn’t work! The lady behind the counter was very stand-​offish. All she said was she would give me new sheets and I didn’t get the sheets until 2am and I only got one sheet and 2 pillowcases… no new blankets or anything. As I was changing the pillowcases I noticed the blood on 2 of the 4 pillows. I had to go back downstairs because there were cigarette burns on the sheets. Not feeling comfortable staying in that room I asked for my money back or to be transferred to a new room. The lady said they were booked and could only give me the sheets. We were forced to sleep in the room and in the morning they said they would change everything on the bed but when we went to check everything we still had the 2 bloody pillows on our bed again. We went downstairs and only got one pillow in exchange. I had to go to the laundry room myself to get the pillows because the lady behind the counter couldn’t get it herself. Looking inside the counter they had two washers which made me think that they shove everything in the washers and don’t wash right. The laundry room was a mess they have everything stacked on top of each other. Since we had to continue our stay we noticed that every time they came in to «clean» all they did was reuse the same sheets and would just make the bed. They would only put new towels and take out the trash. The only reason I know this is because the «new» sheets had a stain on them and throughout our stay that stain was there every time we came back. I spent about $ 274 on the whole stay and even talking to the manager I only got $ 22 back because of the bloody sheets from the first night. Thankfully there were no cockroaches but we did find a spider in the fridge. The microwave and fridge looked like no one had used it. Plus the hotel gives off a weird vibe right as you step in to the lobby. We had to carry our valuables with us because we didn’t feel safe leaving them in the room. I will never stay here again! Worst experience ever! And a word of advice to anyone who plans to stay here. CHECK EVERYTHING!

This place is so bad that I can’t even give it any stars. Previously, staying at this hotel when it was Quality inn, it had way better service and amenities, coming in from Phoenix almost every year for football tournaments the staff treated our team like family and gave us great service to enjoy our time in San Diego. The breakfast was great and always stocked well, now as the Rodeway inn they don’t offer the breakfast and the «remodeled» rooms are nothing special. Musty, bug infested, and in a non smoking room the raunchy smell of cigarettes, dirty floors and bathrooms, my family member was bitten by what appeared to be bed bugs and the air conditioning unit was broken. ⁰⁄₁₀ do not recommend even if you’re just staying the night. It’s sketchy, as soon as you pull up you might be thinking of just pulling away because of the weirdos loitering on the balcony and lobby areas. Not worth the stay. Had children as young as 10 witness an arrest on drug dealers, thieves and prostitutes staying at the hotel. Definitely not family oriented. If you stay here R.I.P. and you just wasted your money

This is literally the worst hotel I have ever stayed at. We experienced the worst customer service when checking in. When we got to our room we couldn’t lock the door because it was broken. When I called the front desk to let them know their solution was to leave and find another place. There was a big piece of metal sticking out of the bed and my boyfriend sliced his foot and was bleeding! The toilet and cigarette burns. The ironing board was filthy with black stains. The desk table was dirty and full of scratches. When we walked into the restroom there was a dirty towel on the floor that the house keeper forgot to pick up. The remote control was holding the batteries with tape. Everything was beyond belief!

There was a cockroach chilling with me next to the bathroom. They need to get on top of that. Also, The mold in the shower… And the blood stains on the wall.

Absolutely 0 stars. Worst experience EVER! Drug and prostitution activity running tampant shitty rooms that are super dated im talking 80s retro. I will post pictures. Also no good at customer service no manager on duty could not get a refund on my money, sray here if u have a deathwish or if u are looking to contract an STD or bed bugs.

Horrible place! Not for a family this is a place where people get drunk and have sleepless nights, «party nights» if you know what I mean that kind of stuff. We booked it for three nights we got there, there was a guy up front that looked drunk and kind of out of it, that made me feel uncomfortable they where talking about calling the police. That made my family and I think twice… we said OK let’s give it a shot, we went ahead brought our luggage down from our car and went into the room and immediately decided to get a refund the room smelled so bad we asked for a non-​smoking but it smelled like an enclosed smoking area SMH! it was horrible my kids were upset and scared they told me that they didn’t feel safe so we left the place it’s a nasty place! Crackhead hotel!

Do not stay here! I booked this hotel for my employees while they were working on a project at Grossmont College and never have I have experienced such bad customer service. I had booked a room from Monday thru Friday and on Friday it was determined an extra night had to be booked. I booked on-​line and called the hotel and verified they received the extra night request and all seemed to be fine. My employees came back to the hotel at about 7:30 PM, went into their room and 5 minutes later the manager came into their room, started grabbing their stuff and took it out of the room and said she was getting them out? She said she booked the room for someone else? okay. so we pay but she decides she wants to give the room to someone else.
We have filed a police report and are pressing charges on the hotel, manager, etc. An investigating is currently on-​going for unlawful removal.

Omg… This place has so many horrifying stories! Thankfully our room was ok but my friends weren’t so lucky.
She found hair, food, and dead bed bugs all over her bed. Then she found a bloodly pillow … She freaked out and came to my room.
My room was clean and neat, we didn’t find any surprises… But I would not stay here again! Thankfully the room was cheap but it’s not worth the second visit!

Spent about 7 hours total in this hotel (12 am-​7 am) and have never felt so unsafe and scared for our lives before. My friend and I arrived late because we needed a last minute place to crash for the night. Immediately upon our arrival, both of us got this eerie vibe. There was an individual loitering on the balcony staring at us. Then as we were checking in, this girl (fit the description of a prostitute) persistently kept harassing my friend to «jump start her car.» Just this encounter gave me the idea that we were in a bad part of town.
We finally checked into our hotel room and heard these guys arguing and speaking loudly in the next room. We were placed in a conjoint room, so there was a door separating us. Throughout the entire night, people kept coming in an out of that room. The walls were paper thin, so we could hear every dialogue and interaction that was taking place in the next room. Throughout the night, their door kept opening and closing with random visitors, probably buying drugs. It was obvious that illicit activities were taking place. There was also a girl yelling about her wallet and $ 5K being stolen. Randomly we would hear loud thuds throughout the night, literally even at 5:30 am there was so much activity taking place. We were so afraid that someone was going to break into our car and/​or room and rob us. We were counting the minutes for the sun to rise so we can sneak out. Luckily for us, there were two police cars in the parking lot at 7:30 so we seized this opportunity to run to our car and booked it.
Made the mistake to not read reviews, because many previous guests had similar unsettling experiences. Learned a valuable lesson: check the most recent reviews prior to booking a hotel in an unknown part of town.

2 night stay here for business back in August 2015. A lot of suspicious activity at all hours of the day here. As I was walking back from my car and looked up to see 3 – 4 guys staring at me from the hallways at the upper levels. Homeless guy living out of his van in the parking lot was also strange. Work started at 3am for me and both times I left, people were up walking around the parking lot and the hallways of the hotel, probably dealing drugs or something.
The room itself was small, killed two roaches during my stay and took it upon myself to clean the air conditioner filter so it would actually blow air. Bathroom floor was dirty but the bed was o. k minus the stains on the headboard

My family is considering filing a small claims lawsuit against this business.
To be clear, this is not something we’ve ever even CONSIDERED doing against a business in the past. We stayed here for two nights while visiting San Diego. When checking out, we left behind a backpack with a DSLR camera in it. We called them as soon as we realized, of course, and fortunately they found the bag with the camera and had it in the lost and found. We got a hold of the manager and began working with them to get our bag shipped back to us.
Then began a month-​long back and forth with them to have them ship our bag back to us. They would tell us things like «We’ll ship it on Monday» and we’d hear nothing from them for a couple of days. Then we’d call them again just to find out that they never shipped out the bag. This continued for weeks until we called and the person on the phone told us the bag was empty. Absolutely ridiculous.
Was it our fault for leaving our bag behind? Absolutely.
Should Quality Inn have done their part in returning their bag to us promptly? Absolutely.
This branch of Quality Inn is by far the worst I’ve ever been to. On top of having poor quality, dirty rooms, they also have negligent management and unscrupulous staff. Seriously avoid this place if you can. Spend an extra $ 10 – 20 and stay at ANY of the other budget motels in town.

Let me start off by saying this is one of the worst places I’ve ever stayed at.
The reason for our trip was business.
I will list off a few notes that I had taken down in observation of my stay.
Black mold in the bathroom.
Cockroach droppings on the walls.
Bulky furniture in the bedrooms leaving little room to walk around.
Hypodermic needles in the pool along with trash, you call and asked to have the pool cleaned and they call back regarding the pool saying the maintenance man has cleaned it and it has not been cleaned they only take the needle out.
Trash in the elevator and rinks of marijuana, customer smoking marijuana outside of rooms and all over the property with no regard to other guests and staff tolerate it by saying nothing.
Continental breakfast was disgusting.
When you request coffee they take over an hour only to find out that when you go down to the lobby that claim they are out of what you requested and didn’t bother to tell you, then you speak to the maid and she claims that there is regular coffee and they just didn’t want to get it.
The maids complain of the manager to guests and say he is rude.
Bedsheets have blood stains and other stains on it although it is claimed they are new by the maid and she said customers don’t know how to take care of them.
The AC in our room did not blow very cold.
Holes and cigarette burns in the walls of a non-​smoking room.
The carpet is dirty and smells of urine in our room.
During our one-​week stay the police drove through the property approximately 7 to 8 times that I noticed and stopped several times, they were also searching a car and found several hypodermic needles in a car from people who were sleeping in the car in the parking lot. Fire department showed up and the ambulance also had to remove a guest.
The management is rude and they lie to you. When you go to them about a concern they talk over you if you bring an issue to their attention in person and on the phone when calling down to the lobby. When we were calling regarding the pool they actually hung up on my boyfriend when he tried to express his concern for the safety of our children regarding the pools condition.
And last but not least the Wi-​Fi does not work but yet they claim that is an amenity.

My room was clean and the water was hot for my shower. Breakfast was a very basic continental. Hey, if need a cheap place to lay your head then this might work for you. Otherwise there’s no need to stop here. Very low budget almost reminds me of a cheap motel upgraded to a Quality Inn but they ran out of money to upgrade anything but the interior of rooms.
Door keys were problematic for every guest and many were locked out
The parking structure smelled like urine
Lots of smokers outside and even people arguing in the middle of the night
Staff was nice

Eeeek! I can’t believe a place like this is able to charge as much as they do for a room… I get the location is a huge part of that but come on! There needs to be something done. If you can’t keep a place clean and decent close it down. This was a last resort I had to find a room last minute and this was the only place available that wasn’t as much as my rent.
The staff here or this company needs to raise their standards. How can they possibly think it is ok for human beings to stay comfortably in a rooms like these. There were holes in the walls and bugs everywhere. I don’t think any of the room had been cleaned. The sheets were stained. The non smoking room smelled like smoke. The shower was disgusting. There were countless people complaining about their rooms and staff was totally nonchalant about it. I feel that this place should be reported and none of the booking websites should recommend it.
I’m not the type of person that needs a 5 star suite to stay comfortably, all I ask is for the place to be clean. It’s obvious that the staff here has completely given up. Maybe it’s because of the high drug abusing clientele they have that keep trashing the rooms, but it’s housekeeping duty to take pride in their work and clean to 5 star standard and beyond. The staff here has no pride in their hotel and will openly tell you that the place is disgusting… If this is your only option… Sleep in your car

My impression is either I got lucky, or everyone else is being overly dramatic, or both. So, here are the facts of my stay so far. *EDIT: it’s also possible they are getting these reviews and making improvements, and/​or new ownership. So keep posting!
I’m paying a cheap rate through a 3^rd party booking website, and I’m ok with the hotel so far for what it is. I booked the same day as I checked in.
My air conditioner is new and has a remote, blows cold and doesn’t smell. The elevator was old but clean. The room is clean, non-​smoking as requested, and smells ok. Fridge isn’t new but no food left inside and works. Sheets are clean. Towels and basic toiletries are all there. Big new LG 45″ HDTV. $ 100 credit card hold on check in. They’re very clear and up front about that — signs are posted.
I called after booking this morning and requested a non-​smoking room, and they were able to honor that.
This is a budget hotel and their clientele are on a budget too. I’ve seen blue collar workers and college kids. Some folks with tattoos, some here for fun on the weekend, but no one is causing trouble with other guests. I’m here because everything else was booked up due to ComicCon and I needed something last minute. Their rate is very reasonable when everyone else in town is charging 150−200% more than usual due to ComicCon.
Negatives: the gauzy curtain that hangs in front of the window has been shredded by a someone’s pet and looks really ratty. However, the blackout shade in front of it looks fine, so I closed it so I don’t have to look at the torn curtain. Problem solved.
This is a budget off-​brand 1 star hotel and you should expect it to be as such. Things are a little worn and there’s a small stain here and there on the carpet. There are better choices in this class, but I’m also getting a great rate when everything else in town is completely full for ComicCon this weekend and charging 150−200% more than normal.
If my room had been gross, I wouldn’t have been happy. But it’s clean, and I’m happy. If you’re in a bind and need a place to stay, and other options in this hotel class are full, this is ok. I suggest booking early and calling ahead, nicely asking for what you need (ie non-​smoking) and hopefully you’ll have a good experience like me.

I booked this hire online due to the price and its proximity to the stadium.
It was nice that we were able to check in 1hr early. When I booked the room I requested non smoking but as soon as we walked in the room it smelled like cigarettes… and that was just the start. The fridge was barely cold and the «freezer «had mold in it.
I went to the front desk and said something about the smell in the room and the girls at the front desk seemed annoyed, the answer I got was «do you want some air freshener » ??? Are you kidding me!!!
Also, they charged me $ 100 deposit in case we «trash «the room and break stuff… this place is disgusting beyond believe.
We have to come back to San Diego next week but thankfully we’ll be staying at a different hotel .
My advice is, DON’T ever stay here

Here is an update as of 7÷8÷2015 after two emails to Verizon Smart Rewards through which I had made this reservation: After my first email to them their reply to me was:
«Dear Member,
We have been advised by the hotel, he never complained to them during his stay which would have allowed them an opportunity to resolve any issues. The hotel advised no compensation will be offered…»
After my second email to Verizon Smart Rewards, which included a link to Unilocal,they replied
«Dear Member,
This correspondence is regarding your Quality Inn & Suites — El Cajon — San Diego East Reservation. Unfortunately the hotel is unwilling to refund the reservation. We have provided a 15% courtesy refund in the amount of $ 13.18 & the 1100 rewards used for the purchase. The hotel has also been removed from the Verizon Smart Rewards Program…»
The $ 13.18 is an unsatisfactory amount as a refund but not much more I can do. Hopefully the hotel loses a lot of money by being removed from Smart Rewards directory, and fewer people will fall victim to the unscrupulous hotel owner.

By far the worst place to stay ever. We requested 2 non smoking rooms and when we got to them, they reeked like cigarettes, disgusting!!! Second, the next day when we returned from our day trip in San Diego, our rooms were the same as we left them in the morning, no room service! When I went down to complain the man at the reception desk «we only offer room service every other night» like WHAT THE HELL IS THAT??? and it was only our first day there!!! Breakfast was decent but all the drug addicts that were there just loitering made eating very uncomfortable and the smell of the eating area just made everything ten times worse. Imagine eating breakfast with drug addicts and a pee smell surrounding the atmosphere. I highly recommend everyone staying away from this «hotel» terrible terrible terrible.
P.S staff is not friendly.

Dirty
Shady people
Not worth even 1 star
We were booked for a king, non smoking for four nights. As soon as we walked in we noticed the thick smell of stench and it was out dated. At this point, for the price after a seven hour drive, whatever. When my mother walked into the bathroom, there was a roach in the tub… Okay, maybe it came up the drain, let it go. That night returning after our day, there were very questionable people, «crack head» looking people to be blunt, hanging around the hotel, looking in cars. We were very scared that night and hard to sleep as the people were roaming, noise until 1:30 a. m and started again at 4 a.m. The next day we did our thing and came back, as I got done washing my hands, I noticed a cockroach running on the wall, 2^nd one, along with the riff raff hanging around, we cancelled the rest of our reservation and left.