Candlewood Suites Richmond-South

I stayed here a couple weeks ago when I just got to Richmond and my apartment wasn’t quite ready yet. I booked and paid for the hotel through Hotwire. After I checked in, I noticed that $ 95 had been taken out of my account. I spoke to the man at the front desk about it, and he said that $ 45 was for incidentals, and that the other $ 50 had mistakenly been taken out because he didn’t realize I had booked through Hotwire (but then where would he have gotten my name and reservation from?!). He told me to come back later to speak with the night auditor to get more information. This second gentleman was extremely condescending towards me when I inquired about the situation, and abrasively told me that they always take that much money out for incidentals (did Amy Winehouse stay here in the past or something?), and that there was no problem with Hotwire. The next morning a third employee gave me a different spin on the situation, so there was clearly some deception or incompetence occurring on the part of the hotel. The room was actually quite nice, and the money was returned to my account after several days, but the funds being on hold created complications for me. Coupled with getting the run around from staff, I would not recommend staying here.

We weren’t very impressed with this hotel. It’s not completely terrible, but I don’t recommend unless you’re only looking for a place to sleep. Some of the staff members are kind of rude, others were nice (especially younger girl who works during day). The hotels we normally stay at usually have the friendliest/​social people working front desk who greet you with a smile. This hotel is old and they are in the middle of renovations. We had part of our baseboards missing in the bathroom and carpet hanging off the wall, but new floors? Appeared they had some of renovations done but not fully.
Pro’s: Easy interstate access, awesome shower/​good pressure, Quiet, free washer/​dryer, cold a/​c, full kitchen, beds pretty comfortable
Cons: old, outdated, nothing good in area (restaurants, stores), located in shady part of town — don’t drift off, have to travel 10 – 15 minutes for everything.

Holy moly, what a hectic week. Day 1, power is out due to transformer blowing out. That’s not your fault so I’m not gonna hold it against you. But bothers me the most is the LITTLE THINGS. Lemme count thy ways:
— Two spiders in separate rooms (changed rooms the 1^st time because I lost track of the critter)
— Fire alarm sounding off in entire hotel plus on-​scene fire trucks close to midnight
— No computer center for me to print a document
And you know what was the final straw? They forgot the popcorn in the microwave. That’s a staple. You don’t ever, eveeeeerrrrr forget a guy’s popcorn when prepping a room.
That was messed up, Candlewood. Oh. And clean up your hotel.

Functional, safe sleep space. And not much more.
My experience at the Candlewood Suites was strange from the very first impression. When I walked in, the front desk attendant was lurking behind a half-​wall and he had some strange radio station blaring — a preacher guy spouting some fire-​and-​brimstone stuff. I don’t know much about this company, but I doubt that’s the corporate image they are going for.
My room was functional and clean, yet a bit shabby. Walking into my «studio suite» I noticed that it had a strange odor too, kind of a mix between cleaning chemicals and old sweat socks. Making the reservation, the person on the phone made a big deal out of their recent conversion to an all smoke-​free property — ironic because the hotel is literally across the street from Phillip Morris headquarters. Anyway, my guess is that the room I stayed in used to be a «smoking» room and they did a lousy job of cleaning it. The atmosphere in the room inflamed my allergies to the point where I had to take double allergy medication just to get to sleep.
These suites are for extended stays, with more substantial kitchen facilities in the unit. The cabinetry in my unit was very shabby. Put it this way: I’ve torn out and thrown away cabinets from home remodeling projects that looked better than these. They were also promoting a recent upgrade to all flat-​screen televisions in their units. The TV in my room was big and nice, but some problem with the digital cable service made every channel stuttery and unwatchable. My clock radio had been unplugged from the wall socket, but plugging it in gave no relief since it was impossible to re-​program without a battery to insert into the bottom! At least my mobile phone has a decent alarm clock in it.
My experience with this hotel is that it’s a safe, clean, and affordable alternative to the higher priced hotels next door, and the inconveniences were somewhat minor — although every person’s threshold for perfection is a bit different. At $ 70 for the night including taxes, I really can’t complain much. There is a Red Roof Inn across the road that was a bit cheaper, but from the street it looked even shabbier, and it was very poorly lit. I feared my car would be broken into if I stayed at that property. At least the Candlewood parking lot was reasonably well lit and I could park close to the front door. The Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn directly adjacent to the Candlewood are easily double in price, but I was not about to spend that kind of money for a one night lay over in a dump city like Richmond, VA.