Well, not everything can be a winner or anywhere close to one. New Year's Eve stay for me so I could attend some parties about 20 miles from home without the worry of drinking and driving, with the additional purpose of being the cheapest room I could find to trigger the triple points promotion--$41, including tax. It's the offseason in Virginia Beach so rooms tend to be cheap (on the half price Hilton promotion right now, a room at the very nice Hilton oceanfront is running for $49), but this property can be had for as low as $135/night on a AAA rate on Memorial Day weekend.

Of course, you get what you pay for. Very sad property indeed. Located on Pacific Avenue, a block from the oceanfront and attached to the back side of a Days Inn that fronts Atlantic Avenue. One wing of the property, six stories tall and running along 10th Street, may have been part of the Days Inn originally as the layout both inside and out is identical to the Days Inn. The second wing is a three-story property that runs along Pacific Avenue. The office is part of the three-story structure but was never open my entire 19-hour stay at the property.

How did I get my key? There was a message on the front door of the office when I arrived at 4:45 p.m. that, by my name, let me know the manager had experienced some sort of emergency and that asked me to call him on his cell phone. When I talked to the manager, he told me that another tenant (and maybe the only other tenant), a monthly guy, would be bringing me my keys and documents to sign. A little odd and a little uncomfortable, yes, but I got in. The "emergency" apparently continued this morning because the office did not reopen as scheduled at 9 a.m. (at least during the winter months, the office is only open 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.).

There are safety issues. Strange, as Virginia Beach is generally safe along Atlantic Avenue, but Pacific in some stretches has some issues, including at the 7-11 located across Pacific from the hotel--an occasional store robbery and fights in the parking lot. Oh, and did I mention the patrol car sitting in the parking lot when I left the hotel about 8 p.m. to go to dinner? The officer wasn't there because of a problem at the property; it's just a really good location to keep an eye on that 7-11. For me, with any decent-sized property, there are times I feel uneasy if there are only one or two rooms rented for the night--let's just call it the Bates Motel Effect. If you're walking around, I'd suggest getting yourself to Atlantic Avenue as soon as possible--there's just more foot traffic, much less car traffic, and better lighting.

Stayed in room 418 in the six-story wing. There's a working elevator and some covered parking on this side of the hotel. Either the room key card or the door's card reader had some issues as I generally had to run the card three or four times to get the door to unlock--an additional issue I didn't need with the lack of a fully functioning onsite office and my safety concerns. Standard room with two double beds. I don't know when the room had last been rented, but the heat was off and didn't feel as if it had been on all fall as the temperature was little warmer than the 45 degree weather outside when I entered. It took a good 90 minutes to take the chill out of the air, but by this morning, it was admittedly a little too warm.

Good thing I got the two beds. The first bed was way too soft and squishy (you could feel the springs in the mattress flatten), but in an admirable bit of inconsistency, the second bed was completely different, firmer, so that I got a reasonably comfortable night's sleep.

The room's condition, as was much of the rest of the hotel, was mediocre at best. Worn furniture, worn carpet, and an older tube TV. No bugs as far as I could tell, but who knows, the extended cold temperatures in the room may have killed them off. I understand that some of these conditions probably meet Rodeway brand standards, but it's important to understand that this property did nothing to exceed those standards in any respect.

Wandered around the building a bit. A communal room on the second floor just off the elevator may have served as a breakfast room at some point but now is just stuffed with either old or spare furniture, bedding, and TVs. In fact, so stuffed that it was apparently necessary to store two old, stripped electric ovens on the breezeway on the fourth floor around the corner from my room. And, in a truly non sequitur moment, sitting on the second floor, a basket of approximately 75-100 tennis balls. Maybe when it's rainy, a staff member practices his game off the garage walls. . .

There are decent dining options nearby. Across 10th Street stands Il Giardino, an excellent, longstanding Italian restaurant. Other nearby favorites are the Raven (12th and Atlantic), the Black Angus (7th Street--where my older sister got engaged back in the 1960s), and the 11th Street Taphouse (located on the oceanfront in a Hampton Inn).

I felt I got overcharged at $41 and would think the same thing if I blew 6000 points on a redemption here. I had wanted to check out this property to see if it would surprise me in any good ways. It did not. Other than for a cheap room (especially to trigger the current promo), I would not recommend this property and would instead direct you to other Choice properties nearby, including the Quality Inn and Suites at 8th Street (the old former Hilton--oceanfront and about $63 during the winter on a AAA rate) or the Clarion Inn & Suites (25th and Atlantic but not oceanfront--can be had as low as $49 during the winter).