Necessary Roughness

For $67 a night or 4000 TripRewards points one may stay at the Ramada Cleveland Airport South. Ramada is similar to Holiday Inn (Green) in that you don’t know what you’re going to get.

This Ramada features a bank-style drive-through check-in procedure. Drive up, pick up your keys, and drive to the door. Not a bad feature for a motel, but it could be a bad indication were this hotel in a scary neighborhood.

The dual queen-size beds were comfortable, but the pillows were flat. Heating and air conditioning were provided by a normal window unit, but we didn’t get to try it out due to the nice weather. The Dish-provided TV service was nominal, around 20 channels. We got SciFi but not Disney. Wireless internet access connected well, but I got a lot of errors that web pages were unavailable. They would show up after retrying.

The room was very clean, something I worried a little about after my experience with Ramada in Lafayette, LA. There was a single crack in the bathroom ceiling, but other than that there were no signs of sloppy maintenance. There were enough electrical outlets for all my chargers. The room did not have a refrigerator or a microwave; we didn’t ask for one. Thankfully the ice machine never ran out of ice.

The bathroom counter was outside the bathroom itself and provided decent counter space. The bathroom itself was open enough that one could sit comfortably. The bathtub and shower were a little small. The hot water was more than adequate: they may have their hot water heater turned up too high. We had informed the front desk that there were four people in our room, but we still had to ask for extra washrags and towels.

If you stay at this motel, go get your own food. We got delivery quotes for 40 minutes from Pizza Hut Sunday night and Olive Garden Monday night. On Sunday night, we called Pizza Hut back to find out they waited 15 minutes to key in our order into their computer. On Monday night, the Olive Garden driver said she was running 8 delivery orders. No wonder our food was cold. Both restaurants took 1¼-1½ hours for the food to show up.

The continental breakfast was served in a spacious room and had plenty of fruit, rolls, and cereal. A microwave was available.

The Ramada website brags about a pool here. It is a seasonal outdoor pool, unavailable in late November. This disappointed one of my kids. There are no fitness facilities. They have two washers and four dryers, but we didn’t do any laundry.

The exits were narrow but well marked. The drive-through was far enough in that a confused driver doesn’t miss it.

I got good service from the personnel at the front desk and in the continental breakfast area. The person who delivered the extra towels Sunday night could have used some instruction in manners.

This Ramada is a decent motel. The price seems high for a motel, but it is near the Cleveland airport. Go in with your expectations similar to a Motel 6, and you won’t be disappointed.