Quality Inn - Petersburg, Virginia

We found the Quality Inn in Petersburg, Virginia off of Interstate 95 while we were traveling down to Myrtle Beach. We had one of those discount coupon guides for the highway and the Quality Inn grabbed our attention because it was one of the least expensive and it advertised a complimentary hot breakfast.

Turns out the hotel is easily accessible from I95, being not even a mile down the road from the highway. There in plenty of parking surrounding the hotel. The lobby is, as you'd expect up in the front of the hotel, as is the pool (which is an outdoor pool).

Checking In and Out

Checking in at the Quality Inn was easy. We had arrived around 9 at night so there wasn't any line. We checked what rooms were available, handed over our coupon, provided some information and we were ready to go with our room keys, all within about 5 minutes or so. With the discount coupon the room cost us $59 and I don't think it would have been all that much more if we didn't have the coupon - like $65.

Checking out in the morning was really easy. We just handed over the room keys, signed the bill and we were off.

Our Room

We had a room on the second floor of the hotel and it turns out that there is only stair access to the second floor. For us with small bags just for the night, it was not a big deal, but if you've got a lot of luggage or have trouble with stairs, you'll have to speak up when you're checking in.

The room that we had was a standard room with a king sized bed. In addition to the king-sized bed, we had a small dresser that doubled as a TV stand, along with a desk and a chair in the main part of the room. In the back of the room was the bathroom, where the sink and mirror were in an alcove at the back, and then the shower and the toilet were in a separate room off of that.

After having gotten in, I only had two problems with the room and one was pretty minor. The minor complaint was that the room with the the toilet and shower was really too small for the two of them. You literally had to push the door past the toilet (it rubbed against it) to get it to close when you wanted to use the room since the space was so tight. A pain, but not really a big deal. My partner and I just laughed when we saw it.

The other problem was a bit more of a bother, since the room did have a distinct smell of smoke to it. I found this to be more annoying, especially since the room was a non-smoking room. We couldn't open any of the windows, so we turned on the a/c with the fan on high and that helped at least freshen it up a bit.

When it came time to go to sleep, the bed was comfortable enough for a night or two of sleeping and there were enough pillows too for the both of us.

Breakfast

I think I was a bit miffed with breakfast, but considering the price of the room and the constraints they probably operate under, I can understand what we had for breakfast.

You never quite know what you'll get when a hotel advertises a complimentary breakfast, so I wasn't quite sure what I would see when we walked into the breakfast area, but my first though was "where is the hot food." The complimentary hot breakfast turned out to be more like a 'fast food hot breakfast buffet' since for any of the hot items (eggs, sausage, and french toast), you had to microwave first to warm them up (they were kept already cooked and refrigerated for you to use). While somewhat strange, it turns out that they didn't taste all that bad (I actually liked the french toast) and with the other stuff they had, you could have a filling breakfast. What else was there? In addition to the eggs, sausage and french toast, there were muffins, fresh fruit, cereal, bagels and toast. You could get coffee or juice to drink too.

It wasn't quite the hot breakfast I was expecting, but I left feeling full and it didn't taste all that bad in the end.

In the end

I have to admit to being somewhat disappointed with the hot breakfast, but overall I thought this was a decent hotel. If I had to stay in the area again, I wouldn't mind staying here, since I know what I'll be getting and I thought the room itself was pretty good for what we were paying.