We stayed at the Rodeway Inn, just off I-95 exit 47 or 48 in Portland. Moving is expensive, so we were looking to save some cash and I went with the cheapest hotel I could find. The Rodeway Inn, at $64 a night for a room with two double beds, was the winner. I found this one through PriceLine.com. HotWire.com, where I got a reservation at Extended Stay America last time, wasn’t listing anything under $89 a night. $50 savings for a two night stay was nothing to sneeze at, so we went cheap. I’ll not do that again. Rodeway was passable as a place to sleep, but we spent as little time there as possible.

The office is out by Rt. 25 (Brighton Ave) and the rooms are in blocks behind a boarded-up group of retail stores–not the most promising first impression. No internet access was available (either for free or for a fee), so bringing my laptop was pretty much a waste. There was a strong smell of detergent in the air. It wasn’t patently offensive, but it certainly wasn’t pleasant either. The beds were not great, but they were clean, so we were satisfied. The shower was fine, and there was decent cable. This was a discount hotel, and you definitely don’t get more than you pay for here.

PriceLine somehow rated this hotel as two stars. I disagree, and I’m not alone. This is a one star hotel at best. It’s probably just barely worth $60 a night, and it should be used for utilitarian trips only. If you want to go sightseeing or enjoy the night life in Portland, the location is far from ideal. You can catch a bus down to the Metro PULSE for $1.25, but it’s $15-$20 for a taxi, and the last bus runs at like 10:45. The convenience to I-95 is nice, but that’s about it. I won’t tell you not to stay here–the place was safe and the staff were pleasant and helpful, but if you’re vacationing in Portland, please pony up the extra money for a better experience.

One of the areas that ESA cuts corners on to reduce costs is linens. Unless specifically requested, the linens are not changed during your stay if it’s less than one week. In fact, housekeeping does not even enter your room unless you request it. There is, of course, an extra charge if they do. This was fine with She and I, but it might bother some people. Again, cost was our number one concern, so anything to save costs was fine with us. There was soap for the sink and the shower, but strangely no shampoo or conditioner. I’m not entirely sure whether this was intentional or merely an oversight, but since I had brought my gym bag with me and not taken my little travel bottles out of it, it was not a problem for us.

The location was pretty convenient for us. Getting off I-95 at exit 42, you take your first left onto Payne Road and ESA is just over a mile on the left. The Maine Mall is another mile or two down Payne Road, and it’s about 2 miles to Route 1 in Scarborough. An on-ramp for 295 into Portland is up by the Maine Mall, so everything we needed was within easy driving distance. Nothing, however, was really within walking distance, in contrast to our previous stay in Portland.

HotWire rates this hotel as a two star establishment. I would say that’s fair, though I wouldn’t have argued with them if they’d rated it as 1.5 stars either. What ESA lacks in amenities it makes up in cost, so we were completely satisfied. There is a very good chance we will stay there again when we head up next month to finish our apartment hunting. If you’re looking for a place to sleep at night and don’t need to be within walking distance of the night life in Old Port, take a look at Extended Stay. We’re glad we did.

We’re staying at the Extended Stay America hotel in Scarborough, and we have internet access, so I’ll be able to blog about the trip while we’re up here. I’ll do a full review of the hotel when we get back, but so far are initial impressions are favorable, especially for HotWire’s price of $43 and change a night. Ok, that’s all for now. It was a long drive and I need some shuteye.

For those of you looking to head up to Maine, I wanted to remind everyone to shop around for a hotel room. We ended up booking through HotWire.com for a total of $143 for three nights (tax included). This is for a two star hotel in Scarborough, but the price we got was almost $50 cheaper (total, not per-night) than Expedia, or Travelocity for the same hotel. Even Priceline wasn’t able to come up with anything for $45 a night. I’m sure this probably won’t be the nicest hotel in the area, but it’ll serve our purposes well (our purposes being a place to sleep in the area of Portland). I will withhold the name of the hotel for now until I can write up a formal review of it when we get back. We’re bringing along our camera too, so New2Maine should have some photos of the area soon. Stay tuned…