I thought this report would be filed two weeks from now, but I have orders to travel to Kilgore next week.

Corporate’s travel web site tries to force me into a lie whenever I want to stay at my preferred hotel in Longview now, so another hotel report will be filed in one or two weeks. If I pick a hotel that is not “corporate preferred,” though it may be cheaper, I get asked why I didn’t take the corporate preferred hotel, with two answers: 1. The preferred hotel was booked, or 2. I was attending a seminar where the seminar sponsor booked the hotel. No allowance that my preference was cheaper, or that the price was the same and I favored a program, or whatever.

Corporate did do some good, though, when they picked the Houston Marriott Westchase as Halliburton’s preferred hotel when visiting either of two facilities in Houston. The pick is initially inconvenient for most of us trainers: I prefer Hilton frequent stay programs while others rack up points with Holiday Inn. To avoid getting double junk mail from Marriott, I had to call and get them to look up my frequent stay number from years ago. The phone support was helpful and found my account, with 250 points on it. I must have ordered flowers at some point, or there was some severe depreciation from my Marriott stay at Hilton Head Island a couple of years ago.

The Marriott Westchase property is newly remodeled and quite plush. Entering the lobby area I caught cigar smoke coming off the bar elevated to one side. If Houston would just ban cigarette smoking instead of all smoking we’d be better off; cigar and pipe smoke just smell better. The bar is open air, but there’s no television. Live classical entertainment is often playing on the weekends, with the player piano filling in the weekdays. The restaurant has the best breakfast deal that I have had for a while. For $4, directly billed to the company (not on my expenses!), I can get omelettes, two kinds of sausage, standard fruit fare, and either French toast or filled crepes. I’ve had good service there each morning. The lobby has a Starbuck’s, which performed normally except that instead of Frappucinos, they served Creamices which are quite similar.

The fitness room is large and partially walled off from the pool area; a light chlorine smell prevails. Three columns of double-stacked televisions in a convex bow configuration ensure that at least two screens are visible to the four treadmills, three stationary bikes, and two machines that could be described as ellipticals with cross-country ski handles. The pool is indoor/outdoor, allowing swimmers to go under a glass wall that stops at the surface.

My room is well styled with its marble counters and double-desk, similar to the Hilton Houston Southwest. The bed is firm but not as comfortable as my bed was at the Omni. Wireless Internet service was free, but the signal was Low to Fair. I will suggest WiFi repeaters for the upper floors on my comment card. There’s no Ethernet port. I was able to get a refrigerator and microwave as part of our corporate deal. The thermostat only served to cool the room. When I called to complain after my room reached 65 degrees, the engineering staff said they had turned the heat off and turned it back on shortly afterwards. The television has around 12 channels, several more than Hilton Southwest or the Omni, but no Sci-Fi channel yet. Guess I’ll have to buy Battlestar Galactica on DVD.

The bathroom is compact but well equipped. The shower is tall enough for a 6½-footer to sit under the shower head; an appreciated luxury. The shower controls were simple, didn’t stick, and worked better than the Hilton Southwest. Housekeeping neatly organizes my toiletries on a hand towel. I was initially unable to find the hair dryer; they stash it in the top part of the closet outside the bathroom. When I asked the lobby about it I noticed the clerk going through comment cards that complained about no hair dryer.

Open-air parking is adequate, but occasionally the hotel will shut off the front driveway and force everyone to come in through side driveways. This unpredictably spoils otherwise good access. The hotel offers free shuttle service to our facilities, but given the nonstandard hours I put in, I prefer to take my rental anyway.

The staff provides friendly competent service and is eager to help. The facilities are functional and well maintained. It’ll be interesting to see what I can get through the Marriott frequent stay program. At $53 a night, Corporate has negotiated a good deal for its Houston visitors.

Update, Mar. 2nd, 8:14 pm: I found the 2nd bar at the Marriott, and it does have a TV.


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