These last weeks I have been staying at the Hilton Houston Southwest on 59 Highway, a.k.a. the Southwest Freeway.

I was able to negotiate what seems to be an unheard of deal with the sales department: free high-speed internet and free breakfast buffet with a corporate rate of $69. According to the sales manager, this was cheaper than the employee discount. They weren’t able to grant me the same deal for the next three week stint, so my money again is going elsewhere.

The room is not for extended stay purposes; there is no refrigerator or microwave. The desk is large and is actually in two pieces; the lower section can be wheeled out on casters and moved anywhere. The king size bed is of normal stiffness for a nicer hotel but not as comfortable as the Omni. The TV has just 10 channels. I had to search all over the room to plug in the laptop, the cell phone, and the PDA all at the same time. The room has enough space to exercise with a Tae-Bo routine.

The fitness room is rather large, about double the size of their hotel rooms. They have an elliptical, which I used all week, along with three treadmills and five or so stationary bikes. The room also sported an incline bench for sit-ups, but there areno weights. People have the option of watching TV or playing a radio that on a platform bolted to the wall, but I prefer to wear my Bose headphones and listen to my own music.

The breakfast buffet has a good selection of hot food; scrambled eggs, cubed fried potatoes, bacon, sausage (not very spicy), grits, and biscuits and gravy. There is also a waiter who could cook up an omelette to order, and he handled my orders without error. The bar is merely an open-air platform about 2 feet above the common floor. There is a big-screen TV, but the bar itself is small with only room for 4 people. There are tables near the TV, where I watched the Pro Bowl on Sunday.

Laundry service was performed according to request, but I had to call the front desk each time to make sure the clothes were delivered to my room. Room service was relatively inexpensive if salads or chicken entrees were desired, but beef and fish were priced twice as high. The Cobb salad I ordered was fresh and large.

Access to the hotel is good: there are two ways of getting in, and one of the ways lets me take a back road to a stoplight that is rarely crowded. The other is the feeder onto the 59 highway.

The value is good for the deal that I negotiated, but for the next three weeks stint, they wanted to raise my rate $10/night plus have me give up either the free internet or the free breakfast. No sale.


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