December 17th, 2004 at 8:58 am
I normally don’t like to stay at extended stay hotels; some of them have rooms that NEED cleaning every day. This one was better.
Features: Ethernet (why I was there), stove, oven, microwave, full refrigerator/freezer with ice machine, VCR, nice recliner. The kitchen area had 2 place settings and a large corningware dish to microwave stuff in. I didn’t look for pots and pans.
The Middle Eastern clerk was courteous, but he could have used a little more training in English and in his computer system; he could not find the reservation that I booked online. He checked me in anyway, thankfully. Check out is always express; no check out at the front desk, one just pulls their receipt out of a bin on the wall and drops their key in a box.
Bad things: The mattress was terrible; I couldn’t get to sleep earlier than midnight. No continental breakfast; I expected as much, given the price. Also, the price was low — $50, which cuts into the points I get from Holiday Inn. I could have taken a more expensive room, but other employees in my department were staying there, and a quick comparison would have made me look bad. You can see where my incentives lie. 
In my particular room, the shower head leaked if I tried to move it higher than the standard position. There was only one entrance to the hotel, which is bad if you’re on a one-way highway feeder (which it is) and miss it (which I didn’t).
Good things: Workout room had two treadmills, a simple nautilus, a bike, and a stairclimber. I prefer to walk, so it’s a pain when a single treadmill somewhere is taken. Despite being an extended stay hotel, they still provided same-day laundry service; a must have when staying a week or more on business. Plenty of parking. Good channel selection on the TV; it included ESPN2, ESPNNEWS and ESPN Classic. The ethernet was fast, but I could occasionally see the proxy addresses show up in the web browser, making it look like I was getting redirected to other sites.
Rooms are cleaned weekly but competently. I appreciate a room that doesn’t smell like cigarette smoke or like someone overdid it with the air freshener; these rooms seem to be getting fewer and further between despite the No Smoking signs. I would definitely recommend this hotel if you were spending your own money and needed somewhere on the West side to hole up.
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