The room size was pretty small, just large enough for a king-size bed and some walk around space. The bed was pretty firm, but the pillows were very weak and provided no support.

A round table in the corner provided the work space, and there was only one outlet available within reach of the table. The cell phone needed to be charged on the other side of the room. The remote control for the television kept flaking in and out. The TV had about 30 channels, including Food Network, SciFi, and BigTen Network.

The heater worked well, but the fan was noisy, forcing me to turn it off when I was on the phone or recording the podcast. Controls indicated that it was a fairly old unit.

Internet was provided wireless only. Competing signals from separate access points confused my laptop a couple of times, and no signal was more than 3 out of 5 bars. Still, it was better than dialing out with a modem, which maxed out at 26400. When it did work, a simple click-through acknowledgment provided access.

The bathtub’s floor was higher than the smooth bathroom floor, which necessitated some care getting out of the tub. The shower had decent temperature, but the low water pressure required me to set the shower head to as few jets as possible.

The hotel has a continental breakfast, but there was only a waffle iron and choice of cereal. The room had too many tables in it, and it was cramped. There was no room service, and I didn’t use the laundry service.

The fitness room had one treadmill and one bike, and it didn’t have a TV. There weren’t any towels or water jugs. I didn’t use it much. The chlorine smell from the indoor pool was quite strong.

Two out of the three people I saw at the front desk were friendly and greeted me, but the one I saw the morning of checkout was tied up between front desk and continental breakfast duties.

Access to the hotel is tricky in the dark, as the entrance is on one side of a hill and next to the driveway of an adjacent property. The driveway had a steep slope above the parking lot, which I imagine would make getting out of the hotel fun in winter.

The lobby of the hotel is on the second floor, but it wasn’t marked as the lobby in the elevator. I’m sure that causes a little bit of confusion.

The Comfort Inn is cheaper, $51 to the Holiday Inn’s $69. The manager had complained that the price was too low, but that was the rate set by our corporate travel web site.

The room size was a little narrow but longer, not quite enough for in-room calisthentics. The king size bed was very soft. I would have preferred something a little firmer. Four pillows and a decorative foot pillow made for a plush setup.

The desk was quite large, but it was still able to be angled so that one could watch the 40-channel TV and still work. The chair had casters and rolled well. Four outlets on the wall were plenty, and the room offered both wireless and wired internet. The wired internet worked well, leading off with a two-click login screen.

The bathroom was a little larger than normal, and the shower worked flawlessly. There was no fan, so the mirror fogged up pretty easily.

Both the room’s air conditioner and header worked well, operated with a digital thermostat on the wall.

I did not use the laundry service or room service.  The hotel’s breakfast was a combination of buffet and chef-cooked orders. The western omelette was quite good, but the $9 for breakfast was a little steep.

The fitness room had a TV, one ellipitical, one treadmill, a recombinant bike, and a weight machine.  The elliptical required some pretty fast pedaling to keep it live enough to set the controls.

The staff of the Garden Inn was very friendly and professional. The front desk was stocked in the evening was fresh cookies.  I only had one. Really.

Access to the hotel is fairly simple, but the hotel itself is quite far from most restaurants in the Wooster area.

The room was of a normal size, but due to availability I got a room with two full-size beds in it. The beds were also old, with no real resistance coming from the springs in the mattress. The pillows were pretty weak as well. Both bedside wall-mounted lamps didn’t function.

The desk by the window was of good size, but the chair lacked casters and padding. Two outlets near the table provided electricity, but one outlet was occupied by a lamp. Internet access functioned well, but all proxy settings needed to be turned off before I could get past the login screen. The hotel reset its connection about 10:30pm each night.

The TV was decent size, and the lack of a cabinet let me pivot the TV on top of its drawers. About 50 channels included Food Network, SciFi, Cartoon Network and Boomerang, ESPN/2/Classic, Disney, and some hunting channel, but there were no “premium” channels like HBO.

The bathroom was of average size. Hot and cold water worked well with good pressure.

The air conditioner worked well, but the compressor was very noisy.

I didn’t check out the laundry service.  The hotel didn’t offer room service because their restaurant was closed for the most part. They only had a lounge and a continental breakfast.  The breakfast had a waffle iron, scrambled eggs, and Brown N’ Serve sausage every day, along with orange juice and milk.  Some variety and some fruit would have been nice.

The fitness room seemed permanently closed — the lock would scan the key but still not open, and the shades on the window were drawn closed.

The hotel is part of a mini-mall, which had room for about four stores. Downtown Wooster looks nice, but none of the restaurants take American Express. Access to the hotel is fairly easy off of two streets, but repaving made parking a little more adventurous.

The hotel seemed to operate with a minimum of staff, but they were friendly and professional.

HAL pays $69 a night for the hotel, which is high given the services that weren’t provided. The close proximity to the field location is a bonus for me, but next time I’ll be looking at another hotel.

Even though I have Platinum status, my room was smaller than average, and I got no refrigerator or microwave. It was off of a hallway that had an outer door.  The outer door was locked all the time, rather than just during the night, so it was especially annoying when I left my key in my room and couldn’t walk through the hotel to get to the lobby.

The king-size bed was pretty comfortable, even and firm. The chair was a bit narrow, so it held my suitcase.

The desk had the right amount of space and height, and my arms didn’t get tired once. I had only two outlets nearby. The roller chair was comfortable, but there wasn’t much space to roll around in.

Wireless internet worked quite well, but the hotel would reset the connection around 9:30pm and put up a new login page. While the wireless worked fine, my cellular phone was almost completely neutralized inside the hotel. Skype worked well.

The TV was decent, about 34″, but the cabinet shielded a third of it from viewing at the desk. The local cable went out twice. The channel selection was good, about 40 channels, including Food Network, and SciFi.  I thought it was funny that they had CNBC but not MSNBC; the two usually go together. There were four public-access channels.

The bathroom was small, but the shower and commode worked without problems. The outside sink had good counter space. I had no problems with water temperature or pressure.

The air conditioner worked well. Housekeeping was fond of setting it to 10 where 7 worked fine. I didn’t check out the heater.

Laundry service through the hotel both exceeded and fell short of my expectations.  My polo shirts were folded, backed with cardboard, and wrapped in plastic for a nice touch.  My socks were returned clean but unfolded in a bag.

The restaurant served large portions for its meals. They made their own potato chips, and they were willing to melt gorgonzola over the chips which went nice with my steak and banana peppers sandwich. As a platinum member, I was awarded one dinner free.

The fitness room could have had better air conditioning.  One of the two treadmills didn’t work, but the stairmaster and recombinant bike worked fine. The room also had a TV with remote.

The hotel was elevated on a hill at the corner of an intersection, so while access was good from two directions, one stood the risk of scraping the underside of the car on one of the exits. The GPS found the hotel with no problems.

The hotel staff was friendly and professional, at the front desk and whenever I ordered room service.

The hotel priced at $120 online, but when I got there the HAL rate was $69/night.  When rates are that low, there’s a risk I don’t get Priority Club points, but the front desk assured me that HAL made their deal so that Priority Club points were included. At the time of this writing there is an “adjustment” on my points statement, but my points haven’t been awared yet.

Hotel space near Indiana is at a premium.  There is a Comfort Inn nearby, and a Hampton Inn is being built. The Comfort Inn may be worth checking out.

The king-size bed and combination of firm and soft pillows were what one expects from the HIE. Good space in the room allowed for a couch and recliner. The desk had plenty of space, but there only seemed to be a couple of outlets available. Wireless worked flawlessly with just a click-through page for login.

The bathroom was also spacious. Hot and cold water worked well, but the pressure was on the soft side.

The room sported a half-height refrigerator, microwave, and 32″ TV all in one cabinet. I didn’t get to check out all the channels. The heater worked fine, but the thermostat needed some maintenance.

I didn’t get to view the exercise room or the laundry facilities. The breakfast buffet was standard HIE, with some additional local fruit and cheese Danishes that were pretty good.

Access to the hotel was very simple using the hotel shuttle. The hotel has good parking.

The staff was pretty friendly, but I wondered if they didn’t have any nice rooms closer to the front desk. I think I walked through three sections of the building to get to my room.

HAL has a corporate rate of $153.05. I’m told the hotels downtown are twice that, so this is probably a pretty good deal. This Holiday Inn Express maintains the consistency of the franchise.

The two queen beds were new yet soft, and I felt a little comfortable sleeping on the edge of the mattress as a Dad has to do sometimes. Both beds featured firm and soft pillows. The additional space allowed for a couch, a full computer desk, another writing table, and three chairs.

The desk had plenty of space and a good chair. Three outlets were available, and there were options for wire and wireless internet. I initially had trouble with the networking, because their system doesn’t tell web browsers when an address is bad. Wireless networking was also only 3/5 bars at the end of the floor. Wired worked great. There was a 30-second login page where an ad displayed. Tech note: turn off proxies.

The bathroom had decent space and good shelf space management. The floor had a pretty cool feature: in a checkerboard pattern, half of the tiles were absorbent marble while half were gloss. This gave the advantage of easy clean-up for half the spots and a safe non-slick surface for the other half. One bad note: the shower bar had looked like someone hung on it and pulled it down. Water pressure was good, and hot water was immediate.

The half-height refrigerator and the space saver microwave worked fine. There is a sink outside the bathroom, but it didn’t have a stopper. The water coming out of that tap actually tasted worse than what came out of the bathroom tap.

The air conditioner took a while to come on after dropping the thermostat, but worked after that. The heater also worked fine.

We didn’t get to test the laundry facilities. The fitness room had an elliptical and a treadmill, but I didn’t get to try them out. The heated indoor pool was pretty spacious. The hot tub was very hot, and the surface looked a little slimy. We didn’t go in.

The TV was pretty big, about 38″ diagonally. I didn’t get to see how many channels. The TV’s next-to-silent volume setting was still appreciably loud, but it didn’t wake the kids.

The HIE standard buffet got hit pretty hard the first morning, and biscuits and gravy were the “local specialty.” The fruit was exhausted, so I ended up going with a bagel and a couple of muffins. We ordered food from local restaurants Memories and Zeppe’s. Both were pretty good and gave us plenty.

Hotel access is simple once you navigate around the junction of I-77 and the I-80 turnpike. There is plenty of parking, but one particular concrete slab across a strategic island could have benefited from a wheelchair ramp.

The staff was very friendly, helping us out when there were no towels at the pool and recommending good local fare. Housekeeping was working the rooms early and let us eat breakfast before cleaning the room.

The Holiday Inn web site starts this hotel at $90 a night, and that’s fairly reasonable. This hotel is a credit to brand consistency, and if there weren’t so many hotels in the area to try out, we’d consider coming back.

Rooms are organized in buildings of two floors, four rooms per floor. My room was twice the size of a standard room; half for couch, TV, and bed, and the other half for the half-kitchen and bathroom.

I had trouble sleeping on the very firm bed with its very soft pillows. The railroad is also pretty close and quite loud. The central air conditioner worked very well and easy to control with the digital thermostat on the wall.

The couch, padded chair, and rolling desk chair were reasonably comfortable. At the desk five power outlets are available at the wall and two more at the lamp. One is given a choice of wire or wireless internet. The wireless signal was a little weak, 3/5 bars, but the wired Ethernet worked fine. There is a simple “I agree to terms” login screen.

The bathroom had a shower and toilet that were a little cramped but good counter space outside. The water had decent pressure and good warmth, but maintenance had to shut the water off twice during my stay to effect repairs on the premises.

The kitchen had four place settings and silverware, two pans, a skillet, and a good knife and spatula selection. The half-size dishwasher was louder than mine at home but worked well. The full refrigerator/freezer and oven had basic features and worked fine. The kitchen sink even had a garbage disposal.

Laundry service was quite good, if a little pricey. All clothing was washed as specified, and staff hung the finished clothes in the closet, a nice touch.

The lobby had a good free breakfast, including heated items like pancakes and sausage in catering bins. There was a good selection of rolls, cereals, and beverages.

The Inn has its pool outside, with a combination tennis and basketball court. The fitness room had two treadmills, a bike, and a stair climber. One treadmill didn’t work, and the other treadmill had no place to store a hotel key or a water bottle.

There are only two entrances to the Inn despite its large frontage. The parking lot has wide drainage ditches through the lot which can test the shocks of large cars. There is plenty of parking. The hotel is easy to find from California Avenue, but the Hertz NeverLost system put it on the wrong side of the road.

The Residence Inn has a normal rate of $95 a room, a little more expensive than a hotel room but can pay out if the refrigerator is stocked. I wouldn’t want to cook my food all the time, but it was a nice change. This stay kept me a Marriott silver member for another year.

I usually do not like extended stay hotels. Housekeeping usually doesn’t make the bed every day or take the trash out. The beds are usually worn out or in some way quite uncomfortable.

The rooms stand out, though, because they have their own half-kitchens. A full refrigerator and an electric stove/oven are standard issue. One can actually cook, which is a cool way to stay a little healthier and save money by not tipping in restaurants. On the other hand, this also means a trip to the grocery store to stock up.

This particular extended stay has been a nice change, better than most extended stays I’ve been in. I wouldn’t do it all the time, though, because the extended stays that are cheap enough to compete with hotels are usually of significantly lower quality than said hotels.

I was upgraded to a king suite, which was really one large room instead of two rooms. There was plenty of room for a couch, coffee table, and a kitchenette with a refrigerator and microwave. The 30″ TV had an impressive channel selection, including HBO/HBO2, ESPN/2/News/Classic, MTV/MTV2, Discovery, Food Network, and Noggin/Sprout/Disney.

Standard firm and soft pillows completed the bed, which was firm and comfortable. The wall thermostat controlled the A/C at the wall. The air conditioner worked very well: the housekeeping staff had bumped the set point down to 55, and I had a chilly surprise when I came into the room yesterday evening.

The room had an Enternet jack and cable, but it never worked. Fortunately, the WiFi worked reliabily, with only a confirmation for a login screen. The desk had two outlets, which is a little shy for a business traveler.

The bathroom had decent room and average counter space. The floor was very slippery when wet. The sink’s water pressure was fine, but the shower was consistently weak. This morning I ran out of hot water.

The hotel only offered to send out for dry cleaning. They did have one washer and dryer which needed coins, but the lock box had been removed so one could get his/her money back. Soap and dryer sheets were available at the front desk.

The HIE standard buffet included egg rounds that were folded in half, some with cheese and some without. The bacon wasn’t very good, but the sausage was all right.

The hotel had a small indoor pool, and the fitness room contained one bike, one treadmill, and one elliptical. The treadmill was little noisy, but the elliptical worked fine.

The hotel’s access was a little tricky, requiring a couple of turns that looked like the road was taking one away from the hotel. Parking was sufficient.

Normally a corporate rate of $85, I was charged $100/room for a guarantee of non-smoking. If there is a next time, I may try the Hampton Inn across the way.

I was upgraded to a king room with 9′ ceilings. The desk had plenty of room for my electronics and books. The lamp had two electrical outlets, but the wall had an additional three outlets available. The desk chair was comfortable and easily adjustable. An ethernet jack allowed for wired internet; the wireless internet reset a couple of times an evening. A nice touch: they provided the ethernet cable in the desk.

The room sported a one-third-height refrigerator and a small microwave. They were set in a cabinet which provided ample counter space outside of the bathroom. The TV was a little short on channels, about 15 with HBO.

The bathroom was average size with reasonable counter space. The shower didn’t warm up as well as I would have liked. The water pressure was fine. There was a slight smell coming out of the sink tap when I ran water, making teeth brushing interesting.

The bed was comfortable, but the pillows were a little light. The alarm clock worked very well, and it had a cable which one could plug into any headphone jack on an iPod, laptop, whatever.

Air conditioning and heating was handled with a dual unit under the window and controlled by a thermostat on the wall. I didn’t believe the thermometer report, but the unit heated and cooled fine.

The exercise room was a little small, with one recombinant bike, one elliptical, and one treadmill. All of the equipment worked fine, but the treadmill reported that it could use some maintenance.

I didn’t get to use the restaurant or order room service. Laundry was expensive, but they followed my instructions precisely, even to the point of not pressing my jeans.

Access to the hotel requires a turn south from Rosedale Highway and then a right turn onto Marriott Drive. There is plenty of parking around the hotel.

I had some good staff and some average staff. One evening I went down to the hotel store for some bottled water and groceries. I’d received two bottled waters upon check-in, but I wanted more. They charged $1.50 for the water. I’d joked, asking if they could check me in and out so that I could get more bottled water. The front desk clerk saw that I was here for as long as I was, and gave me six bottles for free.

HAL gets a corporate rate of $89/night, which is about the average for the Bakersfield area. This stay was long enough to keep my silver point status. If I have to come back to Bakersfield, I’ll get a report from that Holiday Inn Select downtown.

Other than the smell from the tap, the Hilton Garden Inn lives up to its consistency.