The hotel recently went through a $25 million renovation, completed in April 2014. Along with updates to the guest rooms, the lobby looks brand new and the wine bar was looking pretty fancy, too. The lobby was large and open, very spacious with many sitting areas. The bones of the hotel looked to be an Embassy Suites in a past life (the tell-tale perimeter of rooms with no ceiling for the lobby was a dead giveaway), but the designer (New York-based Anna Busta) had done well in changing the design to make the 1975 building look modern and fresh.

One of my favorite aspects of the lobby was the 25-story glass chandelier which added more than a little chic-ness to the space.

Glass Chandelier that stretched the entire 27 floors

And the glass chandelier keeps going…

Coupled with the floating wooden staircase, the hotel was hipper than any Embassy Suite ever dared to be. The wine bar, although we didn’t spend much time in it, was fancier than I’d expect (it even had a fireplace!) and a great place to grab a drink– especially if you’re staying at the hotel for business. It had a couple of guests when I dropped by early in the afternoon, so apparently I’m not the only one to like it.

We were assigned a handicapped room which gave us more space but made the bathroom a little difficult to maneuver (light switches + shower controls lower than normal).

Bedroom

Work space

Closet

Bathroom with walk-in shower

The bedroom was comfortable and homey– decorated with plenty of picture frames and remembrances from Nashville. The big window overlooked the city center (the building is the 12th tallest in Nashville), so ask for a higher floor at check-in for a better view.

If you’re looking for a good hotel located right in the downtown area within easy walking distance to everything — and The Heritage and The Omni are a little over budget for your weekend getaway — the Sheraton Nashville is a great option. Plus, the new renovations make the hotel so fresh and clean.

The post Sheraton Nashville Downtown Review – Nashville, TN first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

This brand new building houses the Park Hyatt in the first 25 floors

BOOKING

Although Jeffrey always handles hotel bookings, I had absolutely no hope of staying at the new Park Hyatt New York — Jeffrey had told me that he had checked and you couldn’t book it with points just yet. He had called Hyatt Gold Passport and asked about booking with a Points + Cash rate and then applying a Diamond Suite upgrade to the reservation. The phone rep said that since the Hyatt New York is a “special property, they do not participate in the suite upgrade program.” She only offered him a suite upgrade rate of 30,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points + $400 per night — no thanks. But, when he went online a few days later (and right before our trip), they were offering base rooms (Park Deluxe King) for 30,000 points so he booked it!

CHECK-IN

The property is smack-dab in the middle of Midtown and very convenient to subway lines. We were dropped off at the corner of 57th and 7th and had just a 1/2 block stroll over to the hotel.

Right before we got to the hotel, Jeffrey logged into his Hyatt app to confirm the reservation and noted that instead of being listed as 30,000 Hyatt points, the rate was listed at $623.14–this might shed some light on how Hyatt corporate and individual properties transfer points and money. Presumably, the Park Hyatt New York received $623 from Hyatt Gold Passport for our stay?

I’m skipping ahead a bit but this might explain why Jeffrey earned 3,510 points on an award stay (full award stay, not points + cash):

Multiple bellmen were waiting on the sidewalk of the 90-story One57 tower to greet us, although none insisted upon carrying our baggage. Although we considered this to be a perk because we feel much more comfortable managing our own luggage, some Park Hyatt guests may think otherwise. The 90-story tower is humungous, but only the first 25 floors are part of the Park Hyatt. After walking through two sets of double doors (that swing with a touch of one of the bellman’s remote controls), we walked in to find a mini reservation/check-in desk. When we arrived, though, they were having trouble with their iPads and escorted us onto an elevator to the main lobby and main reception area for our check-in. This was fine with as the downstairs lobby was rather informal and to be rushed into checking in at a property like the Park Hyatt New York would have been questionable to me. I picture the business traveler or leisure traveling spending $6,000+ over a five-night stay in the city and being rushed through a check-in and given a key as quickly as possible– I don’t care who you are and whether you’re spending personal money, OPM (other people’s money) or using your Hyatt points, if the property fetches in the $900+/night range, you’re at least implicitly asking for some personal treatment, and that entails a proper, formal check-in upstairs.

Once upstairs, we were given the check-in spiel and told that we’d been upgraded from the base room to a Park Studio Suite — I’ll take it! We were offered the option of a 4pm checkout and graciously accepted as we had a late flight out. As a Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond member, we were told that we had a $60 per person voucher on our account for breakfast each day. They said this could be taken in the main restaurant, the bar area or by using room service/in-room dining.

Sitting area near the main reception area

Reception Area

The less formal Living Room lounge– adjacent to the more formal Back Room restaurant

More of The Living Room lounge

The hallway leading to our room

ROOM

The receptionist escorted us up to our 9th floor suite, number 907, which overlooked 57th Street with views of Carnegie Hall and views as far down as 6th Avenue. She explained the many great amenities of the room and also mentioned that we could have up to 2 items pressed as part of their complimentary service.

The room begins with a hallway with a huge trunk at the end. Once at the end of the hallway, a turn leads you to the bathroom on the right and the bedroom then sitting area on the left.

Park Studio Suite

Park Studio Suite sitting area

Park Studio Suite

Park Studio Suite bedroom

All of the room was very high tech and highly automated. An iPad Mini was available in the room which housed information about the hotel and also allowed for room service ordering. I used the app to request a bucket of ice and had a knock at the room in about 5 minutes.

Also, the number one perk in my book of any hotel these days is a Nespresso machine:

BATHROOM

The bathroom is large and roomy with a door separating the toilet and another door to the shower. A large bathtub is in the main part of the bathroom next to the sink (with no door separating the tub from the bedroom). The toiletries all fit the natural theme of the room — very natural, olive oil/aloe vera based products.

My favorite part of the bathroom is the nightlight– when you wake up in the middle of the night, there’s a small motion sensor that turns on a very faint light, just enough to see but not enough to even begin to wake you up. It sounds a little unnecessary, but I can’t count the number of times I’ve stumbled around a completely dark hotel bathroom looking for a light switch.  

Jeffrey’s favorite part? The TV in the mirror.

Another cool perk in the Park Hyatt’s bathroom is in the shower. There’s a mirror built into the wall (presumably for shaving your face) and, when the shower is first turned on, it immediately fogs up. But, soon, the defogger activates and the mirror is defogged… what?! The Park Hyatt is on top of the little details.

One last note about the bathroom:  the white tile and bright lighting made the room feel open and spacious. And, unlike other hotel’s bathrooms (like the Andaz Wall Street), I wouldn’t have a problem sharing this room with someone other than my husband. The new trend of showers with no doors in a wide open space is fine except if you’re traveling with your kids or friends– or really anyone where a little bit of privacy goes a long way.

Park Studio Suite bathroom

Park Studio Suite bathroom

Park Studio Suite shower

Park Studio Suite bathtub

SERVICE 

The service at the hotel, unsurprisingly, has been fantastic. Like all other Park Hyatts, the extra mile goes a long way in impressive guests and making a lasting impression. After checking in, we left the hotel for a few hours to explore and returned to a bottle of champagne on ice waiting for us. An accompanying note congratulated us on our anniversary and hoped we were having a good time celebrating our special day. Again, the extra mile was notable and much appreciated. Little touches like this make you remember the Park Hyatt’s extra touch when planning a future celebration.

Celebration Champagne (or… prosecco)!

Celebration Prosecco!

THE GYM AND POOL

The pool, on the 25th floor, is a whopping 65 feet long, one of the longest pools in Manhattan hotels. With a wall of windows, the view of Carnegie Hall from the pool is breathtaking.

The gym is larger than I expected, with plenty of options. Although my preferred exercise that weekend was walking around to explore, the spacious gym was a dream.

RESTAURANT

As a Hyatt Diamond member we had breakfast included with the room and could spend up to $60 each. While room service is nice, and available as the Hyatt Diamond breakfast amenity, we didn’t want to miss out on a meal in the main restaurant so we headed down to the Back Room, the Park Hyatt New York’s in house restaurant. The chef, Sebastien Archambault, hails from the Park Hyatt Washington’s famous Blue Duck Tavern–review attached–(a favorite of President Obama). If you think it’s hard to spend $120 for two at a hotel breakfast, think again. I tried the WAGYU SIRLOIN ($48) with crispy poached egg and onion and Jeffrey tried the 57TH STREET FISH PLATTER ($23), complete with smoked salmon and pickled herring. Those entrees paired with a $13 juice each quickly brought us up to our $120 target. The steak was cooked to a perfect medium and was so delicious that it melted in my mouth. Although it was a nice portion, I had no problem finishing the plate – it was the perfect amount of food. Jeffrey’s fish plate was tasty, too, and a nice substitute for the traditional egg breakfast. The smoked salmon was full of flavor and paired perfectly with the fish-roe-topped-cream cheese.

While we were in a slight hurry to get on with our day, our breakfast took about one hour from start to finish. It seemed that most people wanted to sit and enjoy their time in the restaurant rather than rush. Even after we were finished, the waiter mentioned something about relaxing and Jeffrey just asked for the check instead. The extra time wasn’t annoying — rather, we appreciated the unhurried attittude of the waitstaff and would much prefer a slightly longer breakfast than a rushed one. This unhurried breakfast was an interesting carry-through on the belief that Park Hyatt is a destination in and of itself, so no need to hurry out the door for bigger and better experiences.

The Back Room restaurant

The Back Room restaurant

The Back Room’s menu

The Back Room

Wagyu Steak

57th Street Fish Platter

BOTTOM LINE: The Park Hyatt’s luxury, prominent location and cozy suites made our celebratory weekend a trip to remember. I liked our stay so much that I’m trying my best to talk Jeffrey into buying one of the condos in the One57 tower above the Park Hyatt. The only problem so far is the $90 million price tag.

The post Park Hyatt New York Review – New York, NY first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

Booking

I had an opportunity to stay at the St. Regis Washington DC for just a night after a flight cancellation kept me in DC an extra night (“weather related” cancellation so no hotel voucher for me–thanks for nothing, Delta!) I jumped online and saw that there was last minute availability at the Fed/Gov’t rate (interestingly, it was the only Starwood property with the rate available but has the highest normal rates). I jumped back on The Metro from #DCA, got off at Farragut West and then had a short 2-block walk to the hotel.

Check-in

The check-in desk seemed somewhat small for a hotel of this size — maybe the average stay here is longer than at a Westin or Sheraton, thus having to handle fewer check-ins/outs? I had the choice between “Deluxe King” and “Superior King” and, because they were the same price, I booked the Superior room, figuring that a Superior is superior to a Deluxe–I maintain that my logic is sound although it turned out to be wrong in this case. Here are the St. Regis rooms listed in order (sample pricing based on a 2-night, midweek stay July 30-Aug 1, 2013).

– $395 Superior Room **BOOKED**
– $425 Deluxe Room
– $455 Premier Deluxe Room
– $475 Grand Luxe Room
– $595 Metropolitan Suite

(All below have seperate living room)
– $695 Caroline Astor Suite **UPGRADED TO**
– $1,195 St. Regis Suite
– $3,395 Empire Suite
– $???? Presidential Suite

When I checked in, the agent thanked me for being a Platinum Starwood member and said that I would be upgraded to the “Caroline Astor Suite.”

Floor plans of all rooms available online: here

I explained that all I had were the clothes on my back and he told me a toiletry kit would be “sent right up.” I was in room 310, a corner room in the southwest corner of the building facing 16th street & towards I street  (665-700 ft sq).

The room

Compared to the Park Hyatt Washington (PH), the property has a much smaller footprint but still allows for spacious rooms. Felt a lot more luxurious than the PH. More of a classic luxury than the PH, which seemed more modern.

Entering the room, you first saw a hallway with 2 classic paintings of old French manors and a closet. This opened up to the living room, with sofa, chairs, table and a TV. Again, everything feels rather stately and regal. A few pieces of fresh fruit (still chilled and wet from being washed) were waiting on the table–maybe the butler rushed it in while I was checking in? They saved the corner for the bedroom, which allowed tons of natural light to pour in. All of the cabinets were built-ins, the TV hidden from view. The decor was pretty stately as well, with lots of gold and blue.

First world problem gripe: My one complaint about some of these nicer, luxury hotels is the lack of an in-room coffee maker. Sometimes you just want to make a quick cup. Sure, in the case of St. Regis, if you happen to be staying in a suite, you can request coffee, tea or juices 24×7 to be delivered as part of the butler service. And the Park Hyatt Washington provides coffee to all guests in the lobby all morning–which is a hassle in practice. The best execution providing guests with the option of coffee but also keeping it “upscale” (because those single serve coffee makers get rather nasty) is the Park Hyatt Vendome that had an Nespresso Maker in every room with numerous pods to use–all complimentary.

The bathroom

Extremely well done bathroom, tiled walls–elegant, classic and homely. Shower had an enoroumous amount of pressure and the toilet was in a seperate room. It was just a tad on the cramped side. Coolest part? There’s a fricken TV inside the mirror. That’s right, you an stare at yourself all while staring at the TV!

The St. Regis Butler service

Only if you’re in a suite do they provide their “St. Regis Butler Service.” Because I was upgraded to a suite, this service was included:

– Offering packing/unpacking services (didn’t use although I could get used to a personal valet to handle my luggage)
– Complimentary garment pressing (2 pieces per stay–didn’t use)
– Fresh fruit in room upon arrival (delicious and ate every last bite)
– Juice/tea service in the mornings (requested coffee in morning)

So really, the only run-ins I had with my “butler” was right after arrival when I requested toiletries upon check-in and for the morning coffee service. But, when I look back on it, maybe the bellman brought me my toiletries–who knows…there’s a fine line. So I guess my one official run in with the butler was when I called to order coffee and and requested a hair comb in the morning. Within 10 minutes the butler had arrived with a French press pot of coffee on a silver tray and a newspaper. She set the coffee down, introduced herself and explained, while reaching for a business card, that she’d be my butler for the day. Listen, St. Regis, I’m far from being either in the butler business or a frequent recipient of butler-type services, but the business card was a little much. It’s almost as if they go out of their way to market this “famed” butler service, but, at the end of the day, it’s just a room service-server dressed in a suit. That being said, she was extremely polite and I found the service to pretty good–although a little…sterile.

The Gym

The gym was quite small and in the basement so no exterior windows. Only a few cardio machines and no free weights — hardly enough space to accommodate guests for this size of a hotel. So, ample but nothing impressive. The hotel is one step ahead of you, though, and offers passes to a nearby gym with a better facility–check out that St. Regis service.

Lobby/bar/restaurant

The lobby was quite cozy feeling:  lots of sofas, chairs and chandeliers. The lobby transitioned into a large bar that is part of the restaurant–Decanter. Adour, the Alain Ducasse restaurant that used to occupy the space, closed in May and now Decanter has taken its spot. Not sure why the change because Adour was apparently a fan-favorite. Maybe St. Regis grew tired of the royalties paid to Ducasse? Either way, what little reviews there are of Decanter are all glowing and the same chef from the old restaurant is sticking around.

BOTTOM LINE: Really enjoyed my stay at the St. Regis Washington DC and look forward to returning. The room was awesome, the service great and all in a central location.

The post St. Regis Washington, D.C. Review first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

Hotel Lobby/Common Areas: Parking is expensive, with an above-average lobby bar on the ground level with large windows overlooking the street. Lots of expansive lobbies in the conference room section of hotel.

Gym: The “Westin Workout” aka the gym is above average as well, again likely attributed to the fact that the hotel is relatively new. Fully equipped locker room with showers, lockers and sauna.

Location: Location is really on the outskirts of “downtown” Charlotte, but it’s a very short walk to all of the hotspots in the city. The hotel has its own stop on the LYNX light rail line and is right next to the convention center.

BOTTOM LINE: When staying in Charlotte this new(er) Westin is my choice out of all Starwood hotels.

“Deluxe King” room

View from the room on 25th floor overlooking all of downtown Charlotte

Large gym with plenty of light

Lobby bar

Rocking its very own light rail stop

The post The Westin Charlotte, North Carolina first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

The U.S. Grant is a little bit famous: it has hosted 12+ US Presidents over its 100 year history and is definitely one of more historic hotels in downtown.

Room: As it is part of Starwood’s “Luxury Collection” they have absolutely tried to give it the feel of a luxurious hotel. All the rooms and hallways have very dark carpet with light, creme colored walls. They mix that with crown molding, and lots of dark browns and dark blues to try and give it that sleek, luxurious feel. Be weary of the few rooms that have a terrible view, like mine. Don’t be afraid to ask for a switch.

Hotel Lobby/Common Areas: Huge lobby with very tall ceilings and enough shiny chandeliers to terribly distract any boy (and grown ass man)

Location: The location is great, while not on the water like some hotels you’re in a great spot to hit any and all of downtown San Diego.

BOTTOM LINE: Pretty cool hotel with some actual history that you can earn Starpoints while staying it. And, given its reasonable price, you might as well stay here rather than a generic Sheraton, Westin or W Hotel. Just make sure to request a room without a horrible view.

Awesome view overlooking the hotel, should have switched rooms…

If you’re stuck in one of these guys, like me: SWITCH ROOMS!

The post The US GRANT – San Diego, California first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

Room: Room is about average, maybe slightly larger than average.
Pros: Large work desk area, room looks and feels fresh, newly renovated. Free WiFi in the rooms.
Cons: Very flimsy/crappy closet situation. All other furniture feels substantial but closet looks like one you would see at a very cheap apartment on a episode of COPS.

Hotel Lobby/Common Areas: Free parking and free WiFi– in the era of nickel and dimming, it’s always a major plus. The expansive lobby opens up to the lobby bar and restaurant, making for a very open-feeling floor plan which I liked a lot.

Gym: The best part of the hotel, you ask? By far, the gym! Since the hotel shares a parking lot with Fitness Connection, they’ll just give hotel guests day passes to use their facilities instead of operating their own. What this means for you: access to a FULL gym, with dozens of cardio machines, an indoor pool, sauna, free weights etc… Now, Fitness Connection is no paradise, in fact it’s a very run-down, cheap-looking gym, but, given the added equipment, you’ll surely like it better than whatever Sheraton would have thrown together for you.

Location: Offset in large business park. There’s definitely not anything within walking distance, but, if you’re staying here, it’s likely for a conference at the hotel or business very close by. It is close to the airport, and they offer free pick up.

BOTTOM LINE: When I have to stay in the area, I think I’ll go out of my way to stay at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention Center if only because the gym is awesome. Throw in the better-than-normal lobby/bar and up-to-par rooms, and you’ve got yourself a decent hotel stay.

Very cheap closet situation

View from the room

Great selection of local craft beers on tap

The post Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention Center – Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

Hotel Lobby/Common Areas: Free parking and free WiFi. The hotel restaurant/bar is in a seperate building, but seemed to be a little above par. Hotel lobby area looked freshly renovated, but there’s not much good room to get a drink and/or get work done.

Gym: Pretty average.

Location: Location was fine (convenient to I-40), but nothing within walking distance.

BOTTOM LINE: This was one of the more dead-seeming hotels, the rooms are very comfortable feeling but way too small. The location is ok and everything really just average. If you need a place to stay, I recommend the Aloft Chapel Hill instead. 

Tiny sink area

What’s that?! A balcony with a door that actually opens overlooking the pool? Rare for any hotel these days, nice feature I guess.

Loving the Knight Ryder meets other crappy 80s show style ads plastered around for Don Shula’s 347 Grill.

The post Sheraton Chapel Hill Hotel – Chapel Hill, North Carolina first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

Ready to dive into some grub, I was dramatically torn between walking about 200 yards across the street to Bone Fish Grill (which I can say from experience that it is delicious) or give the main hotel restaurant a chance. Given that it was cold and rainy and I was feeling particularly lazy, I settled on Joseph’s Restaurant.

I wandered into the huge restaurant which had a decent amount of ambiance. Despite being close to empty, there was nothing awkward about this one. The theme is very generic New Orleans / Anytown, Europe with its broad iron decorations and low, bistro-style lighting. The windows of the restaurant open up to a long corridor of the hotel, further emphasizing my theories about their Vegas-style attempt.

Looking over the menu, there were all the very typical cater-to-everyone hotel restaurant choices. Burgers and sandwiches all day for $11-ish. Tuna, salmon, trout, crab cakes, chicken, pork chops, omelet, squid/calamari, shrimp, pastrami, catfish, corned beef, skirt steak, filet mignon… you name the protein and they’ll cook it up for you.

They had a good beer selection for around $4.75 each.  All the usual suspects plus a few less common but delicious imports (Hoegaarden, Pilsner Urquell) and a few crafts. I spotted the Great Lakes Brewing Co.’s Edmund Fitzgerald porter (a craft beer with a 96% on beer advocate ?! Well done, Sheraton) and thought it was great.

I ordered the SEARED NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAIN TROUT ($21.50) served over smoked bacon and shrimp risotto, haricot verts and a Dijon hollandaise. At first, the trout tasted fresh enough and the skin-on preparation put me a bit more at ease.  But after a few bites, I realized how dry the trout actually was. The Dijon hollandaise was mild and mainly just a decent buttery sauce. The super cheesy risotto was delicious with a great bacon flavor and a hefty portion of salt. The green beans were, again, very well salted (not salted well, mind you) and coated in enough butter that they couldn’t possibly have tasted bad. I genuinely started off liking all of the food, but then realized that, when you overcook the proteins and overuse butter and salt, it’s not a sign of good food, it’s the sign of using crappy ingredients and not very skilled chefs.

BOTTOM LINE: Extremely average hotel food–they cook a lot but probably don’t do any of it well. If you have a choice, please do yourself a favor and make the 3 minute walk to Bone Fish Grill — prices are about the same but the quality is infinitely better.

Sheraton Greensboro at Four Seasons
Not to be confused with a Four Points by Sheraton, this is the Sheraton Four Seasons. You would think they could have settled on a less confusing name, especially since the Four Points brand is much cheaper than the Sheraton brand.

Interestingly, with 1,000 rooms, the Sheraton Four Seasons has the most rooms under one roof of any other hotel between Atlanta and Washington, DC. The monstrous 250,000 sq. ft. of meeting space is rumored to rank at 3rd largest on the East Coast. So yeah, this place is huge.

Price: $144/night. They don’t seem to play the AAA discount game here. I even tried Gov’t/Military rate and had no luck. I guess if you’re coming to a conference here, Sheraton knows they’ve got a captive audience and might as well juice ’em for as much as possible. Your next best bets are the Double Tree ($135) or Hampton Inn & Suites ($118) — both are a drive away so, if the Sheraton is your destination, you’re better off paying a just a little extra be near all the action.
Location: Right next to Four Seasons Mall in Greensboro, so there’s plenty to keep most people busy there. It’ll take about a 12 min/5 mile drive to get to downtown Greensboro, so it’s not very close if that’s your destination.
Amenities: Big plus: Free parking and free internet. This makes the SPG Gold/Platinum amenity choice an easy one–go for the 250 extra Starpoints. There’s also a large indoor/outdoor pool.

Room: My room was quite spacious. It absolutely has signs of being dated, but they’ve just announced a $30 million renovation that was underway during my visit.

The bathroom was a little grimier than the rest of the room–I hope a large chunk of that $30 million ends up here

Very convenient: a second sink outside of the main bathroom

Lobby/common areas: This hotel is massive. When you enter, there is a giant lobby area complete with customer service desks, restaurants, a cafe and even a fountain of water. Compared to any other Sheraton hotels, it’s so “grandiose” that it almost feels like a Las Vegas hotel. You’ll nearly get lost weaving around the brightly carpeted hallways.

BOTTOM LINE: For $144/night the service was fine, the rooms big but dated (with renovations on their way) and plenty of on-site drinking/dining choices.

The post Sheraton Greensboro at Four Seasons + Joseph’s Restaurant – Greensboro, North Carolina first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

Price: Typical rates of $109 – $119 during weekday. 
Location: Great location for getting to downtown Charlotte using the light-rail system. And, although the hotel is in a crowded area and on a busy street, it is situated one parcel off the road, so the street noises shouldn’t be of any disturbance.

Amenities: Four Points has gone the way of Aloft and stopped doing the individual sized soaps, shampoos and conditioners. Now, it’s service in bulk college-dorm (or prison?) style. Full service bar and room service until 10pm.

Room: Rooms are rather small and a little dated. The carpet looks fresh, but all the furniture, paint on walls, etc. have the signs of a good bit of wear and tear. The bathroom, on other hand, was clean and looked freshly remodeled. 

Lobby/restaurant: Rather sorry-looking bar area. The bar seems to exist for the purpose of bragging that they have a bar–not providing a good area to socialize or unwind. But hey, they’ll serve you some alcohol until 11pm, so it gets the job done in that sense. The front desk guy was extremely outgoing and helpful. It’s nice to see that type of enthusiasm from this price point of hotel and during the night shift. Well done, Four Points, well done.
 
The restaurant for breakfast left a bit to be desired. It was rather empty and everything just seemed a little…pathetic. While the omelet I had was great (and the chef/server amazing), the rest of the spread was unimpressive. The selection was small and, of what was there, it was all well…a little pathetic. The fruit not very ripe, the bread/pastry selection was slim pickings, etc…

 
Value: Great value for location. Super easy access to tram line. You’ll save probably 50% (not to mention parking/internet) over staying downtown Charlotte.

BOTTOM LINE: This is my go-to spot when I’m staying in Charlotte on my dime given it only costs $30 out of pocket with free wifi. Then, just hop the tram to the city!

The post Four Points by Sheraton Charlotte first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

BRAND NEW BUILDING

NOT YOUR “TRADITIONAL” LOBBY

CAFE AREA — 24×7 SNACKS + COFFEE WITH BREAKFAST IN THE MORNINGS

FULL BAR

PACKED LOBBY WITH–CAN YOU BELIEVE IT–LOCAL RESIDENTS

MOST, IF NOT ALL, ALOFT HOTELS HAVE POOLS

SPACIOUS DOUBLE QUEEN ROOMS

SMALL BUT FUNCTIONAL “CLOSEST” WITH FRIDGE AND MICROWAVE

LARGE, OPEN BATHROOMS

BOTTOM LINE: Starwood’s new-ish brand, Aloft Hotels, has been around since 2008 and is quickly becoming a favorite among many travelers. Cheap prices, a full bar, and many great “city center” downtown locations make it a very desirable hotel. 

The post Aloft Chapel Hill Review, North Carolina first appeared on Weekend Blitz.