Spokane, Washington: SpringHill Suites by Marriott Spokane Airport

 September 2021, weekday, 1-night, king guestroom 314

Arrival and gold perks

I arrived at this hotel by car from outside the airport. It was difficult to find the hotel, as the address on their website did not take me where the hotel is located. This hotel is fairly new, and there were no hotel signs in the airport, like the other hotels and rental car companies. I could see the hotel, but I could not figure out how to get there after my GPS took me down the road behind it. I called the hotel, and the person I spoke with did not provide much clearer directions than my GPS. The hotel is located directly across from the arrival and rental car counters in the airport. So, follow the sign for arrivals, and when you get to the very end of the airport building, you will see a SpringHill Suites sign on your left. I had not seen the hotel when I arrived because the rental car exit is beyond the hotel. 

View of airport from guestroom 314 at SpringHill Suites Spokane, WA

Even though I had spoken with someone at the front desk just a few minutes before my arrival, there was no one at the desk when I entered. A sign on the counter said to please wait while another guest was being assisted. I did not observe any other guests being assisted, and I could hear employees talking in the work area behind the counter. I waited patiently, and no one came out. After waiting almost 10 minutes, I finally said, "Hello." No one answered; however, the employee working in the restaurant area heard me and walked over. She then walked to the back room to get someone to assist me. The person who assisted me did not apologize for the wait, recognize my status, nor provide any info about what type of room she was assigning me. I asked her if I needed my parking ticket stamped to leave and return my rental car after I took my luggage to my room. She said there is a half hour grace period. I checked the time on my ticket, since I knew I had waited several minutes. She then added that if I needed more time, I could stop at the front desk and get it stamped.

SpringHill Suites guestroom 314 in Spokane airport

Guestroom 314

This guestroom is near the middle of the hallway facing the airport. There are four floors at this hotel. The walls and windows are all well soundproofed. 

SpringHill Suites guestroom 314 in Spokane airport

Spokane, Washington / DoubleTree Convention Center

September 2011, Sunday, Executive guestroom #1210

Status perks

I received a fabulous upgrade to a large corner room on the executive floor. Since the executive lounge was closed during my stay (Sunday night), I also received a breakfast coupon. These are the preferences requested on my profile in lieu of bonus points. Parking was also comped because of my Gold status, which was a pleasant surprise.

Guestroom

The guestroom was larger than two of some hotel rooms I have stayed in. Large windows spanned both walls with a gorgeous sunset view that evening. The room contained two comfortable soft chairs and footstool, as well as a desk and chair. There was so much room in the closest and dresser, that I could have easily unpacked for several weeks, if I had been staying that long. The bed was SUPER comfortable, and the room had been recently remodeled with new carpet and furnishings.

Two small bottles of water were included in the guestroom, and the coffee provided was excellent quality. There were two plush, new looking robes in the closet.

The only disappointment with the guestroom was the small bathroom, and housekeeping was not the best. The bathroom door almost hit the toilet when opening it, and the slightly cracked sink had not been replaced during the remodel, along with an older looking vanity counter. There were several hairs in the bathroom sink and shower. Unfortunately, there were some noisy guests in the hall that evening, and even though I had a room at the end of the hall, I could hear the activity, so I was not able to enjoy the comfortable bed as much as I would have liked. 

Fitness center

The fitness center on the third floor contained everything you would expect at a hotel fitness center--cardio machines with theater, hand weights, weight machines, mats, balls, a flat screen TV on the wall, sani-wipes, towels, and cold water. It was open 24-hours, which I appreciate, since I am often traveling in a different time zone than where I live.

 Food & Beverage

At breakfast, I used my continental coupon value toward an a la carte menu item--smoked salmon eggs benedict. This is probably not the exact menu name, although it is a good descriptive name of the menu item. It was a great choice! My eggs were cooked perfectly, and the flavor was excellent. Since I did not want the potato side, my server said I could have fresh fruit or sliced tomatoes. I chose the tomatoes, which were an excellent side with this menu item.

The food quality and flavor were excellent, although the service was not top notch. After I had completely finished my meal (and, I am not a fast eater), I waited over three minutes for my check while my server stood across the room and chatted with another employee about personal business. I could overhear the conversation as I looked over and waited for her to bring my check. The next day, I was again frustrated by the service, when I looked at my receipt and saw that I had not noticed that a tip of $1.95 had been added to my check--and, I added $2 to this! I realize I should have looked closer when I received the bill, although I do appreciate it, when my server also tells me that a tip has been added. Or, if it had been written on my coupon, I would have seen that as well.

Overall
I liked my room comfort and the location of this hotel. It is located downtown on the river, within walking distance of several restaurants. It is not far from the airport, and the hotel offers airport shuttle service. I would definitely choose this hotel again when visiting the area.

Seattle, Washington / Crowne Plaza

May 2011, Memorial Weekend, 2-nights

Status perks

I redeemed points for a 2-night stay at this hotel, and the only room type I could reserve with points was a basic room. Some IHG properties do not provide an upgrade when staying with points, so I was not sure what to expect. I decided to send an email to the hotel before this stay to request a high floor and/or executive floor upgrade. I did not receive a reply to my email; however, we received an executive floor corner room, and the Club Lounge was open during our stay.

Room

We were very happy with the large corner room. In fact, our guestroom at this hotel seemed larger than the suite we had just checked out of at the Renaissance. There was a closet and room for our large suitcase in the entrance outside the bathroom. The closet contained two plush CP bathrobes.

There was one large window on both outside walls of the spacious guestroom. The guestroom contained a king bed, one soft chair, one straight backed chair, a desk and chair, a flat screen TV, two night stands, a large armoire, and a small fridge. The guestroom was comfortable, clean, and quiet. We slept very well. There was plenty of space in the guestroom, so two soft chairs, or a small sofa or loveseat would have made it even more comfortable. We did not request turndown service; it was automatically provided. We received 2 local chocolates and 2 bottles water, and the guestroom was refreshed both nights.

local chocolates

Club Lounge

The lounge was open both evenings of our stay, and it was open for continental breakfast in the mornings. The food in the evening included sushi and small pizza wedges, as well as cold snacks like cut fruit, vegetables, cheese, and crackers. Assorted non-alcoholic beverages were included, and beer and wine were available for purchase. The morning food items included assorted bagels, breads, and pastries, as well as fresh fruit, cereal, and hot oatmeal.

Overall / Seattle area
I was very happy with the service, comfort, and cleanliness of the Crowne Plaza, and would definitely stay at this property again. This property was in a good location for us. We walked to the waterfront, shopping and dining is only a couple blocks away, and we walked to the Space Needle.

We did not have any food or beverages in the hotel restaurant or lounge during or stay. The Club Lounge was great for morning and evening, and I recommend Ivar's House of Clams on the water during Happy Hour. Ivar's offers food and beverage discounts from 3 PM - 6PM. The prices were excellent, and so was the food--especially the Seafood Cocktail!

If planning to visit the Space Needle, I suggest going for lunch. The cost of a ticket to the top of the Space Needle is $16 a person, and this is included when you dine in the revolving restaurant--Sky City. The only requirement we had, is that we had to spend $50 in the restaurant, and that our dining time was limited to 2 hours. It was not difficult to spend $50. Yes, the food was kind of pricey, although not much higher than we would have paid at the Renaissance, if we had not used coupons, and the food was excellent. We were very happy with our decision to go for lunch. You can make reservations online for no charge.

Seattle, Washington / Renaissance

May 2011, Memorial weekend

Status perks

I did not initially receive any perks as a Gold member. In fact, I did not even receive the corner suite I had reserved until after I inquired about this. When the front desk agent provided our keys and said we had a king room on one of the higher floors, I said, "We have a corner king executive suite, don't we?" She said that there were not any available. I told her that I had booked an executive corner suite; the Seattle Pride Package. She checked the computer again, and then provided keys for a corner suite on the 19th floor, along with a coupon booklet. This was not as high of a floor as we had originally been given; however, it was a suite.

The agent did not code our keys for access to the concierge lounge, nor did she mention it. She had talked about how to access the Internet as a Gold member, so I thought that maybe the lounge was not open for the holiday weekend. Later that day, I learned that the concierge lounge was accessible for water and soda even though it was not staffed, so I stopped back at the front desk to inquire about this. The employee at that time, apologized that we had not been given access at check-in, and she coded our keys for lounge access.

Guestroom

facing entrance &
connecting guestroom

The guestroom was comfortable; however, it was not as impressive as I had expected. The room description on the website and on our reservation confirmation listed the room as 497 square feet, and the room we received was NOT 497 square feet. It was more like 350 square feet. When looking at a photo of a king corner suite on the website, the description is 335 square feet, although all the other areas list the suites as 497 sq. ft. I am not sure if there are two different corner suite rooms, or if the description needs to be changed on the website. It is possible we received a king corner suite (335 sq. ft.) instead of the executive king corner suite (497 sq. ft.) that we had reserved since our room was not on the concierge floor. The website only lists five suites though, and I could not find two different suite types. I wish I had been more diligent about the details and differences at the time of our stay, because I would have inquired whether we had been given the correct room type. I did not scrutinize all the details until after we had returned home. My suggestion for guests who reserve an executive king corner suite--bring your printed reservation with you!

facing toward beverage center
across from bathroom

There was a comfortable sitting area when entering the suite, which included a couch, floor lamp, one end table, desk and chair, and flat screen TV. The suite had a connecting door to the guestroom next door. I liked the exterior wall of windows, which made the room look larger.

The bathroom was located between the sitting area and the bedroom, and there was a beverage center and closet across from the bathroom. The small fridge never got cold, and we tried adjusting the thermostat several different ways. The safe in the closet was large enough to hold a laptop. A second smaller flat screen TV was located in the bedroom. It was mounted on the wall in the corner since the bedroom was quite small. There was just enough room to walk around the foot of the bed, with a small nightstand on each side of the bed. Large windows made up both exterior bedroom walls; however, they needed to be cleaned. There was a nice suitcase bench/window seat on one wall. This guestroom did not have any Renaissance bathrobes, which I observed other guests wearing to and from the pool. I missed that because I had packed light this trip, and did not have a warm swimsuit coverup to wear.

bedroom

I had filled out the Virtual Concierge form online a few days before our arrival, requesting turndown service and early check-in at 1 p.m. Since our key packet had not been prepared, and we were initially given the incorrect room type when we checked in at 1 p.m., I was not too confident that we would receive turndown service that evening. When we returned from dinner, turndown service had been provided. Amenities included two local chocolates, and two bottles of water. Our room had not been refreshed. I'm not sure if the bottled water was part of turndown service, or if those had been delivered to the room because of my Gold status. The water bottles were not left next to the chocolates.

Food & Beverage

view from lounge/dinner

Marriott had an online offer for a free entree for Gold members--buy one, get one free. We dined in the R View restaurant/lounge on the top floor that evening. The food was excellent quality, and this was an excellent value with our coupons. The only disappointment was that I ordered the Seafood Cioppino, and the restaurant did not have any mussels. Extra fish was included in the dish to make up for this. My husband ordered the Halibut, and we had two Happy Hour beverages. We also had a free appetizer coupon with the Seattle Pride package we had booked. Since the restaurant was not open for lunch the next day, our server let us use the coupon for the Slider Sampler to-go. The Slider Sampler included two each of the following sliders: salmon, chicken, and beef. They were delicious! Seating in the lounge was self-seating, and we chose a table on the highest level with corner windows. We had an excellent view. The windows were much cleaner than the windows in our guestroom.

Pool

The pool and hot tub were located on the top floor just down the hall from the restaurant/lounge. The exterior walls were all windows with another great view. We did not stay long because the hot tub was not very warm. We were fortunate that we had been able to enjoy the view without a lot of commotion while we were there. There was only one guest/child in the pool area when we first arrived. We observed several families and children heading to the pool area while we dined. I had noticed when we reserved our room at this hotel, that not many hotels in downtown Seattle have a pool or hot tub.

Business center and Concierge lounge

I was finishing up some business at the start of this leisure trip and needed to print several documents. First, I tried to print them in the concierge lounge. The desk computer required a signon, and I did not notice the computer for guest use, which was turned off against the wall. I then tried the business center on the bottom floor, and found there was a charge for printing documents. I stopped at the Concierge stand in the lobby to ask if he knew the signon for the concierge lounge computer, so I could print from there. He told me about the guest computer in that room that was against the wall, and he also showed me a computer in the lobby near the front desk. I was surprised to learn I could print as much as I wanted from the lobby computer for no charge! I used that computer and did not try the one in the concierge lounge.

When I first checked the fridge in the lounge after the Front Desk agent coded my key for access, it was empty. Later that day and the next morning, it was stocked with bottled water and soda. I was happy to be able to get a couple bottles of water during our stay. The room looked comfortable, and there was also a table and seats outside. We had thought we might take advantage of the sitting areas to relax that evening; however, we ran out of time.

Overall
I was happy with our room for the price we paid. I was glad I had not paid full price because I would have been seriously disappointed. Before I discovered the Seattle Pride Package, all the room rates I found at this hotel were over $200, and the corner executive suites were over $250. My husband always likes to have a pool, so I booked this hotel mainly because of the pool--and, because I am a Marriott Gold member.

Our room rate with the package was $151, which made this stay a good value. Other than the free appetizer coupon that we used in R View, our package did not include much of anything except a better room rate. The coupon booklet we were given with the appetizer coupon contained mostly ads for Happy Hour specials, and a couple small discounts. We used only one of the discounts; 15% off at Sazerac. Since we only stayed at the Renaissance one night, we used our coupon after we checked out because we stayed at a different hotel for two nights after this stay. That review will be next!

Seattle, Washighton -- Light Rail from SEATAC to downtown

I read many different comments about the ease of using the Light Rail to get downtown before we took this trip, so I am sharing our experience.

Here is a little information about us and our situation: We are two healthy adults used to walking. We often take brisk 4 - 6 mile walks for exercise, in addition to leisure walks for entertainment or pleasure. I am a frequent traveler used to different airports and many modes of transportation; often lugging around a laptop and luggage. I have visited all 50 US states--Alaska was the last state for me, which we visited on this trip. My husband has also experienced many of these things, and we both look forward to new experiences.

We had two roller suitcases--one large and one small, and two carry-on size bags--one laptop and another shoulder bag, which could be slid on the roller bags. I also had a small purse. Our flight was due to arrive before 11:00 AM, so we had decided that for $2.50 per person we would take the Light Rail. Our destination was the Renaissance, which is less than 1/2 mile [4 - 5 blocks] from University Station. Not far, although it was uphill, which we were aware of before making this choice.

Departing from SEA airport

We flew Delta, and our luggage arrived at baggage claim 4. The signs to the rail were well posted and highly visible (I had read that signs are not visible), and it was easy to get to. We went up the escalator right next to our baggage claim, walked the perimeter of the parking garage, and crossed a short overpass to the rail station. It would have been a very short walk directly across the parking garage; however, we opted to take the bit longer way around on the sidewalk as was intended for pedestrians.

There were three self-serve kiosks after we got to the station to purchase tickets. I observed a group of people standing near a counter north of the escalator, so there may have been additional kiosks as well. I thought the ticket purchasing instructions were easy and purchased our tickets in less than 30 seconds. Apparently, other passengers did not have the same experience, because we waited in line over 10 minutes behind 4 or 5 passengers, and one of them walked the line after he had made his purchase to give away extra tickets he ended up with. You can use cash or a credit card at the kiosk. After we had our tickets, we went up the escalator behind the kiosks to board the train.

The train ride

We rode on Saturday of Memorial weekend. Since I have never been on the Light Rail before this trip, I do not know if our experience was different because of the holiday weekend. It would have been an enjoyable ride, except that it was extremely crowded. There were no seats when we boarded. There were passengers taking up available seats with their luggage and such, so there could have been more people sitting down. At most of the stops before we got off, more people boarded, and hardly anyone got off. The ride was smooth, quiet, and passed pretty quickly. We got off at University Station.

Arrival downtown and walk to hotel

There are a couple different street exists from the station. I had looked at the street and station maps before the trip, so I knew which street corner was closest to our hotel. We were the only passengers who took the elevator up to 3rd Avenue and Seneca. Nobody collected our tickets on the train or after we got off. I don't know if the ride was free Memorial weekend, or if the train always operates on the honor system.

Yes, the walk to our hotel was uphill, and many people advised visitors NOT to walk with luggage from the train station. We did not have any difficulty, and we did not regret our decision. We did not see any taxis when we came out of the station, which surprised me. Maybe the exit we took was not the normal station exit.

Overall

I was happy with the ease and speed of the trip. It looked to me like the train ride was quicker than a car ride would have been. I think if you don't have much luggage, and know where you want to get on and off the train, taking the Light Rail is the way to go. The comments I read online before making this trip did not help me at all. If anything, they made me question whether the signs I was reading at the airport were correct, since many people had made this trip sound like a difficult task.

I thought this was an easy trip--the signs in the airport were visible and easy to understand, and the kiosk ticket purchase was easy as well. I would do it again, as long as I did not have much luggage. The only suggestion I have for travelers, is to make sure you look at the street and station maps before your trip. Here is the link to the downtown stations:

--> http://metro.kingcounty.gov/tops/tunnel/tunnel-stations.html