A Nice Hotel with Lazy Housekeeping
Written: Oct 26 '04 (Updated Jul 07 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Clean, close to shopping and restaurants
Cons: A considerable drive to tourist attractions in downtown Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain
The Bottom Line: I would recommend this hotel to others along with a warning about our experience with the poor maid service and the location of the hotel.
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| rrogersweather's Full Review: Homewood Suites Chattanooga TN |
We stayed two weekend nights at the Homewood Suites by Hilton near Hamilton Place Mall on the east side of Chattanooga in October 2004.
LOCATION
The location of the Homewood Suites has its ups and downs. The positives are: it is located to Hamilton Place Mall, which claims to be the largest mall in Tennessee, and there are also numerous restaurants within a mile or two. The restaurants include Olive Garden, Sonic, Red Lobster, J. Alexander's, O'Charley's, Applebee's, Carraba's, Cracker Barrel, and Famous Daves.
The hotel is located just off Interstate 75. Take exit 5 (Shallowford Rd.), then look for Center Street. There is no traffic light at Center Street, so you have to look closely. The hotel is also reasonably close to the airport. In addition to all of the shopping and restaurants nearby, there are also plenty of other lodging establishments, including Comfort Suites, Microtel Inn, Hampton Inn, MainStay Suites, and Red Roof Inn.
The negative aspect of the location of the Homewood Suites is that it takes a good 10 minutes to get to downtown Chattanooga via Interstates 75 and 24, and that's during a time of relatively light traffic. You can also take a left off of Center Street and then turn left on Lee Highway. That will take you downtown, but it's not any faster. Almost all of the major Chattanooga area attractions are in the downtown area or in Lookout Mountain, which is even farther away from the Homewood Suites.
Although the location was farther away from the attractions than we had hoped for, the reason we chose the Homewood Suites was because prices for smaller rooms in the downtown area were quite high. The Homewood Suites was about $110 per night the weekend we were there, but even that was quite lower than many of the downtown hotels.
QUALITY OF ROOM
We had a one bedroom suite, which included a full kitchen and living area. The kitchen had a refrigerator/freezer, dish washer, plenty of cabinets, a small stove, a sink, and a table with two chairs. The suite had two fairly large TV's, although one of them had about 10 channels that did not come in clear at all. In the living area, there was a sofa-bed and a nice-sized chair. In addition to the two TV's, there was a video tape player at no extra charge.
The room appeared to be clean and well maintained, with only a few minor exceptions. For example, one of the closet doors came off its track very easily, but we were able to get it back on.
The size of the room, for a suite, was probably average. The bathroom was very basic and the sink was separated from the shower and toilet. Also, for anyone wondering, there was just one bathroom in our suite--not two--as I know some places have suites with two bathrooms.
COMPLIMENTARY BREAKFAST
The breakfast at the Homewood Suites was very nice and had a decent selection of foods. Among the selections are yogurt, sausage, eggs, cereal, instant grits, orange juice, apple juice, and coffee. I'm not sure what time they begin serving breakfast, but it ended at 10 a.m., which is good for those who don't get up at the crack of dawn!
MAID SERVICE
To put it simply, THERE WAS NONE! We had put a "Privacy Please" sign on our door the morning after we arrived at the hotel. However, we removed the sign at 10:45 a.m., before we left to go out for the day. The maids were still cleaning other rooms when we left. When we returned to our room at about 8:30 p.m., we discovered that no one had been in the room at all! We immediately complained to the front desk about this and were told that they would make a note of it. This was the biggest downside to staying at this hotel. When you stay somewhere as nice as the Homewood Suites (which is a Hilton hotel), you expect, at the very least, to have basic service. The next morning when we checked out, we were told that we were not the only ones who had not had maid service the day before. Finally, after the front desk clerk called his manager on the phone and explained the situation to her, we were not charged for one of our two nights there. I feel that they did make it right, and for this reason, we would consider staying there again, as most other aspects of our stay were pleasant.
AMENITIES
*Iron and ironing board in room
*Small exercise room w/ treadmill, stationary bike, and stair climber
*Outdoor pool
*Well-lit parking lot
*Soda machines on each floor
*Ice machine near the lobby only
*Fireplace in the lobby
*Game room w/ billiards table and one or two arcade games
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To read my review of the Chattanooga area, entitled "A City on the Move," click on the following link: http://www.epinions.com/content_161285377668
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
rrogersweather
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Location: Georgia, USA
Reviews written: 28
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
I like to write reviews about travel and electronics!
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