Candlewood Suites: What a nice surprise
Written: Nov 16 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lots of extras; snazzy laundry room; free soft drink
Cons: No restaurant, but one in walking distance
The Bottom Line: Very comfortable room, highly functional, with several extras. Lots of room. Very good service, friendly employees.
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| diverpam's Full Review: Candlewood Suites Sacramento |
It was almost like being home, complete with junk food in the kitchen. These miniature homes away from home have several nice touches that cater to the weary traveler.
The kitchenette contained a refrigerator, sink, dishwater, coffee maker, and microwave. (Yes, they included a bag of microwave popcorn in the goody basket on the counter top.)
Nice Office/Work Area
The work area was very nice with a wraparound desk and two desk chairs. With ample electrical outlets and easily-accessed phone jack, it made it very easy to setup my computer and recharge my cell phone. They also included a radio/cd player. CDs were available for checkout in the lobby.
First Drink is on Them
On checking in the clerk advised me about the complimentary laundry facilities and 25-cent Coke machine. They even included a quarter with my room key to treat me to my first Coke.
Other Goodies
The large television was about 25 inches, bigger than usually encountered in a hotel. It sat atop a full-size chest of drawers.
Tucked away in a fake drawer underneath the tv was a video cassette player. Even better, free movies are available for at the front desk. I didn’t check out their movie selection, so I can't tell you how extensive it was.
There were two phones in the room -- one on the desk and another by the bed. There was a pretty comfortable king size bed and the air conditioning worked very well.
There was an easy chair in the corner of the room, complete with ottoman. Nice idea, but the chair wasn’t very comfortable.
Bathroom
The bathroom included a hair dryer, shampoo, and two kinds of soap (a complexion bar and a deodorant bar). The towels were a bit on the skimpy side -- the only downside. They were definitely not like the big, fluffy towels I have at home.
Uh-Oh Television Problems
Since I was staying there on a Wednesday I checked to be sure the NBC channel came in well. (West Wing night). Wouldn’t you know it? That channel was very fuzzy. I called maintenance and someone came up within a few minutes. After three visits by the maintenance man, things went from bad to worse. Now, I had no television at all. Then a nice young lady from the front desk came up, checked it out, and went back downstairs to the computer.
Quick Resolution
There was nothing they could do at this point except move me to another room. The lady was very nice and apologetic. She found a vacant room nearby and personally went to make sure the television could get the NBC affiliate with no problem. Within a few minutes I had settled into my new room. It was laid out exactly backwards from the first. This time I had a view of the hotel parking lot and Mel’s Diner. I was all set to watch the West Wing.
Good for Long-Term Stays
This would be a good place to stay for an extended period of time and obviously that’s the primary focus of this hotel.
I also found a very interesting feature of this hotel. They have a service called “Laundrimate” – a telephone-operated monitoring system that lets you check the availability of laundry room machines. You can either call and check on you laundry status – or it will call you to let you know your laundry is ready. Pretty cool. "Hello, this is your laundry. I'm ready. Come and get me!" Too bad I didn’t have a bunch of dirty laundry, I might have checked it out.
Other Services
The hotel also offers free incoming fax transmissions. There is no fee charged for sending 1-3 pates. Charge is $.50 for pages 4 and up. It would be handy if you needed to print a document. You could just fax it to yourself, assuming of course your computer has a built-in fax.
The hotel doesn’t have a restaurant, but does have room service available from a couple of close restaurants, including Mel’s Diner.
Recommended
Overall, I was very pleased with the quality and the service at the Candlewood Suites and would recommend it to someone who was going to be spending a few days in Sacramento.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
diverpam
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Member: Pam
Location: Collierville, TN
Reviews written: 263
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~~~~So many oceans...so little time!~~~~
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