Great property and location for the price
Written: Mar 13 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent location, clean facilities, good breakfast buffet, they accept priceline
Cons: Breakfast wasn't free, curtain covered the air conditioning vent.
The Bottom Line: I would recommend staying at this property for its location, friendly staff, cleanliness of rooms, free parking, and the fact they accept Priceline bids.
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| jpryde's Full Review: Courtyard by Marriott Airport-Earth City |
Used priceline.com to bid on 3/3/06 for a 2.5 star hotel in the St. Louis Airport zone for a wedding stay on 3/10/06. Our main reason for this zone was proximity to the N. Hanley Metrolink station, as the wedding coincided with the St. Patrick's Day Parade and run in downtown St. Louis. With a bid of $33 a night, we got the Courtyard by Marriott located in Earth City. It is a 5-10 minute drive from Lambert Airport, which worked out perfectly for us. After our offer was accepted at Priceline, I called on 3/6/06 to request a non-smoking, King room. They managed to work that for us. Note: Prices for this room on Marriott's web site run $84-94, and that is with a AAA discount.
Getting there: Take I-70 to exit 231-B, Earth City Expressway North. Earth City is a business/industrial park just off I-70, and has quite a few businesses and hotels. To get to the Courtyard, turn right at the stoplight onto Rider Trail South. Follow it about a mile, and the Courtyard is on your left. Parking is free, and we had plenty of space despite what appeared to be a pretty busy night, as there were lots of cars and 2 buses in the parking lot. The parking lot overlooks I-70. The property does have a shuttle service to the airport, but I am unaware of its cost.
Checkin: A breeze, with no mention of Priceline. Staff was very friendly and professional. I just handed over my Visa for any incidentals. We got our room keys for room 257, a non-smoking, King room on the other end of the hotel. The lobby was fairly nice and was attached to a small seating lounge with a large flat screen TV and the small restaurant used for Breakfast (which is NOT free, I found out the next morning.) There is an indoor pool right down the hallway, but we did not have time to check it out during our visit.
To the Room: The elevators at this hotel are fairly small, but there are 2 of them. Our key cards were not coded properly, so I had to trek back to the front desk to have them recoded. I then went back up and into the room. As expected, it was a typical Marriott room. It was, in fact, a mirror image of the last time I stayed at a Courtyard property. The room included a King bed, which was quite comfortable, though a bit soft for my tastes (My "sleep number" is about a 70), Dresser w/ 27" TV on top, Desk (with free high speed internet included), small sleeper sofa, table, chair, and 2 nightstands. The room was very clean with no signs of disrepair at all. The bathroom is the kind with the toilet and shower in one room and the sink is located in the room itself. Coffee maker (the single serve cup type), iron, alarm clock, and hair dryer are all included. The stool/shower room was a little small, but everything worked fine. You could flush a small dog down the toilet with the amount of water pressure it generated. The shower was nice with a large Kohler rain shower head. I usually get nervous when I see these because there is little water pressure, but this wasn't the case here. Water pressure was acceptable and hot water was plentiful. Shampoo and soap provided were "designed for Courtyard by Marietta corporation" but the Shampoo was labeled "Physique."
We had a view of the parking lot from our window, and as I have found in many Marriotts, the curtains cover the vent of the Air conditioning unit. So, we simply tied off the right curtain to allow better circulation. The AC was fairly quiet and cooled the room well. The TV does include the usual barrage of channels, and includes Pay-Per-View movies. There were less options than usual, with only about 10-15 movies available, mostly new, and ran $10.99 to $12.99. They had adult titles as well, along with the ability to block them. Sorry, no Nintendo 64 controllers on this TV, and no ability to check out of the room via the television.
Breakfast: This is mostly my mistake, but I thought breakfast was free. It is not, and breakfast for 2 of us was about $18, but I left a tip for the waitress who was very kind and helpful, making our total $21. The meal is buffet style and includes muffins, bagels, toast, bear claws, cereal, juices, coffee, hot tea, bacon, sausage, breakfast potatoes, eggs cooked fresh for you by a chef, and do-it-yourself waffle makers. The food was very good, so I didn't mind the surprise bill. I charged it to my room and headed upstairs to pack.
Checkout: The same, a breeze. Staff was very friendly, gave me my receipt and we headed out.
Overall: This was my first stay in the St. Louis Airport zone, and I was skeptical because I hate the traffic around the airport, but I wanted to be close to the free parking at the N. Hanley Metrolink station. I was very happy with this hotel, considering the price ($33 bid, $45.08 with taxes and fees). The hotel was clean, well-kept, had very friendly staff, and the location simply can't be beat. One note about the location: If you leave the hotel at the right time and are going East on I-70, you have to contend with the 70/270 interchange and you don't have much time to get over into the Eastbound I-70 lanes, as the on-ramp from Earth City Expressway comes out into the 270 North/270 South Exit-only lanes. So be careful! Anyway, I can highly recommend this property to ePinions readers. I would certainly prefer it to properties closer to the airport.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
jpryde
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Member: Jim Pryde
Location: Sedalia, MO, USA
Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Missouri native, computer professional. 34 year old graduate student.
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