A Tale of Two Suites
Written: Jul 15 '04 (Updated Jul 15 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Big Beds, Good Happy Hour, Great Breakfast, Adjacent to Light Rail Station, Good Value
Cons: Small Bathroom, No Business Center
The Bottom Line: Hallmark in Rancho Cordova gives good value for the money although it does come up one star short.
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| heckonwheels's Full Review: Hallmark Suites |
This is a tale of two hotels (it would be two Epinions, but this site doesn’t list one of them) that we recently split our time on during a vacation. Both offer similar amenities and…stretching a bit…similar pricing. But they have obvious differences, even though I rate them the same.
This bout pits Hallmark Suites, an all-suite property situated seven miles east of downtown Sacramento in the bedroom community of Rancho Cordova, against Homewood Suites of Oakland, another all-suite property situated across the bay from San Francisco. Both had their pros and cons.
Each hotel had the following amenities in common – a slightly heated outdoor pool and hot spa, free breakfast, happy hour, two room suites with fold out sofabed, free parking, gift shop, free DSL Internet connection in room, free coffee in room and lobby, cable TV, elevators, and interior hallways.
The differences were a bit more subtle.
As with most of my reviews, access for the disabled is an important point and both hotels touted accessible rooms. Were they really? See the bathroom and service sections below for more details.
Location: The Homewood Suites location is on the waterfront about a ½ mile south of Jack London Square adjacent to a marina. This location was perfect for watching the sunset over the water or the fireworks at the previously mentioned square being that we were there on July 4th. It’s adjacent to the 880 freeway and easily accessible from it. The nearest BART station is less than a ½ mile away and, although it is not free, parking is reasonable there at just 25 cents per day (why they even charge that amount is a mystery to me). There is one expensive restaurant next door.
Hallmark Suites is also easily accessible by freeway, this time Hiqhway 50. The light rail trolley to Sacramento is only 200 yards away and easily walked to. The area is not nearly as pretty as the Homewood Suites location but is just as easy to get to and in a marginally better neighborhood. There are about half a dozen restaurants within that walking distance ranging from the inexpensive Wendy’s, coffee shops and more expensive choices in the nearby Holiday Inn. A very short drive across the freeway also yields the tasty double/doubles of In ‘n Out.
About even on this point.
Beds: Even though Homewood Suites touted theirs as queen size…it’s a full. Too small. I’ve been in queen sized beds and Homewood, your beds are not queen sized. Hallmark had big king sized beds. On the flip side, Homewood’s seemed brand new while Hallmark’s seemed a bit, well, used. Both sofabeds were full sized (again, Homewood sized it as a queen but Hallmark said full).
Advantage – Hallmark
Bathrooms – Homewood Suites comes through here with a large completely accessible bathroom featuring a roll-in shower. It also does not compromise space in the rest of the suite as we have seen elsewhere (some places take a hunk of space out of the living room or bedroom to accommodate the larger bathroom). However, Homewood does not completely capture the accessibility crown, as we will see in the service section.
Hallmark featured a small bathroom with no room to turn and little space to transfer from a wheelchair to the toilet. No roll-in shower but the reservation clerk made that clear when booking the room, so it’s not a surprise. What was a surprise was the very small room the toilet and bathtub were housed in. The bathtub did have a shower on a hose. The sink was located outside of the bathroom and was fine.
Advantage - Homewood
TV – Both locations offered cable (or satellite) TV service. Homewood has a bigger selection of channels and more pay-per-view options. Both had 25 inch TV’s located in each room of the suite. Hallmark’s living room set was located on the bottom shelf of the cabinet, making it necessary to look toward the floor to view it. The remote was also missing the battery cover making it hard to change channels.
Advantage – Homewood
Breakfast – Both locations offered a free, hot breakfast. Homewood was actually more like a continental breakfast buffet with a couple of hot items on a steam tray. The first day it was eggs (cooked in circles like an egg McMuffin) and bacon. The next day, pancakes and sausage. The third day, biscuits and gravy. After that, they started with the eggs & bacon again. Also available, cereal, fresh fruit, yogurt, muffins, bagels, & toast.
Hallmark had a full, cooked-to-order breakfast. Everything was made fresh. You want a ham & cheese omelet with bacon and an English muffin? No problem, we’ll cook that up for you right now. No steam tables or buffet. Everything was cooked right then & there. Plus the staff was quick to bus & clean the tables (Homewood is do-it-yourself). Very serious & good breakfast…although the hash browns were a bit lacking in taste.
Advantage – Hallmark
Happy Hour – Each hotel had a free happy hour in a early evening hours, although Homewood’s happy hour is only offered Monday – Friday. Homewood featured a selection of wines and two microbrew beers on tap. They also had a selection of more premium and bottled beers available at a cost. They also had a hot entrée on the steam table. One night it was tuna casserole and the other night it was nachos – neither looked appetizing to me.
Hallmark featured the same (without the entrée) plus a full range of cocktails. The bartender was also professionally trained and poured some truly good drinks. The wines served here had an off taste but the beer (one microbrew and Budweiser on tap) and cocktails were good. Good, fresh and free popcorn was served. No one under 21 allowed in bar but I didn’t really see this enforced. You could also ask for your drinks in plastic glasses to take out to the pool or back to your room.
Advantage – Hallmark
Pool Area – Hallmark’s pool in located in the inner courtyard of the hotel. It’s a pleasant setting but the pool was a little cool (as was Homewood’s). A large group of kids (who were in town for a Karate championship) were settled in the hot tub and I didn’t get to try that.
Homewood’s pool area is on the waterfront side of the hotel. It has beautiful views of the bay and also features two gas grills available to guests. It makes a great place to have a barbecue and enjoy a summer day at the pool.
Advantage – Homewood
Service – Okay, back to the accessibility issue. When booking the reservations, I called both hotels on the phone. Homewood said they had roll-in showers in a few of their rooms and would block a no smoking, accessible room…with a roll-in shower… for me. Hallmark told me upfront that they had no roll-in showers and provided me with names and numbers of hotels in the area that did. After calling around, it still seemed that Hallmark had the best deal so we went with it knowing we’d have a challenge in bathing our son.
On arrival at Homewood, we were given keys to a room that was “accessible.” I asked, but the counter person didn’t know if it had a roll-in shower but said if there was a problem to come back and she’d fix it because Homewood had a 100% satisfaction or your money back guarantee. We went and it did not have a roll-in so we returned. She said that the had none available. I asked about the agent telling me the room was blocked and she had no answer.
After telling us to have a seat and she’d see what could be done, they found a smoking room with a roll-in that was the only thing available – and that it definitely had a noticeable smell. We checked it out, and to Homewood’s credit the room was incredibly cleaned because I could not smell any smoke. We took it but this (and the undersize bed) forces me to take my opinion of Homewood down a notch.
As for the guarantee? I could refuse the room and they would refund (or not charge) my one night’s deposit. If I took the room, it was as if it was fine and no refund would be offered. They did give us a free pay-per-view movie as compensation but I definitely was not happy with this turn of events.
Hallmark’s room was pretty much as promised and they also moved us to a better room when my wife didn’t care for the first one they put us in.
Apart from the check-in mishandling, Homewood’s service was pretty good. They held the breakfast buffet open for me an extra five minutes when I didn’t quite make the closing time, the maids were very good at cleaning the room, and security was quick to respond when local kids were setting off M-80s in the parking lot outside our window at 2 in the morning on Independence Day.
Hallmark’s employees were also professional and the service was good. We didn’t have any exceptional problems for them to deal with, as we did with Homewood, so I can’t tell you how they are in a crisis.
Advantage – Hallmark but just by a hair.
Quietness – Ah, they real mark of a quality property. After all, most of us really just want a comfortable, quiet place to rest. The insulation at Homewood was superb. I could not hear any other guests in the halls, upstairs, or next door. Yes, they were there and rambunctious, but the hotel’s construction quieted them down for us. Aside from the fireworks of the 4th, it was really pleasantly quiet. Now, if they’d get bigger beds we could truly have a great night’s sleep.
At Hallmark, I could not hear people in the hall or next door but could definitely hear the footsteps of the guests above (who like to walk around their room between 2 and 4 in the morning – every night) and the plumbing of other rooms in general.
Advantage – Homewood
Other notes about the properties –
Homewood offered a free business center in the lobby with high-speed Internet connection and printing that Hallmark didn’t. Both had pretty pitifully supplied exercise rooms, which really showed at Hallmark – we were there during the Olympic track & field trials and had many Olympic hopefuls staying here that just overwhelmed what little equipment they could find. Hallmark (which used to be a Quality Suites) definitely had a slightly worn look to the rooms while Homewood seemed brand new (and I think it is).
Homewood also featured a kitchen in the room with a full-size refrigerator, a two burner stove, microwave, sink, plates, pots& pans, and utensils. They also had a dishwasher. Hallmark had a mini-fridge, microwave and sink.
Technically, this is a Hallmark review since Epinions doesn’t list the Oakland Homewood suites yet but with each properties pros and cons, I would list them about evenly. The only big difference is that Homewood (because of it’s location) is the more expensive of the two at $125 per night.
Final advantage? There is none…it’s a dead heat!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
heckonwheels
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Location: Los Angeles, CA USA
Reviews written: 77
Trusted by: 14 members
About Me:
Southern California native who travels around the country a lot.
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