Best for Business - Hampton Inn Six Flags, San Antonio, TX - Great Hotel W/O
Written: Sep 15 '03 (Updated Sep 15 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good rates on weekends. Clean. Location.
Cons: Small rooms. No hot breakfast. Noisy/ill-placed air conditioner.
The Bottom Line: A reasonable, but not spectacular, hotel. Better for business than for families. You can find steals on the weekends.
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| pilotpat's Full Review: Hampton Inn San Antonio-Six Flags |
INTRODUCTION
Of the major hotel chains, I am a fan of the Hilton family. But, to be honest, I'm not a big proponent of Hampton Inns. Given the choice, I'd normally pay the $20 or so premium for an Embassy Suites if there's one nearby (as there is in this case). However, on this trip, we were visiting family and arrangements had been made by others and it turned out not to be too bad.
RESERVATIONS
As I said, my reservations were made by another party, so when we realized that the traffic on I-35 was such that we'd miss making it into town before 6pm, we (not me - sing with me now... "Keep your mind on your driving, keep your hands on the wheel... and keep your sneaky eyes on the road a-head...") called the Hilton 800 reservation number to guarantee our rooms on a credit card. Nope - no record of any reservation under any derrivatives of our last names, mother's maiden names, or even dog's name. A call to the person who made the reservations ended in voice mail. The four adults in the vehicle started brainstorming - maybe she meant another Hampton Inn. Another call to the patient Hilton agent found that we had no reservations in ANY of the SIX Hampton Inns in San Antonio. No problem, I thought. Let's call up my travel agent - we'll get a room at Embassy Suites down the road, and we'll all be happy. But before we did that, we asked the Agent for the local number to the most likely candidate. The agent said - "I've got all their reservation info right here - I don't think it will matter." But, nonetheless, we made one more call - this time to the local desk. Sure enough, our reservations were there, and though it was about 7pm by this time, they had held them. Gracious of them, I thought.
CHECK-IN
Having guaranteed our rooms, we stopped by to visit friends and arrived at the hotel around 10pm. Access to the hotel is easy going Southbound on I-10 - just take exit 560A, and follow the access road. Northbound, take the same exit, cross under the freeway, and hang a right at the second light, and you enter through the back entrance. A small covered driveway shields you from frequent rains, and several valet carts were available to unload the luggage. Casaundra was the night clerk and welcomed us cheerfully. I added my HHonors number to the reservation, and we were on our way to one of the two elevators in the middle of the lobby. In addition to the check-in area, the lobby consists of generous couch and table seating, with the continental breakfast area on the far end of it. Large skylights on the roof ensure good light, and are supplemented by bright flourescents.
The lobby, by the way, was filled with businessmen waiting for a ride to the airport on their way out of town. The hotel was largely empty during our Friday-Sunday stay, which accounts for their "gracious" extension of our reservations. I'm sure that they wouldn't have been so accomodating on a Monday night.
Parking is free, but barely sufficient. I would imagine that it's packed to capacity during the week. A warning that applies to much of TX - don't park under trees at night - the grackles congregate in them and will add "color" to your paint scheme. I was less than enthused about the lighting in the rear lot, which has very little visibility from the street or the hotel. Another security concern of mine was the rear access door, the lock of which was inoperative.
ROOM
Rooms are situated on 6 floors, with one side of each corridor looking down into the lobby. A small sign indicates that these corridors are "quiet zones."
The room was typical Hampton Inn. Think no-frills business hotel. Smallish, there was sufficient but not generous room around the furniture and two double beds. A small student desk with two chairs was by the door, with a lamp and phone with dataport taking up a good 1/3 of its tabletop. A nightstand between the beds had a second phone with dataport, clock-radio-alarm, notepad/pen, and local phone books. An armiore held the 25-27" TV with cable, webTV, games, and PPV movies, as well as two very large and deep drawers. The closet next to the window was of reasonable size, and though the folding doors were covered by useful mirror surfaces, the door was off its tracks. Inside the closet were a few hangars (we had brought our own, though), an extra pillow and blanket, and an iron/ironing board.
The beds were OK, but too soft for our tastes. Linens and carpets were clean, but worn.
A sink with large mirror was on the other side of the door, with a coffee maker, hairdryer, soap (Dial), and Shampoo. Next to that is the door to the impossibly small bathroom. The commode (fitted with one of those really noisy but efficient pressurized tanks) nestles up to the small fiberglass tub/shower. Why is it important to say that it's fiberglass? Because when your neighbor fires up the shower in the morning, it sounds like a tympani concert! The bathroom was very clean, but the choice to continue the acoustic ceiling spray into the shower area wasn't a good one - makes it hard for the maids to keep up with mildew stains.
One wall is a large window that, for us, looked into the parking lot. The windows and curtains did a good job of keeping out noise, but the curtains were too short and narrow to keep out as much light as we would like. One end of the window opened about 3' wide to provide air. However, there was no screen, and because of its location above the platform afforded by the air conditioner, it would make me nervous if my kids were big climbers.
The air conditioner, by the way, was quite noisy and situated at the head of the bed - a lousy idea, which makes it noisy when you're trying to sleep. Blessedly, the temps at night were relatively cool. Though the humidity kept me from turning it off, I could turn it down quite a bit and managed to fall asleep between cycles of the compressor.
BREAKFAST
Continental breakfast is available 6-10am every day. The fare is simple and standard Hampton Inn - donuts, bagels, toast, toaster waffles, cereal, juice, milk, and coffee. A small and somewhat pathetic bowl of fruit - some unhappy looking oranges and apples - supplemented the carbohydrates and fat. The staff was very accomodating one night with opening the milk dispenser for me to get a glass for one of my daughters before bed. Yogurt, sodas, and some juices, along with other sundries, were available for sale at the front desk as well.
A Cracker Barrel is located across the parking lot, and is a better choice for a hot breakfast. Another chain restaurant - "Jim's" is next door as well.
FITNESS
Like the rest of the hotel, this is sufficient but not spectacular. A small aerobics room offers a bike, treadmill, and an eliptical trainer, all of good quality. A very small outdoor pool is lit for evening dips. The fence and shrubs afford precious little in the way of seclusion from the parking lot, though.
OVERALL
Not a bad hotel, but not a spectacular one either. Although I still prefer Embassy Suites, especially with a family, You can get some really good rates on weekends (I checked for next weekend and found $55 on Orbitz, which is half that of the nearby ES).
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OK, most of my reviews are hotels and travel related, but I thought that I'd start throwing in some more shameless links to show a good cross section of the types of reviews I've done:
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Recommended:
Yes
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