PA Scranton-Poconos Best Western East Mountain Inn Wilkes-Barre

[CrazyOne]

It's interesting that Priceline apparently used to rate this place 2.5* and now it's 3*. I wonder if they have perhaps jumped the gun a bit? The hotel has this article pasted all over the place about renovations: http://www.timesleader.com/news/Area_hotel_gets__3M_upgrade_09-01-2011.html?searchterm=east+mountain+inn but as of November 2011 nothing much appears to have happened. Public areas look the same, the room furnishings look the same, etc. It's possible that some rooms are renovated by now and Priceline mostly gets non-renovated rooms. That said, this wasn't horrible by any means.

The room was decent sized with a king bed, easy chair, desk and chair, plus additional side chair. TV was still old, about 25" tube looks like. They did tout the clean remote http://www.cleanremote.com/ which was an interesting concept I hadn't seen before. The remote is covered in a membrane, kinda like a microwave touch panel or whatever, so they can clean it better. There was also an iHome clock radio unit in there, a nice touch. In other words, you can dock your iPod or iPhone directly into that and play music, stream Pandora, whatever.

Bathroom was large but looked even more dated than the room. Gray tile in the tub with dirty grout, gray patterned tile on the floor, gray formica top, sink faucet that felt like it could break soon, etc. All in working order, though, and at least it was updated with a curved shower rod and new-looking shower head.

Staff were pleasant, check in and out were simple with no fuss. Stay includes breakfast buffet with some hot items and good fruit. The coupon says you can use it for an $8 credit towards an a la carte breakfast menu, but it wasn't clear if that was still offered. (We didn't ask though.) There is actually a second restaurant in the place as well as a 24 hour fitness center and an indoor pool. It's just off I-81, but if you have to head south from the hotel as we did it's a bit convoluted to get back on the highway, though well-marked. The place is within a couple miles of plenty of other shopping/restaurants. Oh, and bonus: cheap vending. LOL, I know, but sometimes it's the small things right? ;-) 20oz bottles of soda or water for $1.50 and candy bars for $1.00. Sticks out in my head because I had exactly $2.75 (and $20 bills) and wanted a water and a tiny snack without heading out in the car and was shocked that I was actually able to make it work.

Wouldn't mind staying here again at all. Perfectly adequate. Is it 3*? I hardly know anymore. I'm not sure what to expect from the different levels. At $47 which is what my winning bid was, I don't feel like it matters much if it's 3* or 2.5*.

[CrazyOne]

As I read that again I guess what I should have said is "Public areas look dated, room furnishings looked dated, etc" because I can't for sure say they'e the same given it was my only ever stay there. ;-) They do look dated, though. The whole place screams 80s to me; if you look at the lobby and the restaurant area behind you'll see what I mean. Not sure how much reno they can do for $3 mil either, doesn't sound like much. But I'm guessing they'll go for some new TVs and that sort of thing at some point.

[CrazyOne]

Wanted to update this with new info from my more recent stay on 12/23/11. The room I got this time was on the 6th floor (last time was on the 4th, if it matters) and this room was slightly changed. The main furniture looked the same, lamps were definitely old, chairs might have been new though with a newish looking adjustable desk chair, newer-style easy chair plus a desk side chair as well. The TV was replaced with a flat screen I think 32" hanging on the wall. One upshot of this is you get a very long place to put junk on top of the same old long low bureau that the old tube TV used to sit on. The carpet appeared to be new, but I'm not certain. I don't think the wallcovering was new, and I don't think the bedding was different than last time, though it looked like it might be a washable cover as opposed to old-fashioned not-often-washed bedspread. In the bathroom the counter was new, granite or facsimile with new undermount sink. Everything else in there was the same, though: gray (and I mean GRAY) tile on the walls and floor, old grout, old toilet. The little things again: I opened up the soap and it smelled good! Grapefruit, turned out to be. LOL I like citrus in my bath soap, hey.

I also noticed on the way out (not so much on the way in) that they I think changed the lobby furniture since last time. I'm pretty sure that's not the furniture that was in the front desk area in November. So a few things are happening. Still smells like pool as soon as you walk in, though. Did not partake of the breakfast this time; we left earlier than they set up. Still a worthy stay. The front desk staff are friendly. Oh and the gas station at the base of the hill seems to be reasonably priced, which comes in handy. It's much easier to continue north from this location than south, heh. Just something to be aware of.