CT New Haven Courtyard New Haven at Yale

[flyingcupcake]

We just stayed one night at Courtyard by Marriott at Yale in New Haven. We were pleasantly surprised by the hotel -- for a three-star hotel, it was a pretty pleasant experience. I've stayed in other three-star hotels for work and they tend to be tired looking with depressing lobbies. Courtyard had recently redone their lobbies with lots of sitting areas and TVs -- you and your family could sit in a large booth with a flat-screen TV that's built into the booth. My boyfriend and I both thought those booths were cool. There were always folks in the lobby so it didn't feel depressing. We visited New Haven in December, so the lobby was decked out in holiday decorations. There was also a business center with computers you could use -- we looked up driving directions and printed them out for free. No room service since it's 3-star, but there's a 24-hour "marketplace" where you could get snacks or meals to bring back to the room. We ended up buying breakfast there (about $10 for a hot meal entree) and bringing it back to our rooms. There's a 24-hour fitness center which is super tiny but good enough for a quick workout.

Check-in was quick -- they have complimentary hot chocolate in the lobby in the afternoon and free coffee in the mornings until 10am. They didn't mention priceline, and gave us a map and list of restaurants. The woman checking us in drew us directions to Frank Pepe's since we mentioned we were going there. She gave us a room on the 5th floor with two queen beds. We checked the beds for bugs (there were two bed bug reports for this hotel online), and it looked fine. But we're a couple, so I called back down and asked if we could switch to a room with 1 king bed. The woman explained that was the room for the rate we paid, but said if she could find a king room, that it'd be fine. She quickly had another employee send us new keys to a room down the hall on the 5th floor. We checked the new room and it didn't have bed bugs either -- it had a carpet beetle under the mattress though, and an unidentified tiny insect (not a bed bug). Meh. It wasn't enough for us to change the room again.

We were rather impressed with the design of the king rooms at Courtyard. The room was slightly smaller than the 2 queen beds room, but it felt bigger because of the functional design. The king rooms actually have a small pullout couch and coffee table instead of the usual hotel design of a sitting chair awkwardly in the room. There's a wardrobe, a large desk where the swivel flat screen TV sits, s small area with a small fridge, coffee maker, and in-room safe, and another area with a vase and flowers. It felt like a mini-suite room instead of just another standard king room. Bed was super comfy, and the nightstands had outlets so you could charge your phone -- really nice functional design. Usually we're scrambling around a hotel room looking for an outlet. Bathroom was nice too, with nice shower pressure. I loved the Paul Mitchell toiletries, and the towels were nice and soft.

We paid $55 plus taxes, and parking was $18. Overall a pretty good rate for an overnight stay in New Haven. Very impressed with this hotel, and would be happy to stay here again in New Haven.