WA Seattle Holiday Inn Renton

[smperkin]

Won this property as an upgrade from a 2 1/2. Hoping for a Courtyard or a Garden Inn. Priceline considers this a 3* property but it should be looked at again.

First off is the smell as you walk in the front door. Musty, damp, mouldy. The people at the front desk showed no bias to a Priceline reservation. I was afraid I was going to get stuck in the low rise older section that has so many poor reviews on Trip Advisor. I inquiried about an upgrade and was offered the Club floor for an extra $10. I have a Priority Club membership and I had phoned in my number earlier in the day. I received a room on the controlled access fifth floor. It came with a $5 off coupon for the Yankee Diner just off the lobby. Up to the fifth floor. Different odour. Still musty. Opened up door of room, different odour. Cigar smoke maybe. Opened up the window and turned on the A/C. Went down for supper. No odd smell in the Yankee Diner. Recommend the pot roast. Returned to the room and found the smell was gone. Nice selection of toiletries in bathroom. Nice updated bed and bedding. Room could use a little TLC by the house cleaning staff but quite comfortable. On the I-405 freeway side but little traffic noise.

[terpfan1980]

As promised, here am I am to add some thoughts and comments of my own here.

First off, I didn't notice the musty smell or odor that is mentioned above, but perhaps that is just my poor nasal system. I would have expected my kids to notice such issues though and neither mentioned any such issues.

The issues we did have, as mentioned above by smperkin, were of noise. The property is very close to the freeway and as such you are pretty much guaranteed to hear the vehicular noise from same. The floors are also apparently poorly noise/sound insulated as the room immediately above the one that I stayed in seemed to have at least one rug-rat in it (that sounded like a frackin' herd of elephants when running around in the room). That only lasted one night, but my kids (in the adjoining room) never heard that when I did. The next night they have a similar experience and the room above me became quieter. Karma :) :)

My son agreed on the 2.5 star rating, and actually in his opinion the property is probably closer to 2 star. Not horrible, but still not in the range that the property owners/managers seem to want to lay claim to.

Grout in the bathroom shower showed some signs of mold that probably just needed a good spray with a mold killer. Shower water pressure was good and the bathrooms otherwise looked clean, though the bathroom in the room I was in had a shelf for the towells that was (as I seem to find often) sagging a bit towards the ground. That seems to be a fairly common problem.

A bigger issue for me was that the free wireless internet coverage in the one end of the smaller tower was extremely poor, to the point of not being able to be used in the rooms that I had paid for. I could get on the wireless in the common areas, but that was not terribly convenient and certainly not very private.

The Yankee Diner restaurant was a strike out for my family. On the couple of times that my son and I would have been and/or were interested in going they closed early, once on the day before the 4th of July holiday (with an hour left in their promised Happy Hour time) and then for the 4th of July proper. I understand the 4th of July since it was a holiday but I saw at least 3 guest families looking for dinner that were turned away by the hotel staff having to explain that the restaurant was closed for the holiday. Poor planning on the part of the restaurant management it seems.

The pool was nice and fully operational. Water was apparently heated and was comfortable for swimming in even with the weather a bit cooler than expected when we got to the property initially. I'm not sure the heated water would have felt as nice when the temps peaked up in the high 90's during the later part of the 4th of July 2010 week, but weather in the Seattle area is normally more mild than those peak temps.

Hotel staff were all nice and very helpful. Absolutely no problems with same.

Linens in the rooms were all in great shape and appeared to be nice and clean.

Room trim showed signs of multiple paint layers that appeared a bit sloppy. Perhaps some of that should be replaced soon.

Wired internet worked well for my son and was free. If you aren't stuck with a wireless only device (such as my iPad) than you can enjoy the use of same if needed.

TVs were older analog/tube types. The TV channel offerings weren't huge, but seemed adequate for most travellers.

Visitors that need to clean laundry will need to venture out to find a laundromat or will have to rely upon the laundry service offered by the hotel. We passed on that offering completely so can't comment on how good or bad that service might be. I neglected to note the pricing for such service so again can't comment on reasonableness or lack of same in that pricing.

Air conditioning in the rooms (along with heating if necessary) comes from individual wall type units in the rooms. The units worked well from what I could tell but the fans for same are a bit noisy. Since customers can control the fan speeds and such they can make things a bit quieter.

Note that the area surrounding the hotel is a bit of a mix. There apparently used to be a movie theater very close by that has closed. There's a strip mall that is easily reachable (short walk or drive) that includes a Starbucks and a few other options. Across the street is a big car dealer, behind that is a Wal-mart that might take a visitor some work to determine how to reach. Exiting the parking area for the hotel can determine which way you can travel on the road way as one exit doesn't permit a left turn or even a legal U-turn. On the other hand, if you venture to the back/far side of the gas station that is across the entrance/parking lot for the Yankee Diner you can make a left turn just fine. You can also drive around the office building in the area and head over towards the strip mall with the Starbucks without having to venture onto the main roadway.