NY Syracuse Embassy Suites

[the_monkey]

For those of you who are just looking for a quick review: Hotel is very nice, would stay there again. :)

Won this one for $60 on Priceline about 7 hours before we checked in. I called after my bid was accepted to request two double beds and a nonsmoking room. In hindsight I should have requested a queen and double.

The hotel is located less than 5 minutes from the I90 at the end of a road with at least 6 other hotels. The directions from their website were perfect and took us from our door to theirs.

Checked in at 10:00 pm, no mention of Priceline at the desk. Our room was on the 5th floor and couldn't have been farther from the elevator. :) But not a bad walk at all, not near the laundry or ice machines, and gave us a nice view of the atrium, which has a little stream running through it and some HUGE koi in the main pond.

Each of the suites has two rooms. The sitting room had a TV w/remote, a round table with 3 chairs, a sleeper sofa, and a little bar area with good-sized fridge, bar sink, microwave and coffee maker. There was also a large picture window near the door that looked out into the atrium - and the sheers are a bit sheer, so if you like wandering around in your skivvies, close the other drapes! :) Bathroom was off of the sitting room and on the small size but very clean. The tub had one of those plastic liners that I don't care for and an adjustable showerhead I unscrewed a bit when trying to adjust it. Needed my glasses. :o DH fixed it with no problem.

Bedroom in the back had two double beds, a desk with chair, and a large armoire that had a second tv on one side and a place to hang clothes on the other. Iron and ironing board were also there. The beds were harder than I like, but otherwise fine, and clean. The sleeper sofa in the living room was also clean but the mattress pad was too small. Blanket and two extra pillows were in the armoire. Large picture window looking out at, well, not much, but there's not much to look at but the thruway in that area.

All in all, the room was just fine. The heating/cooling system kept the front room warmer than the back room, but we just cranked up the a/c and it was fine. I didn't see any wear on the furniture/beddings, but I could smell just a tiny bit of cigarette smoke residue on the curtains when I was looking out the window. They had a display in the front of the hotel showing new fabrics and stuff, so it looked like they are going to be doing some renovations.

There were a lot of preteens/teens around, and as we got there they were making an announcement that it was 10 pm and all minors had to be in their rooms or with an adult. Now kids don't bother me (after all, we had our 2 with us) but I was concerned about noise, since the room next to us had a small gaggle of them in there. Even when they were hanging out in the balcony, we could not hear them in the room. So no problems there.

We missed the reception from 5:30-7:30 pm (free drinks) but we did partake of the free breakfast the next morning. Cooked to order fried eggs or omelets (scrambled eggs were premade but not bad, and you could have fresh ones made), bacon, sausage, various breads, fruit, Starbucks coffee and the like.

Checkout time was noon, so we had time to go in the pool and hot tub for a little bit. The pool was supposed to be heated but was a bit cool, and cloudy, but they were checking the pool chemistry when we were there. The hot tub was nice and warm.

Our DS is a self-proclaimed "hotel monkey" (whatever that means) and he has declared this his new favorite hotel - even over the Delta Chelsea in Toronto, Ontario, where we stayed for his birthday. We have no hesitations about staying there again.