New York City: Homewood Suites Midtown Manhattan Times Square South (February 2020)

Homewood Suites Midtown Manhattan Times Square South - Liked the Extra Space of the Studio Suite

My spouse and I stayed at the Homewood Suites Midtown Manhattan Times Square South for two nights over a long weekend in mid-February 2020. We reserved our stay online using the Hilton HHonors website. Although we are Diamond members, we did not receive any kind of an upgrade (such as to a higher floor; in fact, we could not have been on any lower of a floor!). 

The Manhattan Homewood Suites property is located on West 37^th Street in Chelsea. We chose this property because it was located between Port Authority (where we parked our car) and Madison Square Garden (where we had tickets to see the Eagles Hotel California tour). Many shops and restaurants are located just steps from the hotel, although the shops are more of the souvenir variety and the restaurants are more functional than destination dining. (We ate at the full-service Houndstooth Irish Pub nearby, which was better-than-expected; see our separate review. We also had some food at Doylers Irish Pub at the Hilton Garden Inn just a few doors away; see our separate review.)

Public spaces include a high-ceilinged lobby, with areas for the front desk/pantry store, overflow breakfast seating at regular-height tables, one high-top communal table with charging ports, a two-sided gas fireplace, a wall with a lovely glass waterfall feature, and some comfy lounge seating. Three elevators whisk guests to the floors above. There is some narrow outdoor space through the rear of the building, as well as an area that overlooks the basement-level fitness center. A buffet breakfast area that can be closed off doubles as luggage storage in the afternoon and evening. The hotel offers a rooftop terrace in warmer weather. 

Our studio suite was located on the second floor, which has a sort of atrium feature because it is open to the lobby below. Our room overlooked West 37^th Street, and although initially we wished that we had been assigned a higher floor, the second floor proved interesting because we could watch the pedestrian and vehicle traffic on the street below from our own private floor-to-ceiling window. We entered our room near the bathroom, which was an acceptable size for one person at a time, including a small sink vanity, toilet, and a long but narrow standing shower (no bathtub). An adjacent closet offered plenty of storage space, including a hang bar and shelving unit as well as space to hold our suitcase on a luggage rack so that we could then close everything away behind doors; the closet even had a light as well as a large safe, iron, and tabletop ironing board. The main room contained a small kitchenette at one end (with an apartment-sized refrigerator/freezer, small sink, microwave, two-burner stovetop, and tiny dishwasher, as well as the cups, plates, utensils, and cookware necessary to prepare a simple meal). A king-size bed occupied the middle of the room (across from which was the wall-mounted TV), small chest of drawers, desk (with a roll-out extension below it), with an end table and small sofa with ottoman (which unfolded to expand the surface) near the windows. We liked the layout of this studio suite because of the extra space and comfort it provided. (Note that there is no door between the living and sleeping areas in the junior suite.)

We enjoyed our stay at the Homewood Suites Midtown Manhattan Times Square South, and we would stay there again.

New York City: Sixty LES (January 2020)

Sixty LES – Stylish Accommodations on the Lower East Side

My spouse and I stayed at the SIXTY LES on a long weekend in mid-January 2020. We booked our stay online, reserving a Junior Suite. Note that the SIXTY LES charges a $29 per night Guest Experience Fee, which includes two bottles of water per night, a $10 minibar credit per night, Wi-Fi, and fitness center access. (The mandatory fee also includes pool access in the summertime.)

As its name implies, the SIXTY LES is located on the Lower East Side; its main entrance is on Allen Street, with a rear entrance (via the hotel restaurant) on Orchard Street. Another SIXTY property is located in SoHo, as well as a location in Beverly Hills. The lobby of the LES is dark and chic, with a few minimalist furniture pieces arranged along the wall across from the front desk. A wall of hanging beads behind the front desk hides a staircase that leads to the lounge/bar/restaurant area. The second floor offers comfortable lounge space, along with the hotel restaurant Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya and the outdoor Kanpai Garden in warmer weather. The seventh floor offers a nighttime club called Make Believe; on the Saturday afternoon that we arrived, with our room located just one floor below the lounge, the noise and vibrations were a bit loud. We were concerned that the raucous music would continue late into the night/early morning, but when we returned from dinner at about 10:00 pm, it was surprisingly quiet. In contrast, there was no music/noise on Sunday afternoon or evening, so perhaps the Saturday afternoon party was an anomaly. 

Our junior suite number 601 was spacious at 450 square feet. The entry foyer led to the bathroom, with separate glass cubicles for the toilet and the oversized slate shower, divided by a small sink/vanity area that could be closed off by a sliding door. Note that the back of the shower wall faces the main living area in the room and contains a panel of frosted glass through which shapes can be viewed, so the shower area is not completely private. Across from the bathroom space was a wall with three adjacent closets; one held two cozy bathrobes (but no slippers), another held the minibar and safe, and another was empty with plenty of room to hang clothes and store bags. On that same wall, a built-in furniture unit included the desk (on which trays held non-refrigerated mini-bar snacks and full-size liquor bottles for purchase), and a long wooden bench suitable for holding luggage. (There was a tremendous amount of storage space and surfaces in this room.) Online, room amenities mention Nespresso machines in the rooms, but there was not one in ours. Our junior suite had a small living area (with sofa and coffee table) separated from the bedroom area (with a king-size platform bed [which was a bit low for us 50-somethings!] and two nightstands) with a hanging metal bead/chain curtain. Large floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked the outdoor pool and Orchard Street. Room décor (including a unique lighted photograph headboard, glossy black wood floors, and black reflective walls) created a stylish, contemporary feel. The wall-mounted television could be angled slightly depending on whether you viewed it from the sofa or the bed. 

We enjoyed our stay at the SIXTY LES; we like the area, and we liked our spacious junior suite.

 

DC: Holiday Inn Capitol Smithsonian (January 2020)

Holiday Inn Washington Capitol – We Didn’t Like the Location

My spouse and I stayed at the Holiday Inn Washington Capitol for two nights in early January 2020. We reserved our room online. We are IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) Rewards Group Gold Elite members, but we do not feel that we received any special recognition.

The Holiday Inn Washington Capitol is located south of the Mall just 0.1 mile from the Air and Space Museum. Although the hotel’s name includes “Capitol”, it is about 0.8 mile southwest of that famous building. The hotel is located near the offices for the Smithsonian Museums, as well as near other governmental offices like the Department of Education and the Office of Special Education. This means that the area is busy during the workweek/workday but is a bit desolate in the evenings and on weekends. It also means that the few meager restaurants within a block of two walk of the hotel are more geared toward office workers grabbing a quick self-service casual lunch than hotel guests looking for a more relaxing full-service evening meal. There’s a McDonalds, Quiznos, deli, and Starbucks in the same block as the hotel, with varying hours of operation. A CVS pharmacy (which sells other sundry items) has mostly daytime hours. Fortunately, the hotel offers two full-service restaurants called the 21^st Amendment (see our separate review) and the Capitol Bistro, as well as a more casual grab-and-go daytime Coffee Kiosk and an adjacent Starbucks. The hotel is located just a block from the L’Enfant Metro station, so it is easy to reach other areas of the city, although taxis and ride services (Uber, Lyft) are also readily available.

Hotel public areas include a large lobby, seasonal rooftop pool (which we imagine is a hit with vacationing families in the summertime), fitness center, business center, and guest laundry. The hotel offers self-parking for a fee of $45 per day. This hotel has conference and event space, which is why we stayed here; my spouse was presenting at a work-related trade show in the hotel. 

The hotel offers 536 rooms spread over eight stories. We booked a one-bedroom suite, but it was not particularly conducive to a relaxing stay. Although our room was technically located on the second floor, due to the elevation of the land, it was actually on the ground floor/street level because our rooms faced an interior outdoor courtyard. Because we visited in the wintertime, that courtyard was relatively unused, but we could see the tables and chairs that office workers and guests must occupy in the warmer months, which would provide no privacy for our suite of rooms if the curtains were open. Upon entering our room, we immediately encountered the bathroom, which was long and narrow, with an expansive vanity (but only a single sink), shower/bathtub combination, and toilet. A long hallway led to the cozy living room, with a small loveseat, TV, mini-refrigerator, and counter with a wet bar and coffee maker (our room had no microwave). The bedroom was spacious, with a king-size bed and nightstand on each side, a desk and rolling chair, a second TV, and a padded bench suitable for holding a suitcase. We were assigned a handicap-accessible room (even though we try not to occupy such rooms because we have a mobility-challenged relative who truly needs one), so the closet in the bedroom had a low hang bar, which was too low for some of our clothes. The bathroom area near the toilet and the bathtub contained the required grab bars, as well as a shower chair that could be attached as necessary. The other accommodation were long plastic handle pulls on the draperies so that someone in a wheelchair could open and close them more easily. Our room had lots of windows, but we were not totally comfortable having the curtains open, nor did we have any sense of security that someone from the outdoors could not access our room. However, our main issue with the suite was the heating system; it was very difficult to maintain adequate temperatures on the very cold week (probably the only one this winter) that we visited. It seemed that the unit in the large bedroom was always blowing cold air, whereas the one in the small living room was overly hot. 

Unfortunately, we really did not enjoy our stay at this hotel; we did not like the location, and we did not find our room comfortable.