Why I’m Picky With Hotels

When I go on trips whether it be business or for pleasure, I want to throat punch anyone that says things like,

We’ll barely be in our room.

I just need a clean bed to sleep in.

WTF? I mean seriously. For the past few years my husband has been the team admin for my youngest’s soccer team. This has afforded me the ability to pick out most of our hotels the team stays in. I love our team and want them to have the best of the best of whatever city we are in. Though proximity to the field is important, I don’t make that the primary goal. If a motel 6 is only 5 miles from the field and a Springhill Suites is 15 miles from the field, we are staying at the Springhill Suites.

Where This Came From

From an early age, my mom would always be up for traveling. Every year, we would go on a cruise or vacation somewhere south, courtesy of Mommy Warbucks (aka grandma). My dad was always managing the family business so it would just be my mom, grandma and 2 sisters. Even before TripAdvisor and even the internet, my mom would make it her duty to go to the AAA store and work with a travel agent to find a top-notch hotel.

Then I landed a job opening stores for Express across the country. The parent company, Limitedbrands (now just LBrands) always had beautiful hotel options. One month I’d find myself at the Shore Club on Miami Beach. Another, I would be staying in the Soho Grand in NYC. I began to appreciate great hotels and dreaded when I had to stay at a Holiday Inn to open a store in Detroit.

Today’s Hotel

Look, I get with soccer and our budget, we aren’t staying in beautiful boutique hotels. They don’t exist where we go nor is it practical for the budget. What I can appreciate is that chains such as Marriott and Hilton (though slower) are taking ques from boutique hotels and incorporating them into their latest designs. Gone are the days of particle board furniture and bath towels the size of a maxi-pad.

Take our hotel from this past weekend, Springhill Suites by Marriott. I had been wanting to try it since it opened a year ago and finally got the opportunity. Here are a few pictures of a our room.

The furnishings are from West Elm. Instead of a paper-thin sofa bed, the bottom of this sofa has a trundle bed with a proper mattress. Have you heard of this anywhere else? Me neither. The sofa itself can be made into a bed as the cushions are über comfortable!

The glass at the desk slide across to afford privacy between the living room and the bedroom area. The barn door slides shut to allow additional space in the room.

The walk-in closet was a complete surprise for me. I about fell over when I opened it up. Even in newer hotels you don’t find a walk-in closet. Like airplanes, hotels are trying to figure out how to cram as many people in their establishment as possible. So for this little nugget of room, I was in love!

Next week, we are going to Washington D.C. for a tournament. Originally we were booked in a hotel that had reviews such as the following. Please note, I copied and pasted these titles:

Dated but serviceable; better choices available

clean but underwhelming

Worst stay ever

Far better options in Frederick

Here are a few of the travelers photos posted on TripAdvisor:

This is my favorite picture. What is this? The family visiting room of Orange is the New Black?

I love what they’ve done in the halls!

So us along with 2 other families booked at a different hotel. Exact same distance to the fields and there aren’t bars on the candy machine. I’ll post pictures of the hotel this weekend!