Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse Coupon!
Click here for a Darden coupon for $5 off two adult entrees at Red Lobster, Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse! Coupons are good until 12/30/2011!
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Courtyard Brookhollow - Marriott, Houston, TX
Brief Intro:
Upon arriving at the hotel you will be greeted with an older looking hotel from the outside. When entering the facility immediately inside the doors is the front desk, literally 10 feet from the door. This can become an issue when a lot of travelers are checking into the hotel at the same time and causes a huge back up out the door to the outside as there isn't much room to "wrap around" the check-in area.
Hotel Location:
The hotel itself is situated in a "questionable" part of Houston, its not quite on the outskirts but its also not in city limits. The other problem is the lack of food/restaurants established. There are two smaller restaurants in walking distance, a Mexican restaurant called Juanita and a sandwich shop called Antone's. I had the luxury of eating at both locations and I must say that Antone's was the best and was actually a halfway decent sandwich shop that wasn't over priced. The Mexican restaurant itself wasn't as good and the service wasn't great. For example, I ordered a Margarita, regular, on the rocks and it took me to ask the waiter twice where my drink was.
Hotel Facility:
It is fairly obvious that the hotel facility itself is on the older side of hotels but not horribly out of date. It seems like the entrance, lobby, main food and meeting areas were recently refreshed and are very nice contemporary style atmosphere about it. However, once you leave these areas you will quickly find out that this refresh stopped there! The carpeting throughout the hotel needs to be replaced including the rooms. The bathrooms also could use a refreshment but aren't absolutely horrible. The hotel does have a pool that was operational when I was there and was very clean. The hotel was clean and organized and my room was always cleaned and made up well when returning from a long day. There was also a small work out gym with a few gym items including a treadmill and bike.
Hotel Bar/Food/Breakfast:
The hotel did have a fairly decent breakfast selection and eating area which was staffed by a very nice staff and provided requested items very quickly and efficiently. There is free coffee (barista bold, no free Starbucks, sorry) which is "drinkable" coffee but the bar area provides a semi full Starbucks coffee menu along with the steep prices that come with it. I ordered a mocha latte one day and it was very well made and met my standards. I also ate breakfast here every morning and I must say, for hotel food, it made my top ten! I think mostly this was due to the very friendly and caring staff that were always friendly no matter how early it was or how tired I looked!
Final Words: Watch the Area...and your car!!
Upon leaving the hotel on the last morning that I was there I walked out of the side door of the facility to go to my rental car. To my surprise, right outside the door to the right I notice a car on cinder blocks!! No joke! So I am thinking, ok from my angle maybe they had two flat tires? No way! I walked around the car and I see all four tires are on cinder blocks!! Amazing. This occurred during a full hotel occupancy, right outside multiple rooms of the first and second floors AND right outside an exit door. I felt bad for whoever the car belonged too, let alone this happening in a HOTEL PARKING LOT! I strongly recommend parking your car on the other side of the hotel near the road where it can be seen by passing traffic at least.
Other than some improvements that can definitely be made the hotel is "acceptable" however, if you have the ability to stay at a hotel closer to the city I would recommend that option. I rate this hotel a 5.5/10 on my hotel review scale, and please, if you do stay at this location in the future, please make sure you don't leave ANY valuables in your car.
Upon arriving at the hotel you will be greeted with an older looking hotel from the outside. When entering the facility immediately inside the doors is the front desk, literally 10 feet from the door. This can become an issue when a lot of travelers are checking into the hotel at the same time and causes a huge back up out the door to the outside as there isn't much room to "wrap around" the check-in area.
Hotel Location:
The hotel itself is situated in a "questionable" part of Houston, its not quite on the outskirts but its also not in city limits. The other problem is the lack of food/restaurants established. There are two smaller restaurants in walking distance, a Mexican restaurant called Juanita and a sandwich shop called Antone's. I had the luxury of eating at both locations and I must say that Antone's was the best and was actually a halfway decent sandwich shop that wasn't over priced. The Mexican restaurant itself wasn't as good and the service wasn't great. For example, I ordered a Margarita, regular, on the rocks and it took me to ask the waiter twice where my drink was.
Hotel Facility:
It is fairly obvious that the hotel facility itself is on the older side of hotels but not horribly out of date. It seems like the entrance, lobby, main food and meeting areas were recently refreshed and are very nice contemporary style atmosphere about it. However, once you leave these areas you will quickly find out that this refresh stopped there! The carpeting throughout the hotel needs to be replaced including the rooms. The bathrooms also could use a refreshment but aren't absolutely horrible. The hotel does have a pool that was operational when I was there and was very clean. The hotel was clean and organized and my room was always cleaned and made up well when returning from a long day. There was also a small work out gym with a few gym items including a treadmill and bike.
Hotel Bar/Food/Breakfast:
The hotel did have a fairly decent breakfast selection and eating area which was staffed by a very nice staff and provided requested items very quickly and efficiently. There is free coffee (barista bold, no free Starbucks, sorry) which is "drinkable" coffee but the bar area provides a semi full Starbucks coffee menu along with the steep prices that come with it. I ordered a mocha latte one day and it was very well made and met my standards. I also ate breakfast here every morning and I must say, for hotel food, it made my top ten! I think mostly this was due to the very friendly and caring staff that were always friendly no matter how early it was or how tired I looked!
Final Words: Watch the Area...and your car!!
Upon leaving the hotel on the last morning that I was there I walked out of the side door of the facility to go to my rental car. To my surprise, right outside the door to the right I notice a car on cinder blocks!! No joke! So I am thinking, ok from my angle maybe they had two flat tires? No way! I walked around the car and I see all four tires are on cinder blocks!! Amazing. This occurred during a full hotel occupancy, right outside multiple rooms of the first and second floors AND right outside an exit door. I felt bad for whoever the car belonged too, let alone this happening in a HOTEL PARKING LOT! I strongly recommend parking your car on the other side of the hotel near the road where it can be seen by passing traffic at least.
Other than some improvements that can definitely be made the hotel is "acceptable" however, if you have the ability to stay at a hotel closer to the city I would recommend that option. I rate this hotel a 5.5/10 on my hotel review scale, and please, if you do stay at this location in the future, please make sure you don't leave ANY valuables in your car.
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