We were assigned this hotel from a Priceline bid and the Tripadvisor reviews had me a little worried. I am happy to report that the hotel was just fine....especially at a $55.00 out the door price per night. If you look at my other reviews, you'll see that my wife and I are pretty easy to please, so keep that in mind. I also realize that there are other travelers who are very difficult to please and this hotel may not be for them.
We know that a 2.5 star hotel will never never be confused with a 4 star hotel, and I would say that this hotel is significantly nicer than Motel 6 and a little short of a Holiday Inn in quality. Others have written that this is a well maintained 70's hotel with a postage stamp bathroom....and they are right. Here are our thoughts on this property:
GETTING THERE:
The hotel has an Expressway address, but is really about 200 yards off the highway. A well lit, highly visible sign points the way. It sets back behind a Chinese buffet. You will scratch your head at the name....the hotel has nothing to do with an Egyptian design and no pyramids are anywhere. The building is attractive and the lobby has an almost all glass exterior. The parking lot is very well lit and the access to the entrances requires your room key. You'll feel 100% safe when you pull up.
CHECK IN:
The hotel was nowhere close to full and check in was a breeze. No hassles over the Priceline reservation. We were actually given an upgraded double bed room instead of a king, which worked out well for us. The hotel did have a 24 hour, uniformed desk clerk. All of the them were pleasant. The lobby is nice and it is clean. The indoor pool is right next to the lobby and looked nice. We did not try it, but did feel the water to see if it was heated and it felt pretty cool. There was a whirlpool available also and there were towels available in the pool area. The pool closed at 9 p.m. and reopened at 9 a.m.
THE ROOM:
The room was spacious and had a safe, a fridge, microwave, mini coffe maker, and mini hair dryer. It still had the old school CRT TVs with a fair channel selection and free HBO. We got our automated wake-up call right on time. The mirror and sink are ouside the bathroom. The lighting was sufficient. The free WIFI was easy to log into and use. The bedding was plush and the pillows were nice. We slept very well. The room was quiet except for the wall unit AC which was loud and almost sounded like something was wrong with it.
The bathroom was small. The door opened into the bathroom and you had to wedge yourself betwen the toilet and the tub to have clearance to shut the door. There was a full length mirror on the outer bathroom door. We had problems with the folding door on the closet....it finally came off the hinges and we set it aside. There is a work desk by the TV cabinet, but it is impossible to pull out the chair because the foot of the second bed blocks it. There was a reading chair in the far corner of the room. The carpet was clean and not worn....the room was spotless. Housekeeping did a great job. Good water pressure in the shower, lots of hot water and good towels.
BREAKFAST:
The free continental breakfast was mediocre. It is served in the lobby area at nice, restaurant style glass tables with real dishes and real silverware available. The breakfast is served from 6 a.m.-10 a.m. There were instant oatmeal packets you could heat in a microwave, a bin of very plain pastries, bagels so small they were hard to retrieve from the toater, and defrosted out of the box small waffles for toasting. There were three cereal bins with Raisin Bran, Corn Chex or Cheerios (if I remember right). Milk was available, as was coffee, hot chocolate, orange juice, apple juice and water. Questionable apples were available, but no bananas. Cream cheese, butter, jelly and syrup were also available. I say it is fair, my wife says that OK is an overstatement.
OVERALL:
If you define value as necessarily involving trade-offs, you'll likely find that in this very upper-class and upper middle-class area it is nice to find a clean, comfortable room for less than $60.00. With rare exception, we are budget travelers and this hotel was well worth what we paid.
A little tip to Priceline users searching in the McKinney-Allen area.....be careful bidding on 2.5 star hotels unless you are a couple. You'll almost certainly end up with this hotel and be assigned a king bed. If you want double beds, the owner will charge you a $10 plus tax upgrade fee per night. We escaped that somehow with a free upgrade.
If you are going to book this hotel directly, call and ask for a better rate than the published rate. The owner is there most days it seems and was willing to offer a discount off the website prices. I talked to him when I thought we may need an extra room. We will go back to this hotel if we stay in the area again.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
