I suppose any review of this hotel must be prefaced with taking note of it's economical rates -- a good $25 to $50 less a night than any of the other Crowne Plazas in the Twin Cities. Add to that, the hotel seem to fill a lot of its rooms with guests using discount or blind-bid websites and groups for even lower rates.

So it's not a matter of this 11-story hotel, tucked away in a suburban office park area, of being like a Motel 8, but rather having a lot of Motel 8 clientele.

Which is fine, except that hotel patrons paying such low rates also expect the kind of entitlements budget hotels offer -- such as free breakfast -- and don't need the kind of amenities hotels such as Crowne Plaza usually offer -- such as bell hops and well-staffed restaurants and bars.

The Crowne Plaza Minneapolis North manages a great balancing act for all its guests for the most part. I like the brand, and found this one being in a perfect location for a family event -- convenient to a lot of suburbs and about 15 minutes to downtown Minneapolis (albeit much further to the airport). I could in fact see the skyline off in the distance from my hotel window.

The staff is spread thin, leaving a lone waitress to take care of an entire dining room or a single desk clerk to negotiate people checking in, checking out, calling other rooms, requesting wake-up calls, etc. Kudos to those lonely workers who do so while managing politeness and reasonable promptness. The only glitch was that a call from the pool to the front desk on the hotel phone went unanswered -- even after five minutes of ringing.

The facility itself is just on the cusp of needing an update, although the somewhat new furniture and flat-screen TVs (sans hi-def reception) seem to be initial steps in the right direction. The pool, spa and whirlpool are OK, but a coat of paint would do wonders, and it wouldn't hurt to turn the water temperature up, either.

The rooms are more than decent and of true three-and-a-half-star quality. I was given an upgraded, oversized king suite with a sofa-bed sitting area and two full walls of windows, but the standard rooms are not much smaller. The bathrooms have the adjustable magnifying mirrors and the beds have the upgraded sleeping amenities, including the sound-effects CD player, which offers chimes, tropical forest or ocean roars

The lobby has complimentary quality coffee in the morning and happy-hour hot snacks in the evening. The restaurant breakfasts (with a decent buffet Tuesdays through Sundays until 10:20 a.m. for around $10), lunches and room service was on par with standard suburban business hotel fare.

For business (family or otherwise) in the north side of suburban Minneapolis, this is a great choice.

I stayed here in the first weekend of October for business. This is the third time I've stayed at this property. Please note it is not near downtown Minneapolis, that it's located at the far western edge of Minneapolis, and for those familiar with the area, more towards Coon Rapids area. Very nice rooms, super comfy beds, and nice and quiet. No free breakfast, but the restaurant is nice and there's a small bar in the lobby as well. Very close to freeway, but not public transportation.

I stayed at this hotel for just a night, and It wasn't bad for the price. I did the name your own price thing on Priceline, and ended up with this. The room was nice, and the front desk was fairly helpful (we needed help getting to Target Field). However, it wasn't close to anything and there wasn't any good public transportation. Overall, nothing special but worth it because of the value.

I booked a romm at this hotel by mistake, I meant to choose another. It was ok, just not great. The bathroom was the worst part- you couldn't open the door the whole way because the toilet was in the way. And to take a shower, you had to go in the bathroom, move out of the way, and only then could you close the door. Not the biggest deal, but just inconvenient. Cleanliness was ok, the bathroom could have been cleaner. Room service food was ok, but the food was cold by the time they delivered it.