I used to stay at this Homewood Suites often about 8-10 years ago when traveling to RTP on business. I (and many of my co-workers) found that the hotel always seemed to do just that little bit extra that made them stand out from other similarly priced hotels. The only thing that used to infuriate us were the &^$#*&^ lights on the outside of the building, that were so bright that there was no way to darken the room at night. Even piles of furniture up against the drapes couldn't keep out the blinding light. Luckily a few of the rooms don't have that problem, and so I soon learned to always request one of those rooms. Unfortunately the hotel dropped off my employer's "approved" list, so it had been many years since I'd stayed here.
Happily my employer considers the hotel "approved" once again, so I gave them another try. I had long since forgotten which room numbers were sufficiently dark, so I tried simply putting "dark room" in my reservation. I'm happy to report that it worked. Although a little bit of light still filtered in around the curtains, I had no problem getting my room dark enough to sleep soundly.
I find Homewood Suites tend to come in one of two categories, either new ones that are too small so you find yourself tripping over furniture, or older ones that are spacious but starting to look a bit run down. This Homewood Suites fits neither of those categories. My room was of a good size (actually 2 rooms with a separating door - a bedroom and a kitchen / sitting room - both were comfortably large) and although it had been a long time since I was last here, the furniture, walls, etc. were all in very good shape. Each room had a modern flatscreen TV. The kitchen has a full size refrigerator and freezer, cook top, large microwave, dishes, and utensils. The bathroom is split with the sink out in the bedroom and toilet & tub/shower in a separate room. Water pressure in the shower was good. HVAC worked well (although it was a little loud). The rooms and hotel in general were clean. There was very little noise from inside or outside the hotel. The kitchen sink did have a slow drip that I couldn't stop, so if I was sleeping in that room (on the fold-out sofa) it may have been something of a water torture, but I wasn't so I really didn't care. There was popcorn in the room to have as a snack. The hotel had free internet (it was also free back when I stayed in the past and was one of those little extras since at that time most of their competitors were still charging for it).
On weeknights they have food, beer, and wine available. On the night I arrived they had salad and meatball subs which were certainly adequate and appreciated after flying in. Breakfast in the morning was also very good. Long ago they had a chef making omlettes and such to order (the only Homewood Suites I've ever known to do this). That's gone now but there was still a selection of eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, cereal, yogurt, and toaster items available. Perhaps a little less selection than some similar hotels, but I thought overall the quality of the food was quite a bit better. I thought it was about as good a breakfast as you could expect from a steam table. (The yogurt with granola a berries was also quite tasty.)
The fitness center is open 24 hours and has the usual bike, treadmills, and rack of free weights, all in good working order. The staff was all very friendly and efficient, from the front desk to the gentleman cleaning the elevator. So a great hotel, as long you get a dark room (or have no problem sleeping in a brightly lit room).
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
