I have no idea why this place is #3 on the list. My family and I booked 2 rooms here for a wedding weekend in October after reading the great reviews and because of the spacious rooms.
The staff was very nice, but the facility as a whole is not. The entire place smelled strongly of air freshener in an attempt to cover up the smell of smoke (this is not a smoke-free hotel). The smell by itself gave me a headache. The couch and recliner in our room were very small, dated, and extremely worn. There were hairs on the kitchen floor and in the bathtub... Basically, the room had not been cleaned very well. Overall, this hotel is smelly, dated, and was not cleaned well. Our family left after about 15 minutes of being in the room and went to stay at the Holiday Inn Express where we had an enjoyable weekend.

This facility has raised the bar for hotel/suite accomodations. My wife and I found Mainstay Suites on our last trip and were so impressed with the ammenities etc... that we booked a suite for our recent trip to Wilmington. Our "Home" away from home was a king size suite complete with full kitchen, eating/business area & sitting/lounge area. At $117 per night plus tax this place is a really "Sweet Deal". Not only is it centrally located to restaurants and shopping centers, it's 10 minutes to Wrightsville beach. From the moment we entered the reception area and were greeted by a kind and caring staff to checkout we
knew that this was no ordinary hotel/suite. It's a special place to stay.

We needed a place to spend a week while visiting family and the Mainstay proved to be a good choice for us. The one bedroom suite with kitchen and living room was spacious and clean. The location was good, with restaurants and a Target nearby. It was also and easy drive to other parts of Wilmington to see the sites and visit the kids. The continental breakfast was more than adequate although the coffee was substandard. But then, a good cup was hard to find anywhere except the Port City Java shops. Breakfast was toaster french toast, english muffins, bagels, cereal and juice. One morning there was yogurt and apples were always available. The staff was very friendly (pretty much the norm for the area). The room was serviced two or three times during the week, which was actually unexpected as I think their policy requires that you call for midweek service. But I could have misunderstood. There is a nice looking, small pool shared with the Sleep Inn next door but we didn't get a chance to use it. There is also a pleasant courtyard with tables and barbeque grills for use by the guests. Our only complaint was that the air conditioning unit was rather noisy but leaving the windows open at night was risky because there were no screens. All in all, however, I would recommend this establishment.

We found this hotel after checking in to another hotel and finding it disgusting. This is the best hotel I have stayed at in Wilmington yet. We travel every year and have never found such great accommodations for the price. Price was higher than most but after getting in the room we certainly didn't mind it was huge. From check in to check out the staff made us feel right at home like they had known us all along. Hotel very clean and the free breakfast was above what normal hotels offer. We reported an issue late at night and the maintenance person came back to help us even at that late hour. Most impressive that even after he went back home he called to check to make sure everything wass alright. Will never stay anywhere else again in Wilmington.