Every time we visit The Woodlands we stay at the Residence Inn II. We absolutely love it. It is a wonderful hotel, from the rooms to the swimming pool. Everything is absolutely beautiful & clean. Anytime my family has a request, they are ready & willing to take care of it for us. From the housekeeping staff to the general manager, they are the most pleasant and professional group. We absolutely love it. And we wouldn't stay anywhere else.

I stay at hotels more than 200 nights a year and The Residence Inn Market Street The Woodlands TX is my favorite home away from home. From the generous woman who serves breakfast and evening snacks to the nighttime front desk crew who are always cheerful no matter what the bleary-eyed emergency, the staff here are some of the most helpful and professional I have encountered. The location of this hotel is superb for shopping and excellent dining experiences. While the hotel has an exercise room I especially enjoy the morning runs along The Woodlands Waterway. When there are concerts at the Pavilion (like Sting or Dave Matthews Band) it is possible to score some free tunes by merely walking down the street.

I must start off with the positive. We stayed there for three days while moving from one house to the other in the Woodlands. My wife left our jewelry box in the room's closet when we checked out and Mercedes (a member of the housekeeping staff) immediately returned it to front desk intact. Needless to say, we were relieved and thrilled that there are still honest, hard-working people in the world.

However, when my wife went to the hotel to retrieve said box she had to wait over an hour because there was no manager on staff (the one on duty at the time decided to call in to say she would be late). The other two managers had allegedly called in sick the same day. Surely there is something wrong with this picture.

The biggest reason why I cannot recommend this hotel is the noise from the A/C unit. It is, in a word, unbearable. It is located in a closet of the bedroom part of the suite and in addition to the typical compressor noise, there is a vibration/humming that drove us batty. When we mentioned it to management, they simply said, "Yes, some people have a problem with that." I am stunned that I did not see this mentioned in any other TripAdvisor reviews.

This is also a Cat 3 Marriott property (requiring 15,000 pts per night). The Towneplace Suites up the road in Shenandoah is only Cat 1 (requiring only 7500 pts) and gets rave reviews. Go figure.

I stayed in the Residence Inn - Market Street for a long weekend visiting friends. Note that there are two Residence Inn The Woodlands, this is the one closest to Market Street, Downtown, and the Mall. You are actually only a very short walk from these places, although the dense woods really isolates the noise and makes you feel like you are in the middle of the woods. Parking is plentiful.

The staff were great - very helpful, very friendly. The rooms themselves are good size, they have kitchenettes so you can go to Hubble and Hubbard and bring back some goodies to try. However, the bed was low and uncomfortable, it was rather hard and thin. There is a sign on the A/C not to turn it below 70, which is uncomfortably warm for sleeping - the air circulation is rather poor, and the room gets stuffy. They were missing things like luggage stands, and there is no open place to put your suitcase, so you are forever lifting it off and onto the bed. And the wall insulation is not too thick, so it does get a little noisy. Breakfast was fair, but the fact that you have a kitchenette makes this a moot point.

All in all it would have gotten a higher rating if they did something about the beds and AC, but these are two big of an issue to be overlooked. The hotel is right next door to the Hilton Garden Inn, which I have also stayed at. Unless you need the kitchenette, I would go with the Garden Inn instead.