The hotel is very pleasant and all the staff I came across were very pleasant and helpful.
Rooms: I had requested a front (road) facing room through the Marriott virtual concierge booking system. On arrival I was allocated a rear facing room (room 302) though. The room faced out onto a flat roof, which appeared to have some type of air conditioning/heating ventilation system on it. You could hear a constant background noise from this and so asked for a room change. This was dealt with efficiently and was moved to a front facing room on the fourth floor. The room was clean and modern with flat panel TV and coffee/tea making machine.
The only minor, and I mean minor, issue was that the room air-conditioning system was a pain in that when it kicked in to maintain the preset temperature, it was just plain noisy – it reminded of one of those old wall mounted units you see in older motels. I tried to turn it off, and it still seemed to chug away in the background. Whether this is a general problem, I cannot comment, but having already moved room once, I stayed put.
The gym was on the second floor and although not that large, had good quality equipment and was not that busy when I visited early morning. The pool (outside) is open from ~May.
Next door is the Marriott Residence Inn.
Hotel restaurant: I ate at “Sear”. The food was fine and the service very good. The menu is not that comprehensive, but the usual steak, ribs, fish etc. Prices are relative to the local restaurants serving similar – Claim Jumper etc.
Location: Excellent for the modern shopping centre, which is located opposite the front of the hotel. There is also a good choice of restaurants (Thai, Mexican, Chinese, Indian and the aforementioned Claim Jumper which serves up steak, ribs, burgers etc). I ate in the Thai (second floor in shopping centre straight across from the hotel entrance), which was pretty keen on price ($13 for a main dish and rice) and the food was fine. I ate at the Claim Jumper restaurant twice (2 mins walk straight down the road opposite the hotel entrance). The food was pretty good and prices seemed on a par with the Sear restaurant in the Marriott (~$20 for a rib eye steak, ~ $25 for ribs). The Claim Jumper also had a happy hour (um two hours actually from 5pm to 7pm) with some food on a deal price and a pint of beer at $4 instead of $7. The hotel pretty much sits central to the town, with the older shopping area just a few minutes away as well.
Parking: Self parking is in the three story car park directly across the road from the hotel - $15.33 per day inc tax. The staff mentioned that up to 0100 hrs, the parking is not a problem, but presume after this you could get a ticket ? Valet parking is ~$20. There seemed to be plenty of cars in the car park overnight not displaying a tag from the hotel though, but did not want to chance a ticket.
Overall, I would certainly stay at this hotel again for its excellent location and modern clean style. Just caution the room location and if you are a light sleeper, whether the aircon is an issue for you.
- Marriott Redmond
- Redmond Marriott
