The One Boutique Hotel



About
Welcome to The One Boutique Hotel, your Carrollton “home away from home.” The One Boutique Hotel aims to make your visit as relaxing and enjoyable as possible, which is why so many guests continue to come back year after year.
For those interested in checking out Historic Downtown Carrollton (2.4 mi) while visiting Carrollton, The One Boutique Hotel is a short distance away.
The One Boutique Hotel offers guests an array of room amenities including a refrigerator, air conditioning, and a desk, and getting online is possible, as free wifi is available.
The small hotel offers 24 hour front desk, room service, and a coffee shop, to make your visit even more pleasant. The property also features a pool and a lounge. Guests arriving by vehicle have access to free parking.
While in Carrollton, you may want to check out some of the restaurants that are a short walk away from The One Boutique Hotel, including BBQ Tonight (0.5 mi), Omi Korean Bar & Grill (0.3 mi), and Al Markaz (0.6 mi).
Best of all, The One Boutique Hotel makes it easy to experience many great Carrollton attractions like Nob Hill Greenbelt, Green Trail, and Greenbelt Disc Golf Park, which are some popular parks.
The One Boutique Hotel puts the best of Carrollton at your fingertips, making your stay both relaxing and enjoyable.
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My wife and I had been to Spa Castle several times, and decided to stay at The One Hotel as a way to “maximize” our spa experience. We used the “Staycation” package offered by the hotel, which currently costs $270. You get one night in a Loft Room (check their website for pics), plus a 24 hr pass for two to Spa Castle. This review will touch on several aspects of our experience…
HOTEL
The hotel is very nice, clean, modern Asian style decor. The Loft Room has a small first floor with a full bath with combo soaker tub (big enough for two) and shower. There is also a small Asian style floor level couch/futon and a TV downstairs. Upstairs is a loft bedroom with another toilet so you don’t have to stumble downstairs in the middle of the night if nature calls. There’s another TV in the bedroom, a desk/work area, and a small floor level Asian style table with a cushion on each side. The bed was a queen, and was a memory foam mattress that was pretty comfy, but maybe a bit firm.
Check in was pretty easy. There isn’t a separate entrance for the hotel, so the front desk is the same as the front desk for the spa. They have luggage carts in a room by the front desk, so if you have a big group or a large amount of baggage, you can use those. Check in is at 3 PM, a pretty peak time, so count on having to park far away and drag your stuff in.
TIP- some of the other reviews complained about the room being stuffy. I think this is because they have a power saving feature in the rooms where you have to put a room key in a slot by the lighting/AC control panel. When you take it out (like when you leave the room) the power goes off. That’s fine for the lights, but the AC still needs to run. If you are both going out (assuming there are two of you) then it’s fine- you can leave one key. But if you’re going to the spa and plan to separate in the mens/womens area, you may want to just meet back at the room at a certain time, so you both need a key. Solution: ask them to give you an EXTRA key, then you can always leave one in the slot.
STAYCATION PACKAGE-
The reason we booked the package was because the rates on the website looked really, really high. The room rate was fine, but then there was a “room charge” that was 4x the rate. So it looked like a night in a standard room was going to cost me over $300, PLUS I was going to have to pay to get into the Spa. What I figured out is that they immediately charge you the FULL rate of the room to lock in your stay. If you give them enough notice that you are canceling, they’ll refund it. If not I think they take 20%. So for example, our room rate was $260 for one night in the loft room. When I arrived, I bought the package (you can only buy it in person) for $270. So at this point, I’ve paid $530. During your stay, you can charge things at the hotel (like room service, or minibar purchases) to your room. You can do the same thing at the Spa- spa treatments, food, drinks, etc can be charged to the room, and they come off that initial payment. At the end, if you haven’t used up all the money you prepaid, (and assuming you didn’t wreck your room and have to pay for something) you get whatever’s left refunded.
As far as cost effectiveness, I don’t think I’ll do the package again simply because we didn’t need the Loft room. A standard room would have been fine- we spent most of our time at the spa. The regular entry fee is $35, but guests get a discount of $10, so it only costs $50 for two. That means you’re paying $220 for a hotel room. If you have that kind of money, great, but I’d rather use that money buying stuff in the spa rather than for a room I”m not going to see much of.
This has been something that’s been discussed in a lot of reviews, but at least with the Staycation package (you might call and check the rules if you are paying the $25 per person guest rate) you DO get in and out privileges. An earlier review said you can only be out of the spa for 30 minutes before your “pass” is revoked, but this wasn’t true for us. We had a 24 hour pass. You don’t even get the room for 24 hrs, so we actually checked out of the hotel, took our bags to the car, then went back into the spa to do the rest of our time, and there was no problem. We would leave for dinner, come back, then back again the next morning, etc. The 24 hours starts not when you check in to the hotel, but the first time you enter the spa.
The Staycation Package is not taken on Fri/Sat, and maybe Sunday too. Be sure and check if you are planning a trip on the weekend.
SPA CASTLE-
I’m not going to delve into Spa Castle much here, there are plenty of reviews about that already, though I’ll mention a few things….
If you are scared of being naked in front of people of the same gender, you have TWO choices:
Don’t go to Spa Castle,
Don’t hang out in the “wet” area in the locker room.
Note, there is no third option of “just go in there in your swimsuit and hope they don’t say anything.” It’s really annoying when people get in the pools in their swimsuits. No, I don’t want to see you naked- but your swimsuit has nasty chlorine, dirt that you picked up while you were sitting on the ground outside or a chair. There are remnants of the detergent you use to wash it with (think I’m being paranoid? Then you’ve never owned a hot tub. All kinds of stuff can throw off water balance.) In addition, if you have your swimsuit on, then you didn’t take a shower before entering the interior pools- which is also a rule. It’s not just a rule for no reason- you have sweat and oils on you that I don’t want to bathe in. You have more chlorine, and maybe sunscreen, hair gel, makeup, cologne, and whatever else you spray, rub, splash, spritz or slather on your body. Again, I don’t want to bathe in all the junk that floats off of you. The outside pools are much more chlorinated, as well as being much larger. The interior pools are basically big tiled bathtubs with bubblers. If everybody that came in dunked in those small interior tubs without showering, there’d be a sheen of oil, and all kinds of other nastiness floating in those tubs. Rant over… Again, just don’t go to the interior tubs if you are scared to be naked (although you’ll quickly figure out it’s really no big deal if you just do it..) But the outside pools have the SAME jets as the interior ones. There are also hot tubs outside. There are dry saunas galore in the co-ed section of the spa. About the only thing you can’t get anywhere else in the spa is the cold pool, (68 degrees) and the steam sauna.
AQUA BAR (the swim up bar)
Yes the drinks are overpriced. 10-12 bucks for a crappy frozen drink or a basic drink like a gin and tonic, or tequila sunrise is a bit high, but how often do you get to drink in a swim up bar?
Couple of specific notes for hotel guests-
They have a policy that you can’t have more than 3 drinks. This makes sense for people who maybe only spend 4-5 hours there, but for hotel guests there should probably be a policy more tied to time than number of drinks. We had two drinks apiece between 4 and 5. We left the spa, went to dinner, hung out in the room a bit, and came back about 8:30 and had another. At 9:30 (AQUA BAR closes at 10pm, at least on weeknights) we ordered another, and they refused because we’d hit our limit for the day. I get that they don’t want drunks puking in the pools, but 4 drinks over a 6-7 hour period is not excessive. Seems like any drink over 3 hours ago shouldn’t count- 3 hours is plenty of time to metabolize most, if not all of that alcohol.
Speaking of drinks, I’ll mention something about TONIC LOUNGE- it’s only open Friday and Saturday nights. We were disappointed, but that info is probably tucked away on the website, so it’s our fault for not noticing, but I wanted to make it clear here. It looks really cool, and they have a roof top terrace. We’ll have to go again on the weekend.
My biggest complaint was that at 10 PM (it currently stays open until midnight, but is going 24hr in November ’14) the water cooled noticeably. Maybe this wasn’t on purpose- maybe there was a problem with the hot water, but when I went back to the locker room after our last drink, the shower was not hot at ALL. I glanced at the central pools (which are usually 100 degrees, 102, 104, and 108, respectively) and ALL four of them were at 100, which is the standard temp for the other jetted pools in the locker room. My wife noticed the same thing in the women’s wet area. We went back to the room, and decided to try to shower or take a bath in the room, but when we turned on the water, it was the same deal. It wasn’t even lukewarm, it was edging towards cool. If it was an isolated problem, then I suppose stuff like that happens, but I’ve read a lot of other reviews about the water temp in the rooms. If it’s done on purpose to save money (and I’m certain it takes a ton of power to keep all that water in the spa heated, plus the water for showers, etc.) then that’s pretty crappy. If you say that you are open until midnight, the water should be as hot at 11pm as it was at 3pm. If it’s not cost effective to heat all that water for a handful of people, then close the spa earlier, instead of opening it 24 hrs.
My only other issue is one of staff attentiveness. This is a reference to Spa staff, not hotel staff. Other reviewers have said the hotel staff was rude- I did not see this. I had to try to find an locker room attendant three different times during this trip to replenish the towels- so I had to walk all over the locker room dripping wet, tracking water all over the place. It’s not terribly hard to glance at the towels every 30 minutes or so, and replace them when they get low.
The other issue is just what appears to be a general lack of appreciation for the privacy of spa guests.. The worst experience I’ve had regarding this issue didn’t happen on this trip, but I’ll get to that story in a moment.. I noticed that the entrance from the shower/wet (nude) area out to the outside pools was propped open the entire time I was there. Usually, locker rooms have a wall blocking the view of the interior of the room from someone standing outside. Spa Castle accomplishes this with a hall way that ends with a mens restroom on the right, and the locker room entrance on the left. The door that was propped open has a sign on the inside saying STOP! ARE YOU DRESSED? UNIFORM OR SWIMWEAR REQUIRED BEYOND THIS POINT!
Facing the outside is a sign that says MEN’S LOCKER ROOM or something similar. If a female walked to the end of that hall mistakenly and glanced in, she’d see 10 naked dudes showering or drying off. Likewise, if a guy mistakenly thought he was going to another wet area in the mens shower area, or back to the locker room, he could walk naked out into the co-ed area. In addition, the mens room door was also propped open- I walked out of the locker room (clothed) into a public area, glanced to my left and saw a guy peeing into a urinal completely in view of the co-ed area. Why prop them open? Maybe it helps with airflow or something, but I don’t think the benefits outweigh the consequences of potentially creating a REALLY awkward and humiliating experience for one or more of your customers.
Also this trip, there is an exterior door at the end of the straight “hallway” where the lockers are. There are two doors, one opening out of the locker room and into another small room, then another door in direct line with the first that opens to the outside. I’m sure it was built this way so that both doors should never be opened at the same time so that no one outside the building could see into the locker room. But the staff had both propped open while they were taking some stuff out of the building. I noticed this as I was walking down the hallway towards my locker and had just enough time to think “hey, if someone was outside, they’d see me naked” before an SUV that was in the parking lot slowly rolled by. I don’t know what they saw, probably nothing since it was bright outside, dimmer inside, but it was still a jarring experience.
Lastly, the WORST experience I’ve had there was when a guy had some kind of freak out in the locker room lounge area and an ambulance had to be called. It didn’t seem medical as much as it did mental, but I guess he told them to call him an ambulance and he called someone (I think his mother) to come pick him up. I went back in the wet (nude) area for a bit, and didn’t think anything else of it. When I walked back in and dried myself off, I went to my locker to get my spa uniform because it was time to meet my wife at the dry saunas. When I turned the corner (naked), I see not only an entire crew of firefighters and an ambulance crew, (including two females) I also see that they (inexplicably) let in the guys MOTHER and they are trying to talk him into going with the ambulance crew.. They all glanced at me, and (what the heck was a supposed to do?) I just looked back and walked to my locker (which was out of their sight) and put clothes on. I understand that emergency crews go where the emergency is, and who knows, maybe they needed to let his mom in too, but WHY DIDN’T THEY JUST POST AN EMPLOYEE AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE SHOWER AREA WITH A STACK OF UNIFORMS TO HAND THEM TO ANYONE WHO WALKED OUT OF THERE NUDE AND EXPLAIN THE SITUATION?? It was really awkward and embarrassing. I just think the locker room attendants should have some training in how to deal with customers and make them feel comfortable. Most people aren’t used to walking around naked in front of many strangers- the attendants can either make it easier, or harder. One of the biggest complaints about Spa Castle in the reviews on this site are about people not really knowing what to do- Spa Castle can be very overwhelming if you aren’t sure what to do, or what’s expected. Again, the locker room attendants should be responsible for educating guests on what to do. If they spoke to people when they came in, at least asking if they’d been here before and letting them know that they are here to answer questions, it would make the whole thing easier for new customers, and also avoid awkward interactions, such as a staff member having to ask someone to get out of the pools because they are still wearing their swimsuit (which makes the person feel stupid and singled out publicly.) Why not pre-empt that interaction by explaining the rules to anyone that hasn’t been there before?
All in all, this trip was a good- despite the few issues, I still really enjoy Spa Castle, and I totally think staying at the hotel is the way to go. Usually when we leave and get in the car, I’m so relaxed and the last thing I want to do is drive somewhere. Being able to just go to your room and flop down on the bed is great.
That’s pretty much all I have, other than to recommend Cafe Brazil (about 5 minutes from Spa Castle) for breakfast. It was great, and I wrote a separate review of it.



BUILDING: It's Well kept and beautiful on the outside extremely clean and spotless on the inside. Funiture decor on each floor near the elevators is modern and chic. CON: The ice machines on each floor is at the end of each hall as oppose to being in the middle (near elevators) inconvieint, but not a deal breaker.
ROOM: The pictures speak for themselves...SERIOUSLY. As many times as we've been here, we've stayed in each room category and they ALL are absolutely BEAUTIFUL and the BEDS...OMG, they are extremely comfortable. You sink into the mattress, fluffy pillows and the down comforter swallows you whole as it cradles you tight and snug during the night. Everything in the room (lights, electricity etc...) is managed by your hotel key. You have to keep your key in the electrical slot near the door in order for the lights to remain on. The lights are motion sensored. At night this can be VERY annoying because when you get up in the middle of the night to go to the restroom, the motion sensor turns on every light...waking up your mate :-(. So we just decided to leave the room key out of the electrical slot while we slept. The pictures are not misleading. The room is BRIGHT, CLEAND and White. Each one representing a different color scheme. One room may have a splash of RED, the other a splash of Royal Blue. The HUGE oversize soaking tub in the best feature. It has an overhead shower including a handheld sprayer. All toiletries are Bvlgari...they smell wonderful.
ROOM TIP: We've stayed in every category except the Executive Suite. The STANDARD room is sufficient enough with ALL the amenities as the more expensive rooms. You really are NOT missing ANYTHING by staying in the standard room. So if you want to save money, select this room. Hands down. You still get the Fridge w/snack (that cost $$), slippers and robes seating area etc... We usually stop by the nearby store and buy our own snacks and drinks and replace them with what they have in the fridge. These rooms are all on the LEFT side of the building (if you're facing the front of the building). The DELUXE rooms look EXACTLY like the standard, but have an extra table/work space. Then you have the LOFT Suite. Take a look at my pictures. The loft is a 2 story suite that has all the amenites of the other rooms. Downstairs is a living room area that has this Japanese canopy sofa that lets out into a chic low-rise bed. The walls are all smooth bamboo with a HUGE emaculent Floor to ceiling windows. The lower level living area is open all the way up to the 2nd floor. This loft is big enough to house another couple or friends for a spa retreat. Upstairs is the plush bed. Since it's a loft this bedroom is not closed off. You can lean over the railing to see the 1st floor. The bedroom has a long full-length mirror and a Flat HD TV (as well as down stairs). The room is pricey to rent, but WELL WORTH the $$ ONLY if you're going to hang out here with more people. If only 2 people are going to occupy this suite, then it's a waste of money and space. Nonetheless, it is my favorite! :-)
Employee Service/Treatment: With each stay, we have had some sore of dilemma with our room or reservation. One incident, the hotel booked us for ONE night when we asked for TWO and the hotel was sold out for night Two. I can not say this was completely their fault since I should have immediately looked at the reservation details upon booking. Had I done so, I would have caught this. Nonetheless they MADE IT RIGHT despite the miscommunication on both parts. Another time we stayed the soaking tub in our room was not holding water. We called down to the front desk and the manager on duty showed up 5 minutes later to rectify. Since that was a day we were checking out, they allowed us to extend our check-out time for the delay in getting this fixed. There were a couple of other little discrepancies, but again each time they made it right WITHOUT us asking for it or getting upset.
IF I COULD CHANGE ANTHING ABOUT THE ROOMS TO MAKE THEM BETTER: I would ask the hotel to invest in FACE TOWELS. It amazes me that such a nice place only has Bath and Hand towels in the rooms, but NO FACE TOWELS. I don't know about you, but I like to wash my face and body with a towel while in the bathroom. So bring your own face towels! The other thing I would ask them to invest in are FLAT SHEETS for the beds. The huge down comforter that are on the beds are great, However Down comforters can become quite heavy and HOT. During the night it would be nice to throw the comforter off your body, but still have a sheet to sleep under. This is the biggest issue I have with our stay, because it makes our evening miserable and hard to sleep when we keep breaking out in night sweats due to the heavy comforter. I though it was just the Standard room without the Face towels and Flat Sheets, but all the room categories are this way.
SPA: Absolutely relaxing. I can write a very long essay on the plush relaxing amenities they have in the spa, but you can check them out online. NOTE: Be aware that in the locker rooms people are 100% nude. You're required to where your hotel Robe or the locker room uniform when visiting areas outside the locker room. Our favorite spot is hot tub outside (Hanoki sp?) this log cabin wood tub is the hottest at about 102 degrees. Last month in December my husband and I visited when it was 20 degrees outside. We RAN outside to this tub as fast as we could w/o busting our butts on the ground and jumped in. At 102 degrees it was amazing. You would never be able to tell it was FREEZING outside. Ever-so-often we'd feel the cool 20degree breeze whistle across our faces. I love the various sauna rooms. My husband loves the huge open area on the 2nd floor where you can lay down on the floor mats and just chill. In the winter the floor tiles are heated :-).
I made a mistake and booked the wrong date on my hotel stay. I booked for a day early. When I got to the hotel, I tried to work it out with customer service. They said that I could get the same room and they would refund my previous charge but I would have to pay an extra $100 for the " new years holiday rate" We paid the $300 dollars for the deluxe loft.
When it came time to check out, suddenly they said that they would not refund the previous charge and we would still have to pay the $300. After arguing with them, they promised to refund the money and then charge us the new price. They said they would send us an email with the details.
After sitting in the parking lot waiting for an email to come through, I got a bad feeling when we didn't get one right away. My husband went back inside and the desk THEN preceded to tell him that they couldn't do refunds. So they were going to charge him an additional $90 to add to our previous $210 charge so that we would equal $300.
Checked on my bank today and not only did the hotel charge me $300, they charge me the other $200 AND THEY CHARGE ME THE $90!!! Don't go here. Save yourself the hassle. You might have yourself a good stay, or you might be out of pocket by hundreds of dollars.
The Spa - it's cool. I don't think you'll be disappointed. The best part are the saunas on the 2nd floor and the hinoki wooden hot tub outside on the 1st. The jets in the open outdoor pools are hit and miss. You have to hold your thumb on the little silver button to activate the jets and they don't always work. We've been 5 times since last Nov (2016) and some jets that were broken still are.
Don't stay at the hotel. Please stay at the Courtyard Marriott which is literally around the corner or the Hyatt Dallas/Garland/Richardson (5101 N Presidet George Bush Hwy). It's about a 10 minute drive from the spa, but the customer service, clean & nice rooms, and free breakfast are worth it. (I've written a separate review for the Hyatt which is excellent).
Don't pay full price ($45) for a spa ticket. Get them on Groupon for half off. I hear that King Spa in Dallas is nice. We will try it next time and I'll review it as well.



Hotel
First things first, the bill they sent and the charge on my card are completely different. Was charged $40 extra just for the room.
Arrived around 3:10 and had to wait 15 minutes to check in. There was only one person to check us in, even though there were about 8 people standing around the desk. She did offer to let us buy our spa passes then though, so we didn't have to wait in the long line that appeared to go to the spas in the 10 minutes it took us to get up to our room.
I posted some pictures of the Ac vent leaking onto the counter in the room and down the wall. Mold issue is soon to happen I'm sure.
The tub was dirty and the sheets had stains I didn't notice until the next morning when we woke up. The room is nice, but hotel rooms are only great if they're clean, and this one wasn't.
We ordered room service because we were pretty tired. The sushi was good, nothing super impressive. The mozzarella sticks were honestly the best I've ever had, just yum! (Kind of sad that that is the highlight of our stay.)
The room has this cool touch screen alarm clock that also works the lights. It kept coming unplugged and reloading. The time was off the entire stay as well. Tried to use the light control option and it never worked. We never could figure out how to turn the lights on... Thank goodness for phone flashlights!
The TV was pretty nice, it was nice to have access to cable since we don't have it at home.
Also, there are non smoking signs all over the hotel (at least on the 3rd floor) and our room reeks of smoke along with the hallway on our floor.
Spa
The spa is okay, it's not really worth the extra money, considering I'm paying $300+ for the suite, spa passes(for the pools) for 2 should be included. The robe and slippers that were supposed to be included in the room were no where to be found, and after our experience with the staff I didn't even bother asking.
When we tried to return to the spa, the guy that was helping the people in front of us, saw us, and turned around. We then waited 5-10 minutes while he helped guests check out of the spa. There was already someone standing back there and it literally would have taken 30 seconds to hand us our bracelets.... Actually longer since they lost mine. Took another 5 mins and I just asked them to issue me a new one since I had been standing there being ignored already.
I really tried to be nice, but I will admit I am a little snobby when it comes to customer service. I've worked in customer service/satisfaction for over 15 years so I have certain expectations that I don't think are too unreasonable. I don't expect you to go above and beyond, but I do expect you to be friendly and courteous.
The same guy who turned around and ignored us is the one we checked out with earlier and apparently lost my bracelet. We told the other employees that were standing around that he is the one who checked us out, and he denied it.
Later at the Aqua bar, we find out that somehow my boyfriend's bracelet got deactivated. Frozen drinks are $12, and beers range from $5-6. Later, we were charged $14.80 for each frozen drink we bought. I grew up in a blue collar family, a 3 dollar difference is kind of a big deal.
I may recommend the spa, if you can deal with the unhelpful, unfriendly staff. The manager (the man who appeared to be the manager anyways) was awesome. After how many problems we had, I think he was fed up too when he was a little cranky with my boyfriend. We don't blame him though, obviously it's the man who checked us out of the spa that caused all these issues.
The spa is only $35-45 for the day, and the pools there are pretty nice. Some of the jets can be painful, but we may be bias since we have sensitive skin.
I am so disappointed in our stay, this was something I've been looking forward to for weeks... What a let down.
"Leave the pool area open a little later for Hotel guest. complimentary breakfast. "Read full review
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