Hotel Question - Seattle

Ardor

I had a blast this year and stayed in the Roosevelt. Neat, rustic place and very close to the convention.

However, I'm wondering if any hotels in the area would have anything like courtesy continental breakfasts or a pool etc. That would speed up the morning and a pool or something would be great for hotel parties and the like.

I did a little searching and didn't see anything so thought I might ask you folks for advice for next year. I'm hoping I have the time to go and if so, I'd like to see if there are any recommendations for places that also have more amenities or whatnot.

Thanks for your time.

BigRed

sheraton has a pool on the top floor but it was closed this year for repair.

MrBartokomous

I stayed at the Quality Inn by the Space Needle. It was about a 15 minute walk to the convention center (hardly a dealbreaker), and they had a pool, free continental breakfast, free WiFi, and ports on the TV for hooking up consoles.

If you don't mind walking, it has practically everything you could want.

faits

I've never stayed in a hotel in seattle because I live in seattle. But it's been my experience (in other cities) that a lot of hotels, their complimentary breakfast (if they have one) will be included if you book a room on the "club level" or "exective level" or whatever the particular hotel calls it. I know in particular that Hilton will have breakfast items in their executive lounge.

If you want to stay further out the Embassy Suites hotels will have cooked-to-order buffet breakfasts (which are normally pretty good) and also free booze at night (but who wants to drive to pax every day from bellevue, lynnwood or the dang airport just for free booze that you'll have to leave the convention early to get anyways)

collinc

Yeah, at the Sheraton if you stay at the club level you get free breakfast. It's pretty good too. But probably not worth the extra money you're going to spend to stay on that floor. I might check out that Holiday Inn next year.

AngelHedgie

Basically, if you're staying at a hotel of the tier that is in downtown Seattle, no, you're not going to usually find a continental breakfast amenity. If that's what you're looking for, you'll want to look for a hotel in the "business travel" range. Those hotels also usually provide free Internet access as well.

AtomicFreak

I actually stayed at the Grand Hyatt to avoid commuting from Lynnwood and back daily, but I'm not sure I'll do it again next year as I barely spent any time in the hotel...definately not enough to justify the price. And sadly not enough to find out if they had pool or breakfast.

Ardor

Thanks for the replies. I've got a better understanding of what to look for now versus location and such.

I appreciate your help.

apotheos

Imagine if we found a hotel with a continental breakfast that was well priced and well located.

PAX would rape it. Rape it hard. We would convert the breakfast to a sack of cash in the currency of rape dollars.

Also, I've always found that such breakfasts are only any good when you are staying somewhere pricey (ie. on business trips, score!). When I've stayed economy on road trips at a place with a breakfast the breakfast was always extremely sketchy. Once this was at a Quality Inn, once at a Super 8. I mean really, breakfast of horror. I didn't eat either. It was unpossible to do so.

JustinSane07

The Renaissance has a continental breakfast, an executive lounge with buffet breakfast and lunch (you need a special executive room though) and a pool/exercise room/lounge on the top floor. It's about 5 blocks from the convention center. There's also a restaurant on the second floor.

That's where we stayed.

apotheos

Did you stay on the executive floor? How much extra was it, and how many people did you get in the room without them complaining?

JustinSane07

My friend has a rewards point thing with Marriott/Rensaissance so he got the room for free for the whole weekend with his points. I have no idea how much it would be normally, but we stayed in two seperate rooms and just used his key card to access the executive lounge.

Ardor

I looked into it a little bit with the Renaissance and it seems some rooms have that Executive status and most do not. However, their cheapest room at this time around the time of next year's PAX (estimated) would be $220 a night. These rooms do not typically include what you were getting.

The pool would be neat and many of their rooms state max 4 people in them. So after taxes and such it looks like one could estimate roughly $60 a person for 4 per night?

Viscountalpha

BigRed wrote: »

sheraton has a pool on the top floor but it was closed this year for repair.

I was disappointed about this. I soooo wanted some spa time and needless to say my girlfriend was also less then pleased.

JustinSane07

Ardor wrote: »

I looked into it a little bit with the Renaissance and it seems some rooms have that Executive status and most do not. However, their cheapest room at this time around the time of next year's PAX (estimated) would be $220 a night. These rooms do not typically include what you were getting.

The pool would be neat and many of their rooms state max 4 people in them. So after taxes and such it looks like one could estimate roughly $60 a person for 4 per night?

220 is what we paid. We split the second room 3 ways because the 4th guy got us a free room w/ executive status. We stayed extra nights too, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

Sakebomb

We stayed at the Inn at Queen Ann over by the Space Needle on Thursday night, because our room at the Sheraton wasnt going to be ready til Friday afternoon.
It was waaaay better than the stupid Sheraton in every aspect (except distance to the convention)

Beds were comfy, huge walk in closet, decent bathroom, free continental breakfast, mini-fridge, kitchenette with GAS STOVES, and a big screen TV with easily accesible AV jacks.

Godmeat

We stayed at The Hilton Homewood Suites.

Free breakfast (fruit salad, cereal, eggs, sausage, baked goods, and hot cinnamon rolls) AND free dinner (Monday through Thursday - full meals with free beer and wine).

We paid 190 a night for a ~700 sq/ft one bedroom suite.

No pool, though....

Altima NEO

I stayed at the La Quinta Inn across the bridge in Kirkland. We were driving up from Portland, so we really didn't care if we were a 5 minute drive away from the Convention Center. It wasn't as extravagant as the hotels most people were staying at near the con, but we only paid 100 bucks for the room, and got free breakfast.

They had self made waffles, cereal, yogurt, bagels and muffins. It was pretty good, but the atmosphere was quite stuffy (imagine everyone in the hotel trying to get their breakfast in a small breakfast area). We didn't complain though, the food was good, the rooms were adequate, and the price was right.

I was wondering why everyone would spend so much to go to a fancy hotel like the Sheraton or Hilton? Youre only going to sleep there, and then spend the day and night away at PAX.

BigRed

Altima NEO wrote: »

I stayed at the La Quinta Inn across the bridge in Kirkland. We were driving up from Portland, so we really didn't care if we were a 5 minute drive away from the Convention Center. It wasn't as extravagant as the hotels most people were staying at near the con, but we only paid 100 bucks for the room, and got free breakfast.

They had self made waffles, cereal, yogurt, bagels and muffins. It was pretty good, but the atmosphere was quite stuffy (imagine everyone in the hotel trying to get their breakfast in a small breakfast area). We didn't complain though, the food was good, the rooms were adequate, and the price was right.

I was wondering why everyone would spend so much to go to a fancy hotel like the Sheraton or Hilton? Youre only going to sleep there, and then spend the day and night away at PAX.

Because they are 1 block from PAX. This is espically important for the Enforcers and most attendees. After a full day of doing pax you dont want to drive to a hotel, you want to take 1min to walk to a bed :P

Also the PAX rates on those hotels are very very cheap in comparison to their normal rates. Most of them were around $169 a night.

apotheos

Oh man. Self made waffles. I love it when they have the self made waffles.

Arco

The reason I chose to stay at a convention center hotel was because I wanted fast, easy, painless access to my hotel room. It changes the entire nature of the expo. I don't really give a shit that it's an upscale hotel. The rooms aren't really any different from a LaQuinta or something if you get their basic room, it's just two beds and a bathroom. Same thing everywhere, maybe a tad cleaner.

Here's the reason to pay for one of these hotels: you don't have to get up in the morning and say "I'm not coming back here, I need to make sure I have everything I need." Likewise, you don't have to lug everything you accumulate during the day at the expo with you. You can make trips to and from your hotel room as necessary - I could get out of the convention center, into my hotel room, and back to the convention center in under 5 minutes if the elevators were on my team. I like most people brought a backpack to keep with me during the day, and by the third day I left it in the hotel room. I just didn't need it, being that my room was so close and convenient.

This is especially true if you're into tabletop stuff, like WarMachine or Warhammer. You can bring your minis, leave them in the room, and take them only when you're going to play.

That being said, I think it's entirely worth it to pay the extra for a convention center hotel (Hyatt, Sheraton, Roosevelt). I loved it. But I would like one with a pool/spa, breakfast, etc. I'm probably going to try and get into the Sheraton next year just for the hot tub. After a long day of PAXing, a hot tub sounds heavenly.

Moe Fwacky

Yeah, easy access back and forth, plenty of food to eat in the immediate area. Pike Place is only a 10 minute walk away if you want some fresh fruit or crumpets or waffles or any other breakfast food you can think of. Not killing my back walking amazing blocks away is also a bonus.

Haikufrenzy

Yeah staying at the Sharaton was very nice, but I don't think I would go back to it. Especially since bringing all my own food I found out they don't even have a fridge... and I don't think I've EVER been to a hotel/motel that didn't have a fridge in it anywhere.

Had an LCD tv though... which was nice....

Moe Fwacky

Shit man, we put plastic bags in the trash cans and filled them with ice to keep our beer cold

Haikufrenzy

Yeah but also since their was no microwave oven it made the whole thing pointless. At the end of the day though I ended up putting ice into the mini cooler I brought along and the food ended up getting waterlogged. I'm defiently making food for next year (I saved around 30 bucks doing it), but I'm getting a different hotel simply for a fridge/microwave oven.

Actually before I forget to ask, does the hostel have anything for cooking food like a microwave oven?

TimeCruiserMike

not that i know of . .. if you ask really nice they might let you use one in the kitchen or heat somehting up for you . . . they do have complimentary breakfast every morning though . . . you could do what i did and just bring some chef boyardee and eat it cold.

JustinSane07

The Renaissance has fridges.

And crazy asian ladies that clean your room.

Haikufrenzy

JustinSane07 wrote: »

The Renaissance has fridges.

And crazy asian ladies that clean your room.

AWESOME!

apotheos

Haikufrenzy wrote: »

I'm defiently making food for next year (I saved around 30 bucks doing it)

Unless you are collecting pop cans from the freeway to pay your way, this is not a compelling degree of savings.

Haikufrenzy

apotheos wrote: »

Haikufrenzy wrote: »

I'm defiently making food for next year (I saved around 30 bucks doing it)

Unless you are collecting pop cans from the freeway to pay your way, this is not a compelling degree of savings.

Actually my budget for the trip is usually around 250 bucks. So yeah it is a good bit of saving.

Moe Fwacky

Yeah, I much preferred eating good food instead of making my half-assed attempts at cooking.

Viscountalpha

apotheos wrote: »

Oh man. Self made waffles. I love it when they have the self made waffles.

Waring pro makes the best waffle maker ever. I've had those self made waffles using it. Eventually I bought one.

Best 70$ spent-- EVER.