895 W Trade St Charlotte, NC 28202, United States (704) 347-0070
INTRO --------- I recently had the task of travelling to Charlotte North Carolina on Business, my hotel of choice was the Doubletree in the Gateway Village on West Trade Street.
As with most long trips from the UK to the States you always seem to be travel tiered when you arrive. This trip was no exception. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Cab ride from the airport to the Doubletree was only a 15 minute ride and at a cost of $15. If you were planning to drive then it is not far from the freeway at all.
From the outside the hotel looks like any other but does have a clean and tidy appearance and a little class about it. It is located in the main campus of the university but don't let that put you off. There are not hundreds of students hanging around (nothing against students). The busy time is at about 8am to 9am when the University workers turn up.
ARRIVAL ------------ On arrival you will immediately notice that the staff go out of their way to make you feel welcome. I have to say that that's something you don't always find but always makes for a good stay, especially on the prospect of a 10 night stay on business
The reception wasn't the biggest I had ever seen but plush, clean and tidy. The usual process of checking was quick and efficient, topped off with the free chocolate chip cookie(freshly cooked and still warm) that they give you on arrival. I thought that was a nice touch,
just what I needed along with my coffee.
ROOM --------- Room prices varied around the $99 dollar rate. This may seem a lot but I thought it was well worth it for the quality of the room. Rooms are clean and well presented. Mine was a standard room but to be honest I thought it was better than standard. There was a King sized bed with plenty of pillows and spare sheets. The furniture in the room looked pretty high spec to me. As you walked in there was a set of ample full sized cupboards at the door with two large easy access sliding doors. Inside the first there was a safe (always a good thing). There was a writing desk with chair with several drawers for your bits and bobs. You also got that all important comfy sofa type chair and a small table should you need to eat in your room. Lighting was a plenty with more options to turn things on or off than a concert hall. There was an ample Air conditioning unit to cope with the best of the Carolina heat but to be honest this wasn't the best thing I had ever seen. It did make a bit to much noise despite the fact it could cool the backend of a polar bear. For me though I like my quiet when trying to sleep so had to turn it off at night. I must not forget the presence of the all essential TV (big 28") complete with remote and games console. There was a good selection of channels both local and international along with the usual PAY movies etc. The games console was also a useful option but alas for me I wasn't willing to pay for the usage, it wasn't cheap. I mustn't forget the presence of the coffee machine (with complimentary biscuits) The room also came equipped with full business facilities which included a phone and ADSL connection along with dialup if you needed it. As we all know hotel phones are expensive when dialling out so I got my wife to phone me, much cheaper and no trouble to get through either. The ADSL / internet connection was very very easy to setup, a synch for non technical people. It wasn't so cheap though, $15 for 30 minutes. I had one huge gripe here though. You connect up and pay up as normal, but after you have agreed to the 30 minutes you start surfing and your 30 minutes passes the internet keeps working. More to the point it keeps working and keeps charging, so an hour later your still paying for it…………. Watch out for this or you'll receive a bigger bill than you expect.
Room service was available with a limited but adequate selection of foods and drinks, only took a max of 15-20 minutes on my stay.
The bathroom was also well equipped, complete with shower and bath. Both had good water pressure making it that bit more refreshing with the shower in the morning. There was also a good selection of bathroom freebies and hundreds of towels to use. Room cleaning was at about 10 am every morning and for me was 2nd to none. If you request one you can choose from a selection of papers for delivery to your room. I was a 7am riser and never came out of my room without the paper so who knows what time they were delivered.
REST of HOTEL ----------------------- The main areas of the hotel were all clean and tidy with lift and stair access to all floors (5/6 floors in total I think). The main layout of the hotel was quite straight forward making it easy to get around and hard to get lost. In reception there were 3 pay phones for guest use along with another load of toilets which seemed to be dotted around the hotel in random places.
There were also Gym facilities in the hotel for free use but alas I didn't have the time to look even if I had felt like a workout. I was told by a work mate that they were very plush with some good equipment setup.
There was a set of business faculties which included a couple of meeting rooms. This is one thing that I was disappointed in. We booked our meeting room for a conference call and turned up at our requested time. We were courteously show to the room and told to ask for anything that we needed. The room had a large round table squeezed in to quite a small room with plenty places to sit. It came complete with fax machine, internet and a conference phone. Good as this may sound there was a major problem. We couldn't get the phone to work. So off I went and sought assistance. To my disbelief I was told that the phone would only conference to rooms in the hotel and that from the room you couldn't even dial out……….amazing waste of time then…..great way to dress a room up though. We ended up using one of our mobiles on speaker…….great.
EATING ----------- Leading of the main reception there was a breakfast room, restaurant room and a separate bar room. When I stayed there was a revamp going on with some substantial building work so the only place open was the breakfast area. I must say I was a little disappointed with this especially as I wasn't told on booking or arrival. However, later on in my stay everything returned to normal and I got full use. The breakfast area consists of a wide variety of cooked breakfast in the form of a buffet or other stuff on request from the kitchen. The food was actually quite good and cheaply priced. There was also use of a Costa Coffee take away machine (free) if you were in a rush. The evening restaurant was well presented and occupied with friendly helpful staff. The menu wasn't the best I had seen but if you want to stay in for a night there is something on there for most people. The cost of a main course was easily under a $10 average…not bad at all.. I was presently surprised with the bar which for me was never overly populated with people but with a friendly atmosphere. They had a wide selection of drinks but needed a few more draught beers. Prices were below what I would say was average for a hotel.
OTHER STUFF -------------------- Outside the hotel there was a small shop which sold what most news agents sell but at least was close and convenient. Acroos the main road (50 yards) was a complete costa coffee shop…..fantastic.
You can catch one of the free shuttle busses from right outside the hotel entrance. These resemble San Fran trolley busses and will take you downtown every 15 minutes and back again. Keep an eye on the times though as sometimes they seemed to stop at about 10.30pm ish. To be honest I used to walk home, was safe enough and only took about 15 minutes. There are a few bars and eating places along the way should you be desperate for something.
If your staying in Charlotte for a while I would say you'd need a hire car. 99% of things to go and see are out of town. The Mall is about 20 minutes away by car. If you do hire a car beware that the hotel car park costs $10 a night, a little steep on a 10 night stay. There is also a multi story next door should the hotel car park be full. If you decide against the car then the reception will organise a cab for you. Take it from me though, these are all X police cars and a bit grotty, for the same money you can call the Limo service and get a plush leather lined blacked out Caddilac for the same money……..
All in all the hotel is in a safe area so there are no worries there.
I didnt see much in the way of things for kids to do so I wouldnt say it was much use for a long stay for a family.
One thing you should know about the hotel is that its placed opposite the HQ of the biggest bank in America so rooms are often hard to come by. I would say you would need to book well in advance.
Otherwise, I would seriously recommend a stay here, pice quiet and a bit of luxury.
Pictures of Doubletree Hotel Gateway Village, Charlotte
double tree
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
very helpful by (97%):
helpful by (3%):
