dartagnan

Checked in here tonight. I was their first guest. ^

Location: Off 635 and Belt Line Road, just northeast of the airport.
Nearby restaurants and such:

• McDonald's next door
• Indian restaurant next door
• Excellent pizza place next door
• Donut shop next door
• Mexican restaurant next door
• Sushi restaurant next door
• Chinese restaurant across the street
• Starbucks across the street
• Jimmy John's across the street
• Taco Bueno across the highway

Race Trac gas station across the way, which is brand new and has good selections inside of sodas and stuff. No beer, though.

Facilities: In a studio room, which is standard element. Stovetop with 2 burners, microwave, full size refrigerator, dishwasher. Standard cooking utensils available. No oven.

No upgrade as an SPG platinum.

Pool available, outdoors, with a large patio next to it, along with a grill.

Exercise room: excellent. 3 brand new treadmills, several ellipticals, a couple exercise bikes. Various machine weight equipment, also all brand new. Much larger than the typical exercise room - probably 1000 sq ft in all.

TV: LG 32 - 37" screen. Full complement of TV channels, including HD channels. Roughly 90 channels.

Bed: Westin / Element bed. 2 feather pillows, 2 fiber fill pillows.

Relax service: free beer and wine (Heineken and Miller light) along with bottled sodas. Chips and dip and some kind of cold appetizer available. 5:30 pm - 7 pm.

Breakfast: Will update in the morning.

Rate: $99 grand opening special

Any other questions, let me know. They're obviously working out the bugs right now, but they seem pretty good so far.

freeupgrade

Thanks - great job on the review.

Congrats. on being the first guest....

Could you please look at TV channel listing, and see if they get the "Tru" TV and "Bravo" channels?

I appreciate your help.

dartagnan

No channel listing. No little booklet describing the services of the hotel either - I'm guessing they just aren't ready yet.

I flipped through. Bravo, yes. TruTv, no (it's on digital cable according to Time Warner)

3Cforme

Well, that is brand-standard.

Thanks for info & brevity.

mtwo

I checked in last night as well, but was guest #4 I was told . Starwood Gold (so close to Plat I can taste it) - no upgrade either, but not sure what they would upgrade me to anyway.

I've stayed at every other Starwood property in the area, but I found a great rate on spg.com a few weeks ago and booked myself through November since I'd be traveling to the area every week.

Very pleased with the quality of the room. I know other Element customers had complained about the rainfall shower head, but I actually liked it. Bath amenities are Element brand (not Bliss or Heavenly) but smell pretty good, kinda like apricots.

The closet module is well layed out, with enough hanging room and drawers for my stuff. There is a safe in the room, but it does not look like it's bolted down.

As dartagnan mentioned, there's a full kitchen (minus the oven). I probably won't be using anything other than the fridge, but it's nice to have the option.

The in room sectional sofa is comfortable and I spent most of last night working on it with my feet up and the TV swiveled towards me. High speed wireless is free and very fast right now (might change when there are more guests). There are HD channels, but only locals. The cable channels are analog. Additionally, I don't think I saw a premium channel (HBO or Showtime).

The bed is branded as a Westin "Heavenly" bed. That it is not. The sheets were a bit rough (maybe this is just because they're brand new). Also I don't think the mattress was a Heavenly branded, but it was a pillowtop Simmons Beautyrest. Wish it had more feather pillows, as that is my preference, but otherwise a very comfortable bed.

I stayed at the Aloft Las Colinas for 3 months last year (8 bonus SPG points per dollar!), which is about 5 miles away. The Element room beats the pants off the Aloft room. They have a similar modern style, but the Element room has much more in terms of ameneties.

Everything at this hotel is brand new, so there's that "new stuff" smell. There is still a lot of work going on, so not 100% of the hotel is pristine. I think only 1 of the 2 elevators is working, but it doesn't matter as there are only a few guests and only 3 guest floors. There is some heavy machinery still in the back. Not sure how much of the hotel is actually complete, but it seems most of the guests were on the 2nd floor right now.

Not much more to add to dartagnan's post as I did not partake in the happy hour last night. Breakfast this morning had a variety of breads / pastries, juice, fruit, yogurt, and shot glasses of some sort of smoothie. There were also had breakfast burrito / wraps - one looked like spinach and egg, and the other was something else. These didn't look too appetizing, because I was late (9:00am or so) and they looked like they had been sitting out for a while. I'm going to try to get up early and check it out tomorrow.

Hope that helps. Overall, I'm very pleased with the hotel.

Here's my ranking for Starwood Hotels in the area in the area:

Le Meridien Dallas Galleria - not really the same exact area, but by far my fave
Westin DFW North
Element DFW
Aloft Las Colinas
Sheraton Grand DFW

dhammer53

Do all of these properties offer shuttle service to DFW?

dtremit

Unfortunate choice on SPG's part. HHonors and (I believe) Marriott offer upgrades to top-tier elites at their extended stay properties.

In the case of this specific hotel, the Westin DFW is very nearby, and has been very good about upgrading me on my stays there. And their rates are often very reasonable.

mtwo

Agreed - Westin DFW upgraded me (even as a SPG Gold) several times as well. My issue is that rates were horribly inconsistent from week to week. I would book one week at $97/night and another I wouldn't be able to book for less than $150.

I wonder if the issue at Element (and for that matter Aloft) is that there is limited options for them to upgrade you - the only "higher" level room at Element would be the 1BR suite, and at this particular property I'm not sure that any are finished yet. Or they could give you a higher floor. Not sure how much of an "upgrade" that would be given there's only 4 floors to begin with.

mtwo

BTW, if you're interested in upgrades - Le Meridien Dallas Galleria consistently upgraded me to a suite even as a SPG Gold. I also got a hand written / signed letter from the staff (most of whom knew my name) every week upon arrival.

It is not however, close to the airport / Las Colinas but the commute was not horrible and I like the Galleria area much better than the airport area.

dtremit

An upgrade from a studio suite to a 1BR suite would be a fairly significant one, in my opinion (and it's an upgrade I've frequently been glad to receive at Homewood Suites as an HHonors Diamond). Of course if there are none available, there are none available, same as anywhere else.

But the fact that policy says that if I book a studio and a 1BR is available I still get the studio is irksome. I looked quickly at a local hotel and the price difference between a studio and 1BR is only $20 -- much less than the difference between base rooms and the suites I'm routinely upgraded to at other SPG properties. (And before someone suggests just paying the $20 -- my expense policy won't allow it.)

Obviously at Aloft there generally /are/ no upgrades; that's another matter.

kathnunley

Stayed there last night and I must say, I was VERY PLEASANTLY surprised by this chain. I normally stay at either the Westin or Sheraton, but they had a "grand opening" rate too good to pass up. The photos on the internet led me to expect something like Aloft - which I do not like at all....however this is NOT ALOFT!!! MUCH softer...Westin scent throughout, maybe that's why I like it. More reserved, quieter, etc than Alofts. I really liked the feel of this. Yes, they have a shuttle - runs 24 hours / day on the 1/2 hour.
I was told the 4th floor is unfinished - so perhaps that explains the no-upgrade thing. I like the rain shower head, but did use the shower wand which had more pressure to rinse the shampoo from my hair. Breakfast was a choice of hot egg wrap or breakfast sandwich, wrapped in paper, on a grill, or toast, cold cereal, juice, fruit, etc.
I will definitely consider using this location again. I hghly recommend it.

BHB

I just checked in I echo the previous posters. This place is gorgeous: nice textures and shapes, and the room is attractively appointed. For less than $100, it's unbeatable.

Anglo Large Clawed Otter

I had a stay here shortly after opening, and was quite impressed with the Element brand. I'm not a fan of Aloft, but Element has definitely won me over. The reason? See for yourself (images below are just a standard King Room):


SPG scores a win with Element. ^

Sam P. Goodman

I loved my stay at the element in Summerlin, NV last year and was immediately sold on the brand. I have a couple of very cheap stays at the DFW property next month and am excited to be returning to element. Can't wait for them to add more locations...

sechs

I placed a friend who was stranded at DFW due to weather at this hotel back on the 21st of September. This means that she got in kind of late and left really early. Her comments:
- There were a number of dead bugs in the room
- Some of the light switches were installed upside-down
- Shower dispensers didn't work
- Airport shuttle was very poorly run
- No vegetarian fare among the standard warm breakfast foods (although chef offered to make something special)

Otherwise, she thought it was great. Sounded like a lot of first-day kinks, but I would consider staying there in the future.