NJUPINTHEAIR

I stayed here over the weekend for an inexpensive rate and my remarks mirror those above.

I checked in late and received a newly renovated room, but not a corner room -- did not matter to me as it really was a mattress run. I will add that although I live in an urban environment near to street level, the noise from the A/C was very, very loud -- not enough to really bother me, but others might be. So too, the same for noise coming in from the hall, again, same warning.

I have to agree with respect to the finishing quality on some items. The louver wood door already had nicks showing the light pine wood highlighted against the dark stain -- as if they never did a proper stain job -- and the new carpet appeared to have either stains already on it, or rubber cement or some type of adhesive on it.

The Plasma TV is nice, but only analog signals were received -- and I should add that I experienced the sound out of sync with the picture -- like a badly dubbed foreign movie -- on all TV channels (so that is a major negative!)

In addition and perhaps most importantly, I found that at least with respect to my room, that the door did not fully lock automatically when you left -- it did not complete the process of securely locking and thus the door was left ajar more often than not. One had to physically make sure that the door fully locked behind you.

Update: Points and stay credit did not post after 3 days so I contacted the hotel and when they did post, they were in the wrong amount! Called again to rectify the problem, so be warned of all of these issues. By the way, I brought up all of the renovation issues with the head of housekeeping so if you are given a sub-standard room replete with these problems, they are certainly aware of them -- as the supervisor had acknowledged to me when I went over the litany of complaints posted here on FT.



Now the positives, for the area, the inexpensive price on weekends and a 2000 GP bonus it was still a very good deal. Second, as a Diamond, they comped the buffet breakfast for 2 including tax, but my gratuity to our server was unaccountably decreased!! Typical offerings -- I stayed away from the undercooked bacon (I like mine really well done), but did appreciate the egg white fritattas, and the blackberry/blueberry fresh fruit mix. Coffee was very good, as well. Paul, the server as well as the rest of the staff were very congenial.

The bed was great. The view was nice of the surrounding mountains -- yes NJ does have mountains in the NW part of the state -- and yes, you mountain dwellers, you may not consider them such but we do!

Finally, in the connected mall, so you do not even have to brave the elements, are 2 pretty good sister restaurants -- Ming II and Mehndi, repsectively Pan-Asian and Indian.

First, although both tend to be surburban pricey, the decor in each was quite nice and the food was good to very good. Second, they both pariticpate in Restaurant.com, so you can appreciably decrease your cost -- esp. when dining with 2, as the $25 cert effectively halves the price of the entrees into quite reasonable territory . Third, both restuarants also participate in IDINE, so you can get miles/points with your dine, or even a cash-back should you choose, but be warned that RN has effecitvely gutted that program, IMHO.

In addition, right across from the hotel seem to be 4-5 dining places from a reasonable Taiwanese/Chinese/sushi eat-in take out place to the left of the hotel, to an Ecuadorian restaurant to its right. Across the street seem to be an upscale Pizza place, an Italian casual restaurant with an outdoor bar area where there are torch heaters, and also Tim Schafer's Cuisine, a gourmet restaurant. I have not dined at any of these restaurants (other than Mehndi) so cannot comment on the quality of the food.