lwildernorva

A one-night stay at this property on 1/14 on my way from Virginia to Florida. Pooler is the small city where the Hilton Head-Savannah International Airport is located and is about fifteen minutes or so northwest of downtown Savannah. The property, not surprisingly, is located about 1/4 of a mile from I95 at exit 102. No particular safety issues other than whatever feelings you might have about hotels located around interstate exits--lots of commercial properties, including two more hotels on either side of the Sleep Inn, fast food restaurants and gas stations, and not a lot of foot traffic.

Three-story hotel with about 80 rooms. Small workout room and a small, indoor pool. Property is probably less than 20 years old but more than 10. Rates normally run around the $57 I paid for a king-size bedroom on a AAA rate but can run as high as $200 (more on that later).

The property is reasonably well maintained, but there are signs of age. The carpet in the hallways and in the elevator is worn and spotted in many areas, including what are either paint or bleach spots. The cabinet holding the microwave and refrigerator was chipped pretty badly along the floor. No cleanliness issues, however, and there appeared to be a number of janitorial and maintenance staff around the property this morning.

The room, 207, was pretty standard (nice bed, standard furniture and TV), but the high and low points for the hotel concerned the shower. The high: if you like this sort of thing, as I do, the walk-in shower (no tub) was very pleasant--the kind of look you might see instead in a Hilton, Sheraton, or Aloft--and the shower quickly warmed to a good temperature, had good water pressure, and did not vary in either during the course of my morning shower. The low: the sliding door located closest to the toilet was actually located way too close to the toilet, making it nearly impossible to exit the shower at that end. No problems, however, exiting from the sliding door located closest to the shower head. Just a weird design that I don't understand. Some noise through the walls from nearby rooms, but I couldn't figure out whether the noise was coming from the rooms immediately adjacent to mine or from further down the hall.

Check in was inexplicably slow. Despite the fact that information regarding my stay and my keycards were located on the desk at check-in, it took about five minutes to complete the process. The night clerk was none too friendly either, an exception to the very pleasant greetings I received in the morning from just about every staff member I encountered. Oh well, everyone's entitled to a bad day. Check out was much quicker.

Dining options nearby are limited to fast food restaurants. Even several miles down the road where the hotel is located I found nothing particularly attractive. I went to downtown Savannah since I got in relatively early, and if you're looking for a nice meal, I think that's where you'll need to go. Plenty of places downtown, including Thai, Vietnamese, Mediterranean, Mexican, southern cooking, pubs, and a Ruth's Chris, but I didn't walk by a single Italian restaurant. If you arrive in the late afternoon or early evening, you should have enough time to wander around the old downtown and get a few pictures of the lovely old parks before getting dinner.

Breakfast is mostly continental, but the waffle machine is here along with sausage and some hard-boiled eggs. Some apples, yogurt, pastries, bagels and cream cheese, cereal and oatmeal, milk, and fruit juices round out the selection. The breakfast area is not huge but was not crowded during my time there although the hotel parking lot indicated a pretty good business. The gal who was keeping the breakfast area clean was diligent and friendly.

As I mentioned, prices at this hotel can get as high as $200 per night. From my research, that price appears limited to dates around St. Patrick's Day. If you're unaware, Savannah throws one heckuva St. Patrick's Day party--I had friends in Wilmington, NC who used to travel to Savannah in a three-bus convoy to play there for the day and then travel back home. As a result of Savannah's legendary St. Patrick's Day, the cash price shoots up for this one period and explains why the award redemption jumps from its current 8000 to 16K from the first of February through the middle of April and then drops back to 10K from the middle of April to the end of June. If you were actually going to use the Sleep Inn as a homebase for St. Patrick's Day, a committed designated driver or willingness to pay for cab fare is an absolute necessity--I understand that the celebration turns into quite the drunkfest.

Other than St. Patrick's Day, this hotel is perfectly fine as a stop along I95 as part of a long distance trip. I would use it again for this purpose--but I'd try to find something closer (and probably a lot more expensive) if I were staying for St. Patrick's Day.