Yes, I'm aware that the options in ANC are poor. I know that this is considered the best ANC property overall. I'm aware that the Hilton is a dumpster fire. After the stay I just had at HCC though, I am regretting not just booking the Hyatt Place.

This hotel is definitely riding on its return client loyalty and doesn't really care about quality. Property is super dated. Seems like it's stuck in the 70's. The "blackout" drapes are a joke. Bathrooms are terribly designed. The Suites are not well laid out. My room has two refrigerators but no microwave. What?

I would avoid for two reasons, though:

1. Multiple times in the lobby, I noticed mentally ill/drug addicted people wander into the hotel. Now look, I get it. Downtown ANC has a bad drug/homeless problem. That's not my issue. The issue is that staff seem to treat this with kid gloves. From what I saw, it's not considered a problem until it "becomes" a problem. Staff sort of ignore them unless they become aggressive in some way. This is a huge security issue. All elevators on property are OPEN. Any of these people could roam the hotel freely. It's a bad situation.

2. I was lied to. On the first day of my stay, I asked about a late checkout, as my wife and I would be running the Marathon and needed an extra hour added to the 12:00 checkout time, if possible. I was told to check back with the front desk the day before we checked out. I did so. A younger gentleman told me that the Hotel does not assign late checkout until the morning of checkout. He told me specifically to ask again at 7:30 AM on the morning of our checkout. He explained that they cannot assign checkout before the day of said checkout, because of some sort of scheduling issue with your housekeeping staff. I said thank you, and left. At exactly 7:36 AM on our checkout day, I approached an older gentleman at the front desk. Standing near him was the younger gentleman that I spoke to on Friday, the day before. The older desk agent told me that unfortunately, they had already given out all of the late checkout slots available. I asked how that could be possible, since they weren't able to assign late checkout until 7:30 AM the day of. The older desk agent asked me who told me that. I politely looked at the younger desk agent across from him and I said "he told me that." The younger agent said "No, we haven't given out any late checkouts. We have none to give." The older agent, clearly now caught in a lie, was fumbling for his words. I have not seen two desk agents look as red faced as they did at that moment. Obviously, one or both had lied to me at some point, and they knew it, and they knew that I knew it. At that point, I confirmed that they would not be giving us a late checkout, and I said thank you, and left.

So yeah, won't ever be staying here again, and frankly probably won't come back to ANC. The food is mediocre and overpriced. Get out of ANC if you go to Alaska.