Courtyard EWR - 11/04 - 11/05 Stay

Why Here: As noticed by my request before this stay report, I was looking for a hotel nearby EWR given that we were arriving after 10 PM and didn't want to try to deal with the current vagaries of trying to get into Lower Manhattan at that hour on public transportation. I'd been looking across Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt properties given my status and/or credit cards with each but decided that I wasn't willing to pay the prices that the Hilton affiliated hotels wanted and wasn't finding anything with Hyatt. The Marriott and Renaissance priced in the same - just around $200 for the night. The FI and this CY both priced in about $140 all in with the FI providing all with breakfast. The $121 base rate offered by the CY included breakfast so I wouldn't have to fight to get F&B credit and the CY was more recently remodeled than the FI.

Reservation: Reserved a 1 King at the AAA Hot Deals rate that included breakfast for myself and wife and applied a SNA. SNA cleared 5 days out for a 1 King Suite.

Property/Location: As others have noted, this property and three others (Home2, FI, SHS) all sit in an oval enrobed by US 9 and I-78. From Daily Parking 4 (P4) where the Airtrain drops you off and the hotel shuttles pick you up, its a good 10 minutes/5 miles one way over those same looping highways and roads. Our biggest issue was the wait for the hotel shuttle which is supposed to run and pick up at P4 at 15 and 45 past each hour - we ended up waiting for the better part of an hour and made two calls to find out where the shuttle was at 11 PM at night. This was also frustrating because shuttles for the 3 other hotels as well as the Marriott, Renaissance and Hilton kept coming by, picking up guests and departing, and returning, etc. FWIW, hotel has 3 floors/134 rooms/12 suites.

Check In: Checked in via the Marriott a day or so before as well as noting our 11 PM arrival time.

Room: Pretty much what Brandinho1 shows in his video. Here's my photos:







Bedroom is separated from the sitting area/living room by a lockable door.


Living Room:
















The room was clean and fairly well maintained. A considerable number of power outlets and USB ports are available in most of the lamps.

Here's the view from the balcony/patio in the morning:






Food: It's a CY - so what they have is El Bistro. Breakfast is served from 6 am to 10 am. With the breakfast plan, you order from a pre-specified menu which you pick either one hot item or two continental items plus a drink. Note that they have self-serve coffee & tea so your drink can be a bottled item.

We both ordered the breakfast sandwich with fruit:



We also picked a juice bottle and a water bottle for our transit to get into NYC.

Return Back to EWR: We hopped on the hotel shuttle to get back to P4 where we'd planned to take the the Airtrain to NY Transit to get into Newark Penn and then PATH and the subway. However, our shuttle driver (different from the evening driver) pointed out that we could pick up the local bus outside Terminal C to get to Newark Penn - which we did after he dropped us off at Terminal C's bus area this was considerably cheaper ($1.50 per person vs. over $10). I also tipped the shuttle driver for this info and his rapid delivery to the bus area.

Overall: I would return to this property. If this hotel's shuttle isn't running consistently, I'd recommend hopping on a shuttle for the other three hotels and tip accordingly.