Because of the 30,000 points on 10 nights in Nov and Dec, plus a desire to hit 60 nights, I was looking around the Delaware Valley area for a cheap place to do a mattress run, or some combination of mattress run and staycation. I was expecting something of the HP or HH variety in King of Prussia or South Jersey. To my surprise, this place had some HP-like room prices. Given a lot of the experiences above, I had not been planning on staying here, but when the price is low ....
And what a treat. I thought that the place was great. At check-in I was told that we had been upgraded to a top-floor King, or some-such. I asked politely whether there might not be some sort of Suite available, and was told politely that they would check. Then I was told politely that they had one available. I politely thanked them and took it. I mean, it was a junior suite -- sort of the style I associate with the Andaz San Diego, but it proved just fine. It was at the end of a hallway, and while the view was nothing in particular, the noise level was low. Just having the separate living area was useful since the mattress run turned into a staycation, and it was nice to have our in-town son be able to come up to the room.
Also to join us for breakfast. It was essentially $50 a day. That was fine on the weekend, when a reasonable-enough breakfast could be ordered. A couple of days there was a grab-and-go, and you could certainly grab enough stuff at that price to hold you through the day. I was never quite sure how tipping was handled. I always put something on the bill I signed, and I am inferring -- from the very slight overages a couple of days -- that there must have been some fixed tip amount and that if my tip were above it, and I was over $50, I was responsible for something like that. I'm talking less than a dollar a day extra across the stay, so I didn't investigate any further at checkout. Main thing is that they mostly scrubbed everything up to $50 (and maybe more with their fixed tip), and didn't much care who ate or how. My kind of place. The last day (non-weekend) they seemed to be transitioning to something where they brought the egg or whatever dishes up to your room and left them at the door. Okay, it's not fine dining, but ... Covid ... and, anyhow, or because of that -- it's not like you could walk over to the Bellevue and have the better breakfasts in the infinitely more elegant rotunda there. Nor can you use the Sporting Club (at the Bellevue) these days, either, and I found the Centric gym to be just fine: spacious, new equipment... and empty.