Hotel: Hilton Garden Inn Tysons Corner
Room Type: Evolution (Only category)
Rate: $68 incl. taxes (booked through Hilton.com)
VIP Benefits: Breakfast for 2, $5 pantry coupon, Two bottles of water.
The wife was looking to go up to Tysons Corner for a shopping trip so decided to make a weekend out of it, booking a Saturday night stay. Paid a superb rate of $68 including taxes. It was my first stay at a Garden Inn so thought I'd write up a little report...
Location: Not bad, off a side road that runs parallel to the Leesburg Pike, just a couple of minutes from Tysons Corner Center and a few more from the Galleria. No busy roads on either side but the hotel itself is almost built into a hill which sounds odd...The views over the back of the hotel aren't too pretty. Something that looks like a one story warehouse thing with parking lots and strip malls.
Arrival: We had driven up from Richmond in the morning and the staff were happy for us to leave the car in the underground parking below the hotel and let us use the shuttle to Tysons Galleria. Waited maybe ten minutes so had the opportunity for a quick look around the ground floor. Place looked almost brand new, a nice fireplace by the front door with coffee machine next to it.
Check-In: Came back from the mall around 7pm and checked in. Was given breakfast coupon for 2 and $5 pantry coupon (in absence of upgraded rooms since there was only one category of room, Evolution, at this property). Also handed an HGI bag with a couple of bottles of water. I saw about half a dozen others behind the desk too. Was informed there was a business centre with a couple of PCs and printers on the ground floor. Also a fitness centre and small pool with hot tub. ^
Room: We had room 907 (I think) on the top floor. Slightly odd location between the elevator and the ice machine
but neither caused any distraction during our stay. The room itself was immaculate, even had wrapping still around the table lamps. 26" HDTV, nice desk etc. The bathroom had no bath, just a bath sized shower stall with massagey function...FWIW the products were Neutrogena. Also in the room was a coffee maker and microwave.
We spent the rest of the evening in the room having had a large late lunch, nice place to relax for a few hours with sore feet. We did go down to use the pantry coupon, spending about $8 in the end but the person recognised us from check-in and smiled letting the other $3 slide
The Pantry whilst useful was rather pricey...$2.50 for a bottle of Coke, $5 for a Lean Cuisine for example...Used the free business centre and even the printing was free. ^ Saved us going to Kinkos to sort something out so I was grateful for that.
The bed was very comfortable, not as comfortable as some of the Hilton ones I've had recently but certainly rather nice. Slept very well. The wife went to work out early in the morning leaving me to rest for a while longer, said the gym was alright, had an elliptical so she was happy. I got the briefest of looks and it did appear quite small. Nothing out of the ordinary for a hotel though.
Breakfast: Was served until 11.30am on Sunday and so we went down for a late breakfast, perhaps 10.30 or so. Perhaps a dozen or so tables out, half of them occupied. A little Indian lady came over with coffee, welcoming us to breakfast and inviting us to help ourselves. Seemed like a really decent spread. Bagels, cereal, pastries, hot breakfast with biscuits and gravy and the most fun part....make your own HGI branded waffles/pancakes
Pouring the mix in the thing, spinning it and waiting for it to come out was err rewarding
Regular checkups from the hostess and top ups on the coffee ^
We checked out of the room soon after leaving very happy with out stay ^ For $68 it represented amazing value for money, I was starting to wonder where the catch was; free parking, free breakfast, free internet and printing, free pool and fitness centre! We would certainly return here on future trips to the area. I'm not sure how representative this hotel is of the HGI brand but feel that if every hotel and stay is this good I'll actively try and stay at more of them. I have an HGI stay coming up in Charlottesville at the beginning of December. Am paying almost double the price of this stay but if it is half as good, I'll be happy
Pictures:
Room http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/8384/dsc03136gj7.jpg
http://img270.imageshack.us/img270/6945/dsc03137ux2.jpg
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/7414/dsc03138cd8.jpg
Lobby:
http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/4637/dsc03139my3.jpg
Incidentally I noticed HGI are opening their first European property in Stuttgart. I think the brand will be a big hit in Europe, the homely feeling of the lobbies and the ilk is something a lot yearn for when travelling. Hilton in the UK is such a hodge podge of hotels of varying quality something along the lines of HGI would stabilise the brand nicely.
Tags: Hilton Garden Inn Tysons Tyson's Corner Vienna Falls Church Beltway HGI Washington DC HGI Evolution