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New Residence Inn Downtown St. Louis, MO

New Residence Inn Downtown St. Louis, MO

 
Old Apr 2, 2006, 9:12 am
  #1  
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New Residence Inn Downtown St. Louis, MO

Just wondering. Has anyone stayed there yet? I just booked a 1BR suite for next week.
Greg P. is offline  
Old Jul 5, 2016, 10:40 am
  #2  
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Yes! I may be the 2nd Flyertalker to stay here in 10 years.

It's a mixed review for me. We stayed there this past weekend.

Check-in was a bit of a cluster: they did not have our room ready when we arrived at 3PM (their posted check-in time). While this in and of itself doesn't usually bother me, the FDC made it clear that my room hadn't even been assigned yet and it was going to take her some time to find me a 1-King suite. I explained that (a) I mobile-checked-in a day ago, (b) I was booked in a 1-bedroom 1-king suite, and (c) I have King as my setting in my Marriott account, so I did indeed expect a King. I never ask for upgrades at Residence Inn, but I felt like I was being put in a position where I'd have to be assertive to just get what I booked.

Another FDC came over and said I didn't have a right to a room yet because I mobile-checked-in for 4PM. I said (a) I mobile checked-in for 3PM, and I remember doing this after validating online that your check-in is actually 3PM, and (b) your first FDC already admitted that you never assigned me a room to begin with!!

Both FDCs then took a completely lackadaisical approach to getting housekeeping called and getting my room ready, so we just left bags with the manager and went to downtown St. Louis for a few hours. I got the "room ready" notification from the app at 5:10PM.

Yes, "went to downtown St. Louis". This hotel is *not* really in downtown St. Louis - it's a couple miles west of downtown. It's not really near anything except the Interstate, a train yard, and a large UPS processing facility. You cannot realistically walk anywhere from this hotel. It's an industrial and small office park section of town, didn't feel unsafe...there's just nothing else there besides the hotel.

The hotel charges $10/day for parking, which really seems like a joke because no other RI I've ever stayed in, except a truly downtown one, charges for parking. It's your typical RI parking lot, on their grounds, outdoors, obviously owned by them. It feels like the hotel uses "downtown" in their name in part to charge for parking, whereas RI's in office parks or industrial areas don't do this.

For the middle day of our stay, we had to phone repeatedly to get housekeeping. We finally got it at 7PM. We left the room to use the pool...when we came back, housekeeping was done but the door to our room was left propped open.

The hotel did have a couple positive notes:
- They do provide shuttles to/from downtown St. Louis. We found these to be responsive and useful with friendly drivers. (As unfriendly as the front desk people were, the shuttle drivers were actually pretty cool.) They're on-demand through 10:30PM.
- Wifi performed well.
- A/C functioned well.
- Everything else was typical RI...no issues with the room itself.

Since I'm only in St. Louis about once every 15 years, it's doubtful I'll ever return to this hotel. If I do go back, I'll either stay at the Marriott Grand (if I really want to be downtown) or stay a bit out in a regular suburb (if I really want a Residence Inn). This is one of those cases where hospitable staff and a warmer welcome probably would have turned my whole impression of the stay, even if they'd said the moment I walked in that my room would not be ready until after 5PM.
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Old Jul 5, 2016, 11:19 am
  #3  
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Thanks for the update. Much appreciated.

Cheers.
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Old Jul 5, 2016, 11:42 am
  #4  
 
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I stayed at this location in mid-June of 2016. Checked in at 8:30PM. Had no issues at all and the FDC was friendly. Was proactively given a little card to put on my car's dashboard and was not charged anything for parking - my stay was a Wednesday night so that might have something to do with it. Agree with the previous poster that the location is certainly not walking-friendly in any way; however if you're in St. Louis for the children's hospitals or for the various universities the location is well placed.

In my one-night stay I found the wifi ok but not great, room was good and A/C acceptably quiet. One of the two TV remotes didn't work but the one that did worked for both TVs. Did not use the pool and had no interactions with housekeeping. The bar area in the lobby was nice to get a drink before calling it a day.

I was hotel-hopping due to the summer promo and also stayed at the RI Galleria a few miles to the west of this RI. The Galleria location is much better in terms of services/stores nearby, but the Galleria location is similarly not walking-friendly.
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Old Jul 5, 2016, 9:07 pm
  #5  
 
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If your staying at this property,(or the CY around the corner) you really don't want to venture out on foot. You are just a stones throw from some pretty sketchy areas. Just Uber or shuttle to Ballpark Village, Washington Ave., Soulard or the Central West End. Here is one of my favorite restaurants located less than a mile from this RI:

http://1111-m.com/menus/
ALARISstl is offline  

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