[Ed. Note: Welcome to our Good Rate/Bad Rate feature where we look at hotel prices in the same city and decide which one most deserves your hard-earned benjamins. Rates quotes here were captured August 13, 2007 and are subject to change. Enjoy.]
Last week Hotwire released its 10 Most Popular Labor Day Weekend Destinations, based on bookings so far through its own site. Once you get past the predictable Chicago, New York, and Atlanta, however, number four is...St. Louis? The press release touted a 3.5 star hotel downtown for $62, but the best we could manage on Hotwire was $162. The Cardinals are in town though, so we're hooking you up with a baseball deal at the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark.
This particular Hilton has a range of packages going, but since you can see the baseball field from one side of the hotel, we're highlighting the Grand Slam deal pictured here. For $259 a night you get a ballpark view room, two tickets worth $43 each, and some kind of baseball souvenir schwag.
If you intend to stay the whole long weekend though, we'd suggest going for the Romance Package (for once) instead. For $50 less a night you get a bottle of sparkling wine on arrival and breakfast for two each day. Go buy your own baseball tickets online for one night and you'll come out ahead. Score the right room and maybe you'll be able to watch a second game from your window.
[Ed. Note: Welcome to our Good Rate/Bad Rate feature where we look at hotel prices in the same destination and decide which one most deserves your hard-earned benjamins. Rates quoted here were captured on August 13, 2007 and are subject to change. Enjoy.]
We've heard more than a few bad reports on Adam's Mark St. Louis, so we thought we'd check out what they were offering to compare to this week's Good Rate. When we tried to see how their "Romance Package" would stand up for Labor Day weekend, we got this message after punching in our dates: "We are having difficulty processing your request at this time. We recommend that you wait a few minutes and try again. We apologize for any inconvenience."
So we did try again, and again a few hours later, but to no avail. We are always skeptical about a hotel that has circa 1982 photos on its site and this one also has "Create an RFP" on its main navigation bar, which we have to say is a first. Perhaps these TripAdvisor comments explain what's going on.
· "Worst Hotel of my life."
· "The good news -- great location (right by the Gateway Arch and Busch Stadium). The bad news -- almost everything else."
· "After spending two nights at the hotel, my husband and I discovered that we had been laying on blood stained sheets from the previous occupant of the room and that the sheets had not been changed!"
· "If you looking for leaks coming through the ceiling onto your bed at midnight, this is the place for you. If you want to wait 50 minutes before anyone shows up at your room after you call to report a leak, this is the place for you."
We're not really sure how much it costs to stay at the Adams Mark St. Louis over Labor Day weekend since we couldn't get the reservation site to work, but average rates seem to hover around $150 and up. Whatever the price, you're likely to find a better deal elsewhere.
We are suckers for a room with a killer view. We find that we are even more likely to forgive some minor hotel inconveniences if we can stare out the window at something pretty--yeah we are that shallow. Let's help out our fellow hotel mavens by uploading rooms with killer views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. We will feature our favorites in this space from time to time. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number of the hot view.
We especially love hotels with views of ballparks. This one of the Busch Stadium in St. Louis was taken from the Millenium Hotel. Perhaps this should be the hotel's main selling attraction, not that boring arch.
St. Louis isn't exactly the trendiest destination but if you've ever found yourself wondering about the Show-Me-State's capital, there are some redeeming qualities.
The Millennium Hotel has rooms looking directly at the gateway to the west and a 360 degree view of the city in their restaurant. In fact the famous arch is only a block away from the hotel.
Aside from the arch, St. Louis actually has other attractions too. The city is full of lively bars and the hotel features four of its own. And, if you like chocolate you can revel in the hotel's Romantic getaway package which which offers Champagne and homemade chocolate. Here's your St. Louis fun fact, according to Richard Green from About.com:
The custom of placing chocolates on hotel pillows begins here when the actor Cary Grant stayed at the Mayfair and used chocolate to woo a woman friend.
But before you get wrapped up in romantic Cary Grant history let us warn you: this hotel hasn't gotten the best reviews.
This place was filthy. The air conditioning wouldn't work in our room and we were sooo hot. The ice room smelled like urine.
Despite the Cary Grant history, chocolate does not trump urine.
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by Tim L.
