This hotel was a wonderful surprise! We stayed in this hotel because of a veterinary conference downtown and all the hotels near the convention center were booked. The staff were very helpful and willing to deal with us - 15+ vet students. The breakfast was really good - much better than the normal continental breakfast. The beds were comfortable and everything was clean. They had a free shuttle to and from downtown, which was great. I highly recommend this hotel!

Have written another review in the past singing the praises of this small hotel in a renovated train workshop/station.

However, the quality has slipped and so has moral of the employees. Not as friendly and the rooms are not sound proofed. It is not a place to stay if you are a light sleeper. Sounds of footsteps above, moving furniture from the meeting rooms, and muffled talking. When I stayed in October, the heat was blasting at 85 degrees and could not turn off.

The comp breakfast was great and the hostess still friendly. Beware.....call your own taxi from the yellow pages. You will most likely not be taken advantage of by taxi drivers the front office staff calls. Someone who works at the hotel told me this after I had called my own taxi.

Will not be returning to this hotel with regret. It has changed from a Holiday Inn Express to a Best Western in the past month.

Value:
Good value for the money. Breakfast is very good and the lady who runs breakfast is incredibly passionate about her job. She makes sure that the continental breakfast is not just any ordinary breakfast. The highlight of our stay was definitely the breakfast. There was everything from fresh baked cinamon buns, hard boiled eggs, oatmeal, waffles, toast, muffins, fruit, and more.

Location:
Only 5 minutes off I-94 so it is good if you want to be on your way fast in the morning, but there is nothing to walk to. There was a big festival getting set up when we were leaving. I don't know what it was but at 8am the parking was already filling up.

Our Sleep:
We were absolutely exhausted from a 12 hour trip from Chicago, and sadly we only slept about 5 hours without interuption. Just after 5am the doors were slamming all around us and shaking our room so bad that our dog was barking in fear.

Dog Friendly:
Very accomodating to our 60 pound dog, and a nominal charge of $10 was added to our bill for our pet. As mentioned above, there is not much to walk to for the dog, but the yards around the hotel have plenty of grass so it would be fine for a small pet or one that doesn't need much exercise.

Parking:
The parking lot is accross the street and we were a little nervous about our car there, but nothing happened. I don't think I would be too thrilled about parking a more expensive car there, but then again, if we could afford a more expensive car, we probably wouldn't have been staying at a $100/night room!!

We stayed for 2-nights and had a king suite. The carpet, sheets, bathroom, table-tops were clean. The bed was comfortable. The room was simple- not fancy, a tad aged. The front-desk said the suite was larger and had 2 televisions - w/ a sofa-sleeper for our child (queen was booked). The room had 1 very small TV w/ limited stations; the bathroom was 'standard' - toilet was broken and instead of dealing w/ staff, my husband fixed the chain. The sofa sleeper had a big slope down (so your head was much lower than your feet) - which was fixed by propping it up w/ a couch pillow. The door had a sizable gap in the frame so each time a neighboring door was closed - ours would jiggle loudly. This was also buffered w/ couch pillows to block the light coming in, privacy, and mitigate the jostling. There was a fridge and microwave; didn't use the microwave but the fridge worked (seal needed to be cleaned). The room was large and allowed one to feel not cramped as you might in a standard room. Room Temp was pretty good -adjustable and not stuffy at all.

The staff needs training in some areas. They were nice but lacked information. Upon booking we were told a shuttle would pick us up at the train station and return us upon departure. During confirmation - learned that the shuttle does not operate on Friday evening/all weekend. Also emailed the GM w/ a question on how to travel to MoA - no reponse on the question. Asked front desk and they advised they did not know about local transit - call a cab. Cabbing would cost around 25$. Called transit and there is a bus that stops right outside the hotel. Was able to bus & transfer to local train for $1.50/adult. It would have been nice if they referred me to local transit phone number.

Asked for internet connection for laptop and was told on the first night that you didn't need anything; there is a 'beam at the hotel'. Asked the second day for one w/ a usb port; finally was able to get what was needed.

Breakfast area was very nice. Area was clean, well supplied: oatmeal variety, toast, bages, juice, milk, tea, coffee, cereal, muffin, fruit, hard boiled eggs, yogurt.

The pool area was okay - didn't use it but it looked fine.

The hotel exterior was really cool; it'd be nice if they could showcase the theme more inside. Unless you read the intro on train-theme or saw the exterior - you really wouldn't notice too much inside. There is beautiful ceiling beams in the lobby and a track running along the floor.

I would stay here again because it was alright. That would be if taking the train; if driving in, no. There isn't much in the area for resteraunts - good sports bar/grill down the block at Lexington - only choice in that area.

GM did offer me a reduced rate (wasn't a big deal as it is the same rate you can on-line from the chamber - via visitor's card) when asked for comp. because of booking shuttle information (had been looking for a hotel w/ shuttle). Front desk did comp room upgrade when asked at arrival.