The Hotel Icon is nestled in downton Houston's historic district and boasts easy access to restaurants, shopping and theaters.

My stay was for four short days but overall it was one of the best experiences that I have had at a U.S. hotel. The room was spacious and comfortable and the bathroom was huge by comparison to what I am used to the the standard chain hotel. Of course this is not a standard cookie cutter hotel.

The hotel is operated by Destination Resorts and lives up it's name as a boutique hotel. There is plenty of charm in this hotel ranging from the large safe door at registration to the small elevators that operate with a clock dial type of display in the lobby so you can see what floors the elevators are on. One drawback to this system is that if you aren't paying close attention you will miss the elevator as it barely chimes when it arrives in the lobby.
The elevator requires a room key to access a floor keeping outsiders from having free reign in the hotel.

The staff is friendly and accomodating and the hotel provides free transportation to most of downtown Houston eliminating the need for a taxi in most cases.

There is an evening turndown service and wired internet in the room though I never did make that work.

I did find a few negative things about the hotel though nothing so major as to prevent me from returning. Thr first would be that there was no such thing as cold water in my room. Only lukewwarm and since I didn't know where the ice machine was getting a cold drink of water proved to be a challenge. Another negative is that the hotel is located in a part of Houston with only a smattering of restarants. There are almost as many closed stores and restaurants as there are ones still operating. To go along with that are the beggars or vagrants on the streets that are more of an annoyance than anything else.

Finally for some reason the hotel neglected to make up my room until after 7:30 p.m. tonight. It isn't a big deal but for a property of this size iit should never happen.

The Super Shuttle from George Bush Intercontinental was $44 for a round trip and took about 30 minutes with drop-offs.

I received a great rate booking on short notice via Hotels.com of $132 for my first night (Wednesday) and $90 for my remaining three nights which I am sure was well below market rate. I believe the hotel's own website quoted me a rate of $159 when I made a comparison.

If you are staying in Houston I hightl recommend this property , particularly if the price is right.

I had a great stay at the Icon. I found the staff to be very friendly and overly eager to accomodate special requests. It was a nice touch that I was upgraded to a deluxe suite (which I highly recommend, as there is a jetted bath tub) at no additional charge, since they were not overbooked. Concierge service was very helpful, gym is fantastic with state of the art equipment, clean rooms

Pros:

They offer complimentary car service within a 3 mile radius.

It is an easy walk to the high speed train which makes stops along Main street, easy access to the hospitals

Staff very friendly, and quick to help (no problems when I brought attention to being incorrectly charged for the mini-bar)

Clean rooms and very comfortable beds. Nice touch to receive a chocolates and flower at nightly turn down service. Oversized rooms are great.

Good food and drinks for those who don't want to venture off property

Cons:

Dining Room service was a bit slow

No swimming pool

May be a bit too far out if you want to be near Galleria/Museum districts

Overall, I had a really nice stay and would suggest this hotel for anyone considering Houston hotels. I would return.

In the past few years, I have stayed at the Icon well over a dozen times. Management changed in April 2008 and the new crew has no idea what it's doing. Worse, they really don't care.

The Icon has long been my Houston hotel of choice due to it's downtown location and excellent restaurant, Bank, as well as it's gorgeous upstairs bar. Everything about the hotel has changed for the worse. Bank is now called "Voice" and the food is awful. The upstairs bar is closed, replaced by a kiosk in the middle of the new restaurant. The new hotel staff is careless and unprofessional.

I checked into the Icon for 2 nights because I had several meetings in the Houston area and I was hosting a breakfast in a private room on the Icon premises. I booked my room and the breakfast in March, 2008 and the events took place in May.

Upon check-in, I noticed the changes immediately. Instead of the mature, helpful and friendly staff I had come to know at the Icon, the front desk was manned by 2 giggling teenagers who were more interested in each other than in checking me into the hotel. When they finally did turn their attention to me, the staff initially could not find my reservation (it looked to me like they didn't know how to use the computers). When I told them I was a frequent Icon guest, the clerk shrugged and told me "that doesn't matter" since the hotel was under new ownership. Ultimately, they found my reservation and I checked in.

Later that day, I went to the new restaurant to check on the breakfast meeting I had scheduled the next morning. The hostess showed me the room which was set up for a large dinner that evening. I asked the hostess to make sure the room was set up for my very small breakfast and she said she would.

The next morning, my wake up call came 45 minutes earlier than requested. I got up, got myself ready and went downstairs to check out the room. It was locked, so I went upstairs to ask someone to open it. I asked the restaurant staff, the concierge and the front desk, none of whom were responsive. They just stared at me blankly and said they would see what they could do.

Despite the fact that I got there early, the room had still not been opened 20 minutes after the breakfast. Finally, I left my guests, which included a U.S. Congressman, and loudly demanded that SOMEONE take responsibility and open the room. Miraculously, one of the staff found the key and finally let us in. At this point, the catering manager appeared ( an extremely young woman) and informed me they had no record of my breakfast reservation.

The room had not been set up for the breakfast. I told the catering manager not to move the furniture. I wanted to end the embarrassment and begin the breakfast. Nevertheless, a team of staff appeared and began loudly moving furniture. I asked them to stop and they ignored me. I asked them to put out some place settings and they ignored me. I went hunting for the catering manager, found her and made these same requests. The place settings appeared, but the furniture moving continued. The shoved us into a dark corner of the room while they continued their noisy work.

I began the meeting despite the noise. It was impossible to carry on a conversation due to the racket. The catering manager wandered downstairs again and I firmly told her to stop the moving furniture. Finally, it stopped. Feeling lucky, I asked for menus and table service. We waited.

45 minutes later, we had no menus and no food. I went back upstairs to move the process along and was pleased to discover that menus had been printed on in black and white on standard 8X11 copy paper. I never asked for a special menu.

The breakfast finally settled down, the guests politely ignored the chaos around us. The food came out and it was truly awful. Everyone's breakfast was ice-cold. The eggs were runny. My waffle with fruit was cold, hard as a rock and utterly tasteless. The check appeared and, of course, we were charged full price for everything. No apology was offered.

After a series of meetings downtown, I returned to the Icon and complained to the hotel manager. He looked no older than 22 or 23 years old and he stared at me blankly and made no offer to discount the breakfast, my room, or anything else.

The next day, my wake up call came 2 hours early. While brushing my teeth I noticed that the drinking glasses in the room were filthy.

I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I will never return to the Icon or any other hotel in the "Destination" chain. It is a shame that a once-fine hotel like the Icon has degenerated into a such a mess. Stay Away!!!

I usually always stay at the Icon when on business in Houston (especially when my meetings are mainly downtown..). I like the vibe of the hotel...upscale, great design, comfortable beds and fantastic bathrooms. Breakfast is also good and the bar is very cool. I understand the point about varying room sizes. However, I've been lucky on my last few trips and have got a large room (although have stayed in some of the smaller ones which are fine as well). I prefer the Icon to staying at any of the mass chains in Houston.