My husband and I spent one night away from the children....and we chose to stay at the Alexis in downtown Seattle. The hotel is a small boutique hotel and the previous reviews were mixed. Our experience was pretty good. The room was pretty...not large but not so small that I felt cramped. I did not like the fact that the windows did NOT open...that made me feel a bit claustrophobic but I survived. The bathroom was a little on the worn side but the amenities were very nice. The bed was extremely comfortable with lots of pillows and a down comforter. My only complaints were that we wanted to speak to the concierge and found it difficult to get a hold of her. The street noise was a little on the loud side....but not enough to bother me. This is a pet friendly hotel and I was a bit surprised to see that there were many people checking in with large dogs! When we were checking in these two big dogs were barking away...luckily I never heard them once we got to our room. Nice for dog owners though. Overall a nice hotel.

My husband and I stayed at the Alexis for two nights for our 5th anniversary, and ever since, we're spoiled for any other hotel. The front desk staff asked if this was a special occasion, and when I told them it was our 5th anniversary, they upgraded me to an executive corner suite, no extra charge. The suite was HUGE - I've lived in smaller apartments. The bathroom was a sybaritic luxury. The wet bar with microwave was a lovely, unexpected extra.

They brought us champagne and chocolates. It wasn't particularly good champagne, but hey, gift horses and all that. The valet service was particularly outstanding; our car was always ready the instant we set foot in the lobby, and the valets were always waiting to open our door the minute we drove up.

The complimentary evening wine service was quite nice. The wine selection was good, and we struck up several interesting conversations with fellow guests. That's one of the nice things about staying in a boutique hotel; you tend to get more interesting fellow guests.

The hotel isn't perfect; if you open the windows, which I like to do, it is on one of Seattle's busiest corners, so the street noise is pretty extreme. It'd be nice if there was slightly better room air conditioning, but I tend to not like to use that anyway if the windows open. With the windows closed, I noticed very little noise. It's true the hallways are dark and dingy, but who cares? Who spends any time in the halls? One thing that's really outstanding about the Alexis is that you don't really hear other guests in the halls, and you don't hear their doors opening and closing. If you stay in hotels a lot, you'll know what a big deal that is. Even in some very expensive hotels, the noise of the doors slamming is like cannon fire. Not here.

What really impressed us was when I called down to request another towel. Instead of just sending a housekeeper with one towel, we got an entire team who replaced all our towels, brought fresh glasses, spruced up the room, turned down the bed, and I don't know what all else. I was blown away by that.

My only complaint? I can't stay anywhere else now. I've stayed at some of Seattle's most expensive downtown hotels since, and compared to the Alexis, they might as well have been Motel 6's. I love this place. (If you find a good rate online, by the way, call them to match it. They'll match any Internet rate they can verify.)

Our one night here was a true vacation. Very professional yet relaxed staff made us feel at home. Proximity to Seattle Art Museum, new Rem Koolhaus-designed library and Public Market gave us plenty to do. Nightly wine-tasting in lobby gave us a chance to check out neighborhood restaurants with concierge and other guests.
The steambath was so wonderful there aren't words!

From the moment we pulled up we were treated like royalty. Everything we requested was ours and it was a tremendous spot to spend our anniversary celebration.
This is definately a place we will return!

Kate and Jack