After leaving Garden City, we headed east to Wichita. Knowing that it’s one of the largest cities in Kansas, we wanted to stay longer than our average of five days in order to have more time to explore.
Our initial plan was to book a property on Airbnb in downtown Wichita. There weren’t any great options for our dates and price range, so we booked a stay at the TownePlace Suites Wichita East instead.
Although its location wasn’t downtown, it was pet-friendly and, more importantly, was a category 1 property in the Marriott Rewards (soon to be Marriott Bonvoy) scheme. Marriott offers the 5th night free on award stays, so we decided to book 10 nights there to get both the 5th and 10th night free.
Overall, we enjoyed our 10 days there and it was made better thanks to a room upgrade. Here’s a complete review of our stay at the TownePlace Suites Wichita East in Kansas.
Check-In
The check-in experience began a couple of days before we arrived. We’d booked a queen studio suite as that was the only available room type using our points at the time. I’d noticed when booking though that they had one bedroom suites available for paid reservations.
I have Platinum status which entitles you to room upgrades, including select suites. It would have been possible to ask for an upgrade when checking in, but I’d read Nick’s post on Frequent Miler last year where he explained how he got a suite upgrade ahead of time by using the Chat function on the Marriott app. I figured it was worth a try and sure enough, they confirmed an upgrade to a one bedroom suite a couple of days before we arrived.
A separate bedroom is helpful as I’m often up at night 3-4 hours later than Shae. If we’re in a studio suite (or regular hotel room), that means either having a lamp on (which disturbs her sleep) or me using a headlamp to see better when working on my laptop (which isn’t great for the eyes). Having a separate bedroom means she can sleep in there with the door closed, while I can work in the living room.
Anyway, the check-in process was quick once we arrived at the hotel. We had to complete a pet form seeing as we’re traveling with our dog Truffles, but we were soon on our way down the hallway to room 128.
One Queen Bedroom Suite
When entering the suite, the kitchen was to the right, the bathroom to the left, the living room straight ahead and the bedroom ahead and to the left.
Kitchen
The kitchen was pretty well-equipped with a double stove top, dishwasher, full-size fridge-freezer, microwave, sink and coffee maker.
The bottom left cupboard held pots and pans, the cupboards above the fridge-freezer had a colander and food storage containers, while the cupboards above the sink had plates, dishes, silverware, glasses, mugs, etc.
I have a couple of minor quibbles regarding the kitchen. The first is how small the heating elements on the stove top were compared to the size of some of the pans. I made scrambled eggs for lunch a few times and the saute pan was twice the diameter of the heating element. That meant most of the pan’s surface area wasn’t heated properly, so only the center actually cooked the eggs.
My other dislike was that they weren’t non-stick pans. Not only were they non-stick pans, but they seemed to be actively-stick! Despite spraying the pan with oil beforehand and tending to the scrambled eggs throughout cooking, about half the egg mixture got stuck to the bottom of the pan no matter how hard I tried to avoid it. Soaking the pan overnight, scraping it off the next morning and sticking it through the dishwasher on its most intensive setting still didn’t entirely clean it.
Those (admittedly) minor issues aside, we appreciated having a decent kitchen available throughout our stay.
Living Room
Separating the living room and kitchen was a desk and office chair. The main desk was on rollers, so you could move it and use the shelving unit to the side as an additional desk if necessary.
On the other side of the desk was the living room. There was a sleeper sofa, along with an ottoman with a lap desk on top and a side table by the window. I appreciated the lack of a raised side on the far end of the couch as it meant I could stretch out more comfortably.
Another nice feature was having power outlets on both sides of the couch. We struggle to find outlets at many hotels, so having so many available was great.
Opposite the couch was a TV. There was a good selection of channels, with a guide on the TV showing what was on and upcoming. The first TV we had in the room was weird though as after about five minutes of being on, it got dim. So dim that you could barely see it even with the lights turned off. We couldn’t work out how to fix it and nor could maintenance, so they swapped out the TV.
That was better for most of our stay, then it started happening with the new TV the last few nights of our stay. Pressing a bunch of different buttons and turning it off and on again seemed to work most of the time, so we made do with that solution.
Bedroom
The bedroom was off the living area and contained a comfortable queen bed. Once again, there were lots of outlets – three on each side of the bed.
Opposite the bed in an alcove was another TV. This had intermittent dimming problems as well, but turning it off and on again seemed to solve them.
The room’s closet was to the left of the bed and contained an iron, ironing board, laundry basket, blanket and storage shelves. It wasn’t as great as the closet at the TownePlace Suites Garden City, but I think that hotel had their new closet setup.
Bathroom
The bathroom was to the left when entering the suite, rather than having direct bedroom access. There was a sink with a lengthy vanity which is always nice to have.
The toiletries were Paul Mitchell. The shampoo lathers up well, while the bars of soap last a fairly long time.
The bathroom had a bathtub with a shower. The shower had decent water pressure and heated up quickly. One minor downside to the bathroom’s design is that the outward curve of the shower curtain rail means the shower curtain brushes your arm when sitting on the toilet.
Overall, we loved our one queen bedroom suite. A few minor quibbles aside, having a separate bedroom, comfortable sofa, kitchen and plenty of power outlets made it a good place to be based for 10 nights on our 5 year road trip.
Breakfast
Breakfast is free for all guests when staying at TownePlace Suites properties. At the TownePlace Suites Wichita East, it was served from 6am to 9am during the week and 7am to 10am on weekends.
While not huge, there was always lots of available seating in the breakfast area.
Similar to our stay at the TownePlace Suites in Garden City, the hot options were underwhelming. They had the same greasy pork sausage patties every day, along with cheesy omelets. On a couple of days they had fried eggs that were more like microwaved eggs, but that was the extent of the variety. Most hotels offer rotating hot options each day, but TownePlace Suites don’t seem to do that, or maybe we’ve just been unlucky with the ones we’ve stayed at.
In addition to the hot oatmeal and other hot options, here’s what else was offered for breakfast every day.
For beverages, there was a juice machine and coffee and tea station. The coffee and tea station was in the lobby and was available 24/7. Neither Shae nor I drink coffee, so I’ve no idea how well they do with keeping the coffee fresh. They did keep the teabags well stocked though which I appreciated.
Amenities
Seeing as TownePlace Suites is an extended stay brand, they offer some helpful amenities for those staying for longer periods of time. There’s a guest laundry area with a couple of washers and dryers costing $1.75 per load.
The guest laundry area is next door to the fitness room. There were only a few pieces of equipment, but there was rarely anyone else in there so that didn’t matter. I loved that the temperature could be controlled by guests though. I used the treadmill on the right a few times during our stay and it was awesome having the fan blowing directly on me.
The TVs on the treadmill also worked which isn’t always the case at hotels we stay at, so bonus points for that!
There was no swimming pool at the TownePlace Suites Wichita East, which was a little surprising.
They did have some nice outdoor seating options though. The hotel curved around a courtyard on three sides which meant it was usually in the shade back there. We visited in January when it snowed, so that didn’t benefit us. However, I imagine the shade is much-needed in the 100°+ summer months.
I’m sure smokers also appreciate having the gazebo below to stand under during inclement weather.
The hotel doesn’t have any restaurants within walking distance, so it’s handy that they have the ‘In A Pinch’ pantry area if you can’t be bothered to go out. In addition to snacks, toiletries and beverages, they have frozen meals available.
If you need to get online or print something off, there’s a business center with a couple of computers and a printer.
Pet-Friendliness
The TownePlace Suites Wichita East is a pet-friendly hotel. They allow two pets up to 50 lbs to stay in your room, although I don’t know if that’s 50 lbs per dog or the total allowed weight for two dogs. Truffles is only 10 lbs, so we never have to worry about that.
The hotel has a $75 pet fee which is fairly reasonable. Unlike some hotels, the $75 pet fee is before fees and taxes, so it works out to be $80.63.
There’s grass all around the property, so there’s lots of space for your dog(s) to relieve themselves. Please don’t be like the guest who was there with a German Shepherd during our stay though, as they let their dog crap all over the grass and never cleared it up. Thankfully the grass was covered with snow for most of our stay which made it easier to avoid stepping in dog poop in the dark.
If you’re travelling with your dog, a couple of recommendations. First, there’s KHS Dog Park less than 10 minutes away. This has a small dog area and two large dog areas, with all three areas being pretty sizable.
You also need to check out Fetch Bar & Grill while you’re there. It’s the first pet-friendly restaurant in Wichita as dogs are allowed with you inside the restaurant, not just outside. The food was great, they offer a dog menu, there’s an outdoor dog park area and it’s just an all-round great place to visit. We visited twice during our 10 days in Wichita, so check out our review for more.
Service
Service was very good during our stay. Tish in particular was great, but all the front desk, housekeeping and maintenance staff we interacted with were friendly.
When we got around to reporting the issue with the living room TV, they were extremely apologetic and sent maintenance by shortly after to look into it. When he couldn’t fix the problem, he swapped out the TV.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi at the TownePlace Suites Wichita East is free. There weren’t any connectivity issues and the speed always seemed to be good.
Location
The location of the TownePlace Suites was OK. It was in a safe area and was just off route 96 which meant it didn’t take long to get over to I-135. Depending on traffic, it takes about 20 minutes to get downtown.
Although there aren’t any restaurants or grocery stores within immediate walking distance, there are plenty within a five minute drive.
Parking
Parking at the hotel is free and there are lots of spaces all around the hotel. That makes it easier to get to your car if your room is near one of the side exits.
Cost
I mentioned at the beginning of the review that we booked our stay using points as the TownePlace Suites Wichita East is a category 1 property. That means it costs 7,500 points per night which is great. Even better, the 5th night is free on award stays, so that reduced the average cost to 6,000 points per night. That means our 10 nights cost a total of 60,000 points.
Just as a reference point, the standard signup bonus for Marriott credit cards tends to be 75,000 bonus points, although it often goes higher. You could therefore get a minimum of 12 free nights at a category 1 property like this from one signup bonus by taking advantage of the 5th night free benefit.
If we’d paid cash, the rate would’ve been $97.84 including tax. That means we got 1.63cpp (cents per point) of value by using points. That’s about double what many value Marriott Rewards points to be worth, so this was a good value stay.
Final Thoughts
Overall, we enjoyed our stay at the TownePlace Suites Wichita East in Kansas. Being upgraded to a one bedroom suite was greatly appreciated and certainly enhanced our stay. The staff was friendly and there was a fairly good spread for a free buffet breakfast, albeit with a lack of variety when it came to hot options.
If you need somewhere to stay in Wichita and don’t need to be downtown, this hotel is a great option – especially if you’re using points.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives the TownePlace Suites Wichita East four paws out of four – pawfect! The hotel was quiet, had lots of grass outside, a dog park nearby and, even more importantly, Fetch Bar & Grill was less than 10 minutes away.
She also got quite a lot of attention from the front desk staff which she always loves.
Our Rating
Room = 4.6 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.5 / 5
Food = 4.3 / 5
Location = 4.2 / 5
Service = 4.3 / 5
Overall Value = 4.7 / 5
Total = 4.43 / 5
Address
TownePlace Suites, 9444 East 29th St N, Wichita, KS 67226
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