After spending a month in Inverness, FL, Shae and I headed north to Virginia Beach. Before setting off on our 50 state road trip, we lived in nearby Portsmouth, VA which is where we still have family and friends, so we stopped there for four nights.
We booked a four night stay at the Candlewood Suites Virginia Beach Town Center as it was excellent value when using points during those dates. We were later thinking about staying longer, but award nights were more expensive the subsequent week, so we just went with the four nights we’d already booked.
As Candlewood Suites properties go, the one at Virginia Beach Town Center is one of the best we’ve stayed at. It seemed to be a fairly new property, they had some good (but not perfect) COVID-19 safety measures and our suite was very comfortable. Here’s a complete review of our stay at the Candlewood Suites Virginia Beach Town Center.
Check-In
We arrived at about 4:30pm and Shae went inside to check-in while I unloaded the car. Vanessa was working at the front desk and was apparently super-friendly.
Our stay was at the beginning of September 2020, so during COVID. As a result, there was an acrylic barrier to help provide some safety. There was a container with sanitized pens, with another container in which to place a pen once it was used so that it could be sanitized again.
The check-in process didn’t take long and we were soon on our way up to room 418 which is on the hotel’s top floor.
1 Bedroom Suite
When booking stays at Candlewood Suites hotel using points, at most of their properties your only option is a studio suite. One of the reasons we picked the Candlewood Suites Virginia Beach Town Center is because we were able to book straight into a one bedroom suite. We’ve found that hotels which are part of IHG Rewards Club aren’t great when it comes to giving upgrades in the US, so not having to rely on an upgrade to get a one bedroom suite was great.
When entering the suite, the kitchen was on the right, the living room to the left, with the bedroom and bathroom straight ahead.
Living Room
On the right side of the living room was a sleeper sofa which was comfortable to sit on (and take a nap on 😉 ) The TV was mounted to the wall above a storage unit which, as with all Candlewood Suites hotels, also had a DVD player. There was a decent-sized coffee table in front of the sofa which is much heaving than you expect it to be when moving it.
The TV had a fairly good selection of TV channels. It was DIRECTV which was great as it meant you could view the channel guide on the TV while scrolling through which also listed the current and upcoming TV shows.
On the left side of the living room was a reclining armchair with a tall lamp. The lamp was a great feature as it also had a shelf halfway up. Shae was able to teach online from the armchair with her laptop on the shelf and the lamp providing good lighting.
When Shae wasn’t in the armchair, Truffles claimed it for her own.
Between the living room and kitchen was a really long desk with an office chair on one side and a couple of dining chairs on the other.
One final feature of the living room area was a closet which was to the left of the kitchen. This contained bedding for the sleeper sofa, as well as an iron and ironing board.
Kitchen
Another reason we decided to stay at the Candlewood Suites Virginia Beach Town Center is because every suite has a full kitchen. This includes a full-sized fridge-freezer, microwave, stove top, microwave, toaster and coffee maker.
Ordinarily I’d include photos of the silverware, cooking utensils, plates, cups, etc. in the kitchen cupboards, but there wasn’t anything in the kitchen cupboards.
That’s not because of something bad, but because of something good. As something to give guests reassurance that their room has been cleaned since the previous guest, everything was in the dishwasher having been washed. There was a magnet on the dishwasher stating “Clean and ready for you. All dishware has been cleaned.”
Our kitchen also had a pantry which we would’ve used if we’d stayed longer than four nights. I’ve only ever noticed pantries like this in one bedroom suites at Candlewood Suites properties, so I don’t know if the one at Virginia Beach Town Center also has a pantry in their studio suites.
Bedroom
The bedroom had a comfortable king bed and good blackout curtains, so we slept well each night. Both bedside lamps had a power outlet on them which made it easier to charge our phones overnight. Bedside outlets aren’t something you’ll find in every hotel bedroom, so it’s something I always appreciate.
On the opposite side of the room was an additional closet (which was empty other than a few hangers), as well as a bedroom TV on top of a dresser.
The bedroom wasn’t very big, but it’s not like we needed it any larger. However, its small size did mean that the bedroom door scraped across the bed when opening and closing it.
Bathroom
The bathroom was off to the left of the kitchen, so you didn’t have to go through the bedroom to get to it. We prefer it that way because I’m up much later at night than Shae, so it meant I didn’t wake her up when using the bathroom at night.
When entering the bathroom, the sink and vanity was to the left, the toilet straight ahead and the bathtub with shower to the right.
The bath had refillable bottles of shampoo, conditioner and shower gel, with a couple of bars of soap by the sink.
Amenities
Seeing as Candlewood Suites is an extended stay brand, it has a number of amenities that cater to people staying for a longer time. There are guest laundry facilities which are free to use, although you do need to provide your own detergent. If you don’t have any, you can purchase it from the hotel.
Like every other property in this hotel brand, the Candlewood Suites Virginia Beach Town Center has a Lending Locker. During your stay, you can borrow any items you need such as a slow cooker, board games, toaster oven, books and more.
If you can’t be bothered to make it to the store (or don’t have transportation), there’s the Candlewood Cupboard which contains drinks, snacks, microwave meals, toiletries, etc.
The hotel had a fitness room with a few pieces of equipment and weights. It didn’t seem like they were doing anything to limit how many people could use the fitness room which was surprising. When staying at the Hyatt Place Cleveland/Independence recently, guests had to book a time slot to use the fitness room and needed a special key to access it so that they could ensure everything was sanitized in between.
There’s a small business center consisting of a computer and printer in case you need to use that during your stay.
Out the back of the hotel there’s a grill guests can use, along with some outdoor seating.
Pet Policy
The Candlewood Suites Virginia Beach Town Center is a pet-friendly hotel. There’s a $75 pet fee when staying 1-6 nights and a $150 pet fee when staying 7+ nights. They have quite generous rules in terms of the size of pets accepted, as pets up to 80 lbs can stay at the property.
There’s a reasonable amount of grass around the hotel, but there’s also a sidewalk running alongside the road outside, so it’s easy and safe to take your pup for a longer walk.
COVID-19
The COVID-19 protocols at the hotel were fairly good overall. Candlewood Suites is a very limited service brand, so during normal times they only offer housekeeping once a week anyway.
I liked that all the kitchenware was left in the dishwasher as that helps give reassurance that everything was clean. It was also good that the front desk had separate containers for sanitized and used pens as that’s not something that’s been done everywhere we’ve visited recently.
One thing that was a little disappointing COVID-wise is that there didn’t seem to be any capacity controls when using the fitness room. It appeared that guests could use it at any time with nothing being done to limit how many people could be in there, nor having anyone sanitizing equipment in between. We therefore gave it a miss other than going in to take a photo for this review.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
You can check in from 4pm, while the check-out time is 11am.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi at the hotel was free. The speed seemed perfectly fine and I think we only had to log in at the start of the stay rather than every 24 hours which was appreciated.
Location
As the name suggests, this Candlewood Suites is near Town Center in Virginia Beach. Town Center is where you’ll find a bunch of stores and restaurants, so it’s not a bad place to be located if you want to be near those.
The hotel is right next to Mount Trashmore Park which is a nice public park which was once a landfill site, while Pembroke Mall is only a five minute drive away. If you want to visit the oceanfront, it’s about a 15 minute drive, although that depends on the I-264 traffic.
Parking
Parking at the hotel is free and there’s plenty of it.
Cost
As I mentioned at the start of the review, we paid for our stay using points. IHG changed to dynamic pricing for award nights earlier this year which means that the number of points you need for a free night can vary depending on demand, a little like how the cash price goes up during busy periods and down when it’s quieter.
For the four nights we stayed, it cost 15,000 points per night which is a very reasonable cost for IHG Rewards Club considering we were able to book straight in to a one bedroom suite. Even though we stayed for four nights, it didn’t cost us 60,000 points for a couple of reasons.
Both those reasons relate to the two IHG credit cards that I have. I have their latest IHG Premier credit card which offers every 4th night free on award stays. That means we only had to pay for three nights which reduced the total cost to 45,000 points. My other (older) IHG Select credit card offers a 10% rebate on award stays, so that’s another 4,500 points back. That means our net cost was 40,500 points, or an average of 10,125 points per night which is excellent value.
If we’d paid for the room, it would have cost $187.19 per night including tax. That means we got 1.85cpp (cents per point) of value for our stay which made it a fantastic redemption compared to the value you can normally expect to get from IHG Rewards Club points.
Final Thoughts
We had a great stay at the Candlewood Suites Virginia Beach Town Center. It was very good value for the points we redeemed and it was awesome getting to book straight in to a one bedroom suite. The suite seemed fairly new and was in good condition, while the front desk staff were friendly whenever we saw them.
The only main negative experience was that they didn’t seem to have any restrictions on how many people could use the fitness room or when. In normal times that obviously wouldn’t be an issue, but other hotels we’ve stayed at recently did have rules about how many people could use their fitness room and when.
I’d be more than happy staying at this property again in the future though provided we managed to get another good value points redemption.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives this hotel four paws out of four – pawfect! The pet fee was reasonable and having a bedroom separate from the main living area meant that it was quiet at night, so she didn’t hear anyone in the hallway. It also helped that our room was at the far end of the hall, so there wasn’t a lot of foot traffic down our end of the hall.
Our Rating
Room = 4.8 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.5 / 5
Food = N/A
Location = 4.2 / 5
Service = 4.7 / 5
Dealing With COVID-19 (a new – hopefully temporary – category for our hotel reviews) = 4.3 / 5
Overall Value = 4.8 / 5 (based on the number of points we had to redeem. The cash rate of almost $200 per night was way too high though.)
Total = 4.55/5
Address
Candlewood Suites, 4437 Bonney Rd, Virginia Beach, VA 23462
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