Pretty much as soon as we told our families back in 2016 about our plan to go on a multi-year 50 state road trip, Shae’s dad said he wanted to come join us when we made it to Yellowstone National Park.
I had a hard time finding affordable accommodation options for 3-4 of us (Shae’s stepmom was originally due to join us too, but work commitments meant she couldn’t make it in the end). Hotels and lodges in and around Yellowstone don’t come cheap. Those that are affordable are often a two hour drive from Yellowstone and/or Grand Teton National Park, something we weren’t keen on.
In the end we booked a six night stay at the Homewood Suites Jackson using Hilton Honors points. It was far more expensive points-wise than we’d usually look to redeem Hilton points for, but it was our best option overall seeing as we were able to book straight into a one bedroom suite, plus because it’s a Homewood Suites we’d have a kitchen in our suite too.
It ended up being a great stay in an ideal location. Having to pay for parking wasn’t as ideal, but I’d be happy to stay there again if we ever head back to Jackson. Here’s a full review of our stay at the Homewood Suites Jackson, WY.
Check-In
We’d originally booked a five night stay at the hotel. A few days before we were due to arrive though, we realized that Shae’s dad’s flight was due to land at Jackson airport early afternoon and we had a 6.5 hour drive to get to Jackson from Gillette. That would’ve required a super-early start, so instead we booked an extra night at the Homewood Suites on the front end and arrived a day early.
We arrived at about 7:30pm and got checked in straight away as there was no line. After parking our car behind the property, we headed up to room 215.
Something we noticed when pushing the luggage cart along the hallway on the second floor was how narrow it is – far narrower than most hotel hallways. This wasn’t an issue when checking in or out, but hopefully you don’t encounter a housekeeping cart when trying to maneuver a luggage cart down the hallway.
1 Bedroom Suite
One of the draws of this hotel was that we could book a one bedroom suite with two double beds. When entering the suite, the kitchen was on the right, the living room straight ahead and the bedroom and bathroom off to the left.
Kitchen
Each suite has a full kitchen with a stove top, dishwasher, fridge-freezer and microwave.
The cupboards and drawers had plates, dishes, drinking glasses and mugs, silverware, etc.
Living Room
The living room was somewhat narrow, but not tiny.
On the right side of the living room was a sofa bed and small table, as well as an armchair.
On the opposite side was a fireplace, along with a dresser and wall-mounted TV.
Between the living room and kitchen was a work desk and office chair.
Bedroom
There were one bedroom suites with a king or queen bed available, but because there were three of us, we booked a bedroom with two double beds.
Opposite the beds were a closet, a wall-mounted TV and the other side of the fireplace. While it was nice that this means you can enjoy the fireplace in both the living room and bedroom, I wasn’t a huge fan of the setup. For starters, if someone in the living room wants the fire going while someone is sleeping in the bedroom, that lights up the bedroom. Then even if the fire isn’t switched on, light from the living room lights up the bedroom at night if someone is out in the living room or kitchen. For people who go to bed at the same time and get up at the same time that wouldn’t be an issue, but I’m always up later than Shae at night.
The closet contained bedding for the sofa bed, an iron, ironing board and luggage rack.
Bathroom
Just outside of the actual bathroom was the sink. This is another setup that’s in a lot of hotels that I’m not a fan of, because if you want to use the sink while someone is sleeping, you can’t have the light on and so have to rely on the light from a dimmed phone screen to see what you’re doing.
The bathroom itself had a bathtub with a shower that had decent water pressure.
There were large bottles of shampoo and conditioner but no shower gel, although there was a small bar of soap.
Breakfast
Breakfast is complimentary for all guests when staying at Homewood Suites properties. At the Homewood Suites Jackson, breakfast is available from 7am-10am. I tend to be a later riser, so I loved not having to get up early (for me) in order to get my fill in the morning.
There was a good selection of food at breakfast each morning. There were always several hot options including eggs of some variety and breakfast meats, as well as fruit, yogurt, oatmeal, bread, bagels, croissants, etc.
In the lobby there was a coffee and tea station that seemed to be available 24/7.
Evening Social
On Wednesday nights the Homewood Suites Jackson offers an evening social with complimentary food and drink. I went down to check it out and was glad that we’d already made plans for dinner as the social consisted of salad, some cubed cheese, soup and soft drinks, so not really enough to make it a full dinner.
Amenities
Swimming Pool & Whirlpool
The hotel has an indoor swimming pool for guests to enjoy, as well as a whirlpool.
Fitness Room
The hotel has perhaps the smallest fitness room I’ve ever seen, both in terms of size and prevalence of equipment. That said, with all the hiking opportunities at Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park, I imagine most guests would be focusing on getting exercise that way.
Guest Laundry Room
Seeing as Homewood Suites is an extended stay brand, they had a guest laundry room with a washing machine and dryer. It cost $2.25 per load which wasn’t bad and handily accepted credit cards so you don’t have to rely on having a bunch of quarters.
Pantry
The hotel is in a central location in downtown Jackson and so is near restaurants, convenience stores, etc. If you can’t be bothered to head out though, there’s a well-stocked pantry with snacks, drinks, microwaveable meals, etc.
Homewood Suites Jackson Pet Policy
The Homewood Suites Jackson is a pet-friendly hotel – another reason we chose it because we had our dog Truffles with us. There’s a pet fee of $50 for stays of 1-4 nights and $75 for a stay of 5+ nights. Unlike some pet-friendly hotels that only accept dogs, this hotel accepts both cats and dogs and you can have up to two in your room.
Given its downtown location, it’s easy to take your pup for a walk around. Be aware though that most – or possibly all – of the parks in downtown Jackson don’t allow dogs, so you just have to walk them along the sidewalk.
Service
We didn’t need to interact with the hotel’s staff too much, but the front desk staff were always friendly and the breakfast staff always kept food well-stocked.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is complimentary for all guests. The speed and connection was good, so we had no problem working, having Zoom calls, etc.
There was a slight quirk with trying to connect our Fire TV Stick to the hotel’s Wi-Fi though. It wouldn’t load the page correctly where you enter your name and room number to connect to the internet, so I connected a phone to the hotel’s internet and tethered the Fire TV Stick to that. This has happened at every Hilton property we’ve stayed at in the last few months, so it seems to be a general Hilton internet issue rather than a property-specific one. That said, we didn’t have any problems connecting our phones and laptops to their internet, so really the problem probably lies with how the Fire TV Stick interacts with Hilton’s Wi-Fi setup.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
Check-in is from 4pm, while check-out is at 12pm.
Location
The Homewood Suites Jackson is in an excellent location downtown. It’s just off the main strip, but you only have to walk a couple of blocks to be where the action is.
It’s only a 5-10 minute drive to Grand Teton National Park and about 1-1.5 hours to the south entrance of Yellowstone National Park. It’s a beautiful drive up to Yellowstone as you drive through the Grand Tetons and pass by Jackson Lake.
Parking
Parking costs $19 per night which seemed a little pricey. We weren’t familiar with the area though and didn’t know if there was free parking nearby, so we just paid to park at the hotel.
Cost
Accommodation in Jackson isn’t cheap. We booked our stay using Hilton Honors points and the award pricing was 80,000 points per night. Hilton has a 5th night free benefit on award stays for anyone with Silver status or higher, so we only had to redeem 400,000 points for our six night stay rather than 480,000 points.
For comparison, the room rate was $764.21 per night, hence why we used points. That means we got 1.15cpp (cents per point) of value by redeeming points which is almost triple the value you can normally expect to get from Hilton points.
Final Thoughts
We enjoyed our stay at the Homewood Suites Jackson overall. Being able to book a one bedroom suite with a kitchen using points was very helpful and we appreciated the decent breakfast available each morning. The location was great for exploring downtown by foot and having good internet was a relief seeing as Shae and I both had to work during our time there.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives this hotel four paws out of four – pawfect! The pet fee was reasonable since is was charged on a per stay basis rather than per night basis. It was easy to take her on walks around town and she appreciated that our room was quiet.
Our Rating
Room = 4.5 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.3 / 5
Food = 4.5 / 5
Location = 4.5 / 5
Service = 4.2 / 5
Overall Value = 3.4 / 5
Total = 4.23 / 5
Address
Homewood Suites, 260 N Millward St, Jackson, WY 83001
[…] – I enjoyed our stay at the Homewood Suites Jackson, especially seeing as it was in such a great location for exploring downtown. However, I’m […]