After finishing up in North Carolina which was our 31st state on the road trip, Shae, Truffles and I made our way west to Arkansas. Our first stop there was Hot Springs and we picked that time of year specifically because they have the World’s Shortest St Patrick’s Day Parade each year (read more about it here).
We stayed at the Staybridge Suites Hot Springs which is a few miles south of Hot Springs on Lake Hamilton. It ended up being a very pleasant stay as the hotel has some good amenities, was reasonably priced and every room there has a full kitchen.
Here’s a review of our stay at the Staybridge Suites Hot Springs.
Check-In
We arrived at the hotel at about 6pm. There had been torrential downpours on our way into town, but the rain had eased up a little when we arrived. We therefore decided to unload the car right then as the rain was due to get worse later that evening, but unfortunately it started getting worse pretty much as soon as we started unloading!
Once inside, we got checked in quickly. We’d booked a king studio suite; at the time of making our reservation there had been one bedroom suites still available, so I’d been hoping that we’d get a room upgrade thanks to my Diamond status with IHG. Unfortunately those one bedroom suites had all been booked by the time we stayed about a month after making that reservation, so we had to make do with the studio suite.
The front desk agent said that they normally put people with dogs on the first floor, but that he could put us on the fourth floor if we wanted as that’s the top floor. We jumped at the chance as that meant we wouldn’t have anyone in the room above us – Truffles isn’t a big fan of people stomping around above us. We ended up in room 408.
King Studio Suite
The main living space in our suite was L-shaped. The kitchen was on the left when entering, the living room straight ahead and the bedroom ahead to the left. The suite itself was square/rectangular though because the bathroom was to the left of the bedroom behind the kitchen.
Living Room
The living room area had a sleeper sofa next to a chaise longue. There were also a couple of ottomans which could double up as storage inside.
To the right of the couch was a desk and office chair.
Back over by the kitchen was a shelving unit with a lamp, items for tea and coffee as well as a bag of popcorn.
Kitchen
The kitchen wasn’t massive, but had a full-sized fridge-freezer, microwave, stovetop, dishwasher and toaster.
The cupboards had dishes, plates, silverware, cookware, etc. The number of each item was haphazard though, with three place settings for the most part, but only one fork, two teaspoons and something like four or five knives. Shae and I travel with our portable kitchen and so it wasn’t a problem as we just used our silverware, but I’m sure the front desk can fork over ( 😉 ) additional silverware items if you need them.
Bedroom
The bedroom area had a king bed that was comfortable, while the blackout curtains did a good job keeping out the light. Between the windows was a dresser with the suite’s TV on top.
The Staybridge Suites Hot Springs is on Lake Hamilton and our room had a lovely view of the lake.
Over by the bathroom was the closet. This contained an iron and ironing board, a small shelving unit, bedding for the sleeper sofa and a laundry basket because Staybridge Suites is an extended stay hotel brand.
Bathroom
The bathroom had a good-sized walk-in shower. I didn’t make any kind of note about the water pressure, so it must’ve been fine (we stayed there several weeks ago, so I can’t remember for sure now).
The shower had large bottles of wall-mounted Dove toiletries.
The sink was outside of the bathroom, opposite the closet.
Breakfast
The Staybridge Suites Hot Springs, AR offers complimentary breakfast for all guests. It’s served from 6:30am-9:30am from Monday-Friday and 7:30am-10:30am at the weekend.
Breakfast included a few hot options each day. There was always some kind of eggs, some kind of breakfast meat and then something else – biscuits and gravy, breakfast potatoes, etc. – all of which rotated each day. There were also a couple of waffle irons.
For some reason I neglected to get photos of all those, but did get photos of the other breakfast items. The best part of breakfast was the fresh fruit. There were always strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and grapes, all of which were good quality and fresh. They also had canned peaches; it had been a while since I’ve had those, so it was nice having them too.
I don’t remember seeing flour tortillas, but they did have salsa, shredded cheese, jalapenos and sour cream. Interestingly, they also had small cans of soda available, something that’s often not provided at breakfast for buffets like this. Although it was only Shasta soda rather than being a quality brand, we appreciated this as Shae and I always have a diet Coke in the morning as neither of us like coffee.
Evening Social
Similar to hotel brands like Residence Inn and Homewood Suites, Staybridge Suites offers an evening social which provides complimentary food and drink. Theirs is held 5:30pm-7pm from Monday-Wednesday each week in what they call The Great Room which is the breakfast area.
I forgot all about it on a couple of nights, but did stop down there one evening to check it out. There was a decent enough food selection, with meatballs, spring rolls, pot stickers and mixed vegetables available. I tried all of it and it was all better quality than I’d been expecting.
For beverages there were soft drinks…
…along with complimentary self-serve red, white and rosé wine.
Amenities
The Staybridge Suites Hot Springs has a feature found at very few hotels – a movie theater room. We didn’t use it ourselves and so didn’t get a photo of it as it’s locked when not in use, but it’s first come, first served and several families seemed to enjoy making use of it during our stay. I think the hotel has a selection of DVDs you can choose from, or perhaps it’s Netflix-based.
With Staybridge Suites being an extended stay brand, the hotel has a guest laundry area. This has two washing machines and two dryers, all of which are free to use and so you don’t need to worry about having a handful of quarters.
Next to the laundry area is the fitness room. Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites (IHG’s other extended stay hotel brand) tend to have the fitness room and guest laundry room adjoining with an open walkway between them; the one in Hot Springs is no exception.
That’s usually a negative feature because the fitness room tends to get extremely hot as a result of the dryers being on, but in this case the air conditioning in the fitness room did a great job at keeping it cool and so it was more than comfortable when working out.
The fitness room wasn’t massive, nor did it have a big selection of cardio equipment. There were a couple of treadmills and a couple of ellipticals, along with weights. One of the treadmills was a bit dodgy as it would sometimes seem to get stuck and briefly move in the opposite direction when at walking speed rather than running speed.
Housekeeping (or whoever’s responsible for it) wasn’t great about providing towels in the fitness room for working out. As a result, I had to get a towel from the pool area each day as they nearly always had them available there.
Next to the fitness room was the indoor swimming pool. From what I can remember it wasn’t particularly warm, but it was popular with the families who were there for spring break.
The hotel has a large grassy area out back with outdoor seating around a fire pit and a gazebo with a couple of grills for guests to use.
If you need to use a computer during your stay, there’s a business center just off the breakfast area. This features a couple of computers and a printer.
Next to the front desk is a pantry area where you can buy (or charge to your room) various snacks, drinks, etc.
Another great feature of the hotel is that there are storage units available on each floor that guests can use. I’m not sure of the logistics of this; I’m assuming you get a key from the front desk and I don’t think there’s any charge for using them during your stay, but it’d be worth contacting the hotel ahead of time just in case if these are something you’d like to use.
Pet Policy
The Staybridge Suites Hot Springs is a pet-friendly hotel. They have a $75 pet fee per stay which isn’t ideal of you’re only staying one night, but is very good if you’re staying there for a week (like we did) or longer versus paying $xx per night.
There are various grassy spots around the hotel, along with a larger grassy area at the back of the property.
Service
There’s not too much to say about service at the hotel because we didn’t really interact with staff members there beyond checking in and out and occasionally stopping by the front desk to get dishwasher tablets, toilet paper, etc.
The front desk staff were friendly though, while the people who worked on breakfast always kept the food well stocked.
Wi-Fi
The Wi-Fi at the hotel was solid. Both Shae and I work online and we didn’t have any problems downloading photos, being on Zoom calls, etc. We also streamed on our Fire TV Stick and that never had any issues.
One minor complaint is that the hotel is a property where you have to reconnect to the internet every 24 hours. While it’s not a huge problem, it’s frustrating when you’re working on something and then suddenly have it cut out.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
The check-in time at the Staybridge Suites Hot Springs is 4pm, while check-out is at 12pm.
Location
The hotel is in a pretty location on Lake Hamilton. It’s about a 10 minute drive to Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort and 15 minutes to downtown Hot Springs. There are several grocery stores and restaurants a short drive away.
Parking
Parking is free and there were plenty of spaces both at the front of the property and along the side.
Cost
We paid $110.39 per night including tax ($99 per night before tax). That was a decent rate considering we were checking in the day before the World’s Shortest St Patrick’s Day Parade and it seemed to be spring break for some families. Every suite in the hotel has a full kitchen, so with breakfast included and the evening social three nights a week, a rate of $110.39 was great value.
I’m not sure what the cost would’ve been when booking with points because there weren’t any award nights available for our dates when booking a month before our stay. IHG One Rewards uses dynamic pricing for award nights which means the points price can differ from night to night. When checking some random dates later this year, it would cost anything from 17,000-27,000 points per night.
Points Earned
We earned a total of 12,930 points for our stay. IHG only offers 5 points per dollar spent at their Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites brands (it’s 10 points per dollar at their other brands), so our base earnings were 3,465 points. I have Diamond status which gives a 100% bonus on base points earned, so that was another 3,465 points. IHG was also running a promotion at the time giving 2,000 bonus points for every two nights you stay, so that’s where the remaining 6,000 bonus points came from.
Final Thoughts
We really enjoyed our stay at the Staybridge Suites Hot Springs. Our room was quiet, the breakfast selection was pretty good (especially all the fresh fruit) and the hotel had some great amenities like complimentary guest laundry.
If you’re wanting to stay as close to downtown Hot Springs as possible then you’d want to pick a different hotel as it’s a 15 minute drive away. However, if we ever return to Hot Springs we’d be more than happy to stay here again as it was excellent value and we had a nice stay there.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives this hotel four paws out of four – pawfect! The $75 pet fee was reasonable considering how long we were staying and it was good having more grassy areas than some hotels have.
Our Rating
Room = 4.5 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.7 / 5
Food = 4.4 / 5
Location = 4.2 / 5
Service = 4.0 / 5
Overall Value = 4.4 / 5
Total = 4.37 / 5
Address
Staybridge Suites, 103 Lookout Cir, Hot Springs, AR 71913
Sounds nice. Thanks for taking the time to review.