Having spent 5 nights in Ness City and Dighton in Kansas, we headed south to Garden City, a city about an hour to the west of Dodge City.
We decided to stay at the TownePlace Suites Garden City for a couple of reasons. First, it was great value using points. Secondly, it had a lower pet fee than the TownePlace Suites in Dodge City which cost the same number of points. The pet fee was only a $25 difference, but every penny counts when it comes to staying on budget!
Seeing as we stayed using points, we booked a 5 night stay there as Marriott offers the 5th night free on award stays. Here’s a review of our stay at the TownePlace Suites Garden City.
Check-In
We arrived at about 2pm and had an excellent check-in experience. Lori checked us in and was incredibly friendly and welcoming.
The check-in time is 3pm, but she was happy to assign us a room even though we’d arrived an hour early. Within a couple of minutes we had our keys to room 223, so we headed up in the elevator.
Room
As the name suggests, TownePlace Suites is an all-suite brand. One of the reasons we like the brand is that not only are all their rooms suites, but they also contain a kitchen in every room.
When entering the room, the kitchen was on the left and the living room was straight ahead. The bedroom was round to the right, while the bathroom was further round to the right on the other side of the room’s closet.
Kitchen
The kitchen was well-equipped with a full-size fridge-freezer, stovetop, microwave, coffee maker and dishwasher. One thing that did seem to be missing was a trash can under the sink. There was one in the living room area, but it was unusual to not have one in the kitchen too.
I liked the design of the kitchen cabinets, with the cupboards containing dishes, plates, glasses, mugs, etc.
The drawers contained silverware, cooking utensils, cooking pans and more.
Living Room
To the right of the kitchen was the living room area. There was a large desk unit that contained some cupboards and cubby holes which were helpful as extra storage. In addition to the main desk, there was another desk on rollers which was a nice feature.
To the right of the desk was a sofa bed with a side table and an ottoman topped with a lap desk.
Between the living room and bedroom was the room’s (fairly small) TV which had a good selection of channels. The TV was sitting on top of another storage unit; considering it wasn’t a particularly large studio suite, they’ve done a good job with providing plenty of storage.
Bedroom
The bedroom had a king bed that was very comfortable, while the blackout curtains worked well. The lamps on either side of the bed had power outlets which was useful for charging our phones overnight.
I mentioned above that the TownePlace Suites Garden City has done a great job with the room design and storage. That theme continued with the room’s closet. The closet had two doors on opposite sides. One door was opposite the kitchen on the right hand side as you entered the room. This side had a wall-mounted coat rack which was helpful considering it snowed 8″ while we were there, as well as an iron and ironing board.
The other side of the closet could be accessed between the bedroom and bathroom. A sign hanging on the handle said that it featured storage from The Container Store. This section had several shelving units, a couple of clothing rails, a clothing basket and a blanket.
Bathroom
When entering the bathroom, the sink and vanity was on the left hand side. There was a large mirror above it, along with a full-length mirror on the back of the door.
The toiletries were Paul Mitchell which is what they seem to have at all TownePlace Suites and Residence Inn properties. Although the bars of soap aren’t very large, they’re good quality and last a long time.
The bathroom also contained a bathtub with shower. The shower had good water pressure, while Shae appreciated the polka dot design on the shower curtain.
Breakfast
Breakfast is included with your room rate when staying at the TownePlace Suites Garden City. It’s served until 9am during the week and until 10am at the weekend.
On the positive side, breakfast was always very well-stocked – I don’t remember ever seeing anything empty, even though we usually came down for breakfast shortly before it ended.
One slight negative was that the hot options were the same every single day of our stay. Most hotels rotate their hot options to offer a bit of variety, but every morning there were cheesy omelets, pork sausage patties, biscuits and sausage gravy. The sausage patties were overly salty, but the biscuits and sausage gravy were tasty. I gave the cheesy omelets a miss, but that’s simply because I don’t like cheese.
The other breakfast options were the same every day too:
In terms of things to drink, there was a juice machine…
…and a coffee and tea station in the lobby that was available 24/7.
In addition to a little bit of seating in the lobby area, there was a separate breakfast area with plenty of seating.
Amenities
The TownePlace Suites Garden City has several amenities available for guests. There’s a fitness room with a few pieces of equipment. One of the nicest features was that there was an air-conditioning unit in the room which could be controlled by guests. I hate jogging on the treadmill in a hot, stuffy fitness room, so I greatly appreciated being able to change the temperature.
For an alternative form of exercise, there’s an outdoor swimming pool that’s open seasonally. It snowed during our stay, so it wasn’t surprising to see it covered.
If you need to do any laundry during your stay, the hotel has two washing machines and four dryers, although only one washer and three dryers were working during our stay. It was a little weird that there were double the number of dryers as washing machines – I’d have thought it would be more useful having it the other way around.
Both the washers and dryers cost $1.50 per load which was reasonable and likely cheaper than going to a laundromat.
If you don’t have a laptop with you or need to print something off, there’s a business center in the lobby consisting of one computer and a printer.
The TownePlace Suites Garden City also has an ‘In A Pinch’ pantry area with microwaveable meals, snacks, soups, drinks, toiletries, etc.
Pet-Friendliness
The TownePlace Suites Garden City in Kansas is a pet-friendly property which is one of the reasons we chose it as we’re traveling with our dog Truffles.
The pet fee is $50 per stay which is one of the lowest pet fees we’ve encountered at any of Marriott’s brands. Even better than the low fee though was the fact that we didn’t get charged the fee even though they knew we had Truffles with us 🙂
There’s lots of grass around the hotel, with dedicated pet areas at the back of the hotel on both sides of the swimming pool.
There’s a decent-sized off-leash dog park less than 10 minutes away from the hotel. It was covered in inches of snow when we visited, but that didn’t stop Truffles from chasing after her ball.
Service
Service at the hotel was very good. Lori in particular was wonderful and stopped by our car to say goodbye before we left. We met the manager a couple of times and he was friendly, while the other staff were friendly enough.
We appreciated that they were accommodating with our request to check in early, while we also got a 4pm checkout (although that’s a guaranteed benefit with my Platinum status).
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi at the TownePlace Suites Garden City is free and was a decent speed. I don’t think either of us ever had problems with the connection.
Location
The hotel is on the northeast side of Garden City and is within a 10-15 minute drive of most things in and around the city. There aren’t any restaurants within walking distance, although there are several only a few minutes away by car, along with a grocery store (Dillon’s – part of the Kroger family).
It’s very close to Sandsage Bison Range & Wildlife Area, so I’d recommend arranging a tour there. We also visited Boot Hill Museum in Dodge City; even though that’s an hour away, it’s a great museum so we’d recommend visiting there too if you have time.
Parking
Parking is free and there was plenty of it at the front of the hotel and around the sides. Be aware though that there’s a $10 per day fee if you’re driving a commercial truck or vehicle over 15′ long (more than 2 axles).
Cost
Like I mentioned at the beginning of the review, we booked our stay using points. That’s because the TownePlace Suites Garden City is a category 1 property and so only costs 7,500 points per night. With the 5th night free on award stays, that put our cost for 5 nights at 30,000 points, or only 6,000 points per night.
If we’d paid cash, the cost would’ve been $103.87 per night. That means we got 1.73cpp (cents per point) of value by using points which is very good value for Marriott Rewards points.
Final Thoughts
We had a very good stay at the TownePlace Suites Garden City in Kansas. Our room was comfortable and smartly designed with plenty of storage, service was friendly and breakfast was well-stocked, albeit a little boring with the same options every day.
With a low pet fee (that we weren’t even charged) and decent value using points, it’s a great option if you need somewhere to stay in southwest Kansas.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives this hotel four paws out of four – pawfect! She (well, we) loved that we weren’t charged a pet fee, while she liked having so much grass around and a dog park nearby.
She also loved the attention she received from the front desk staff – one of the things she loves most about living in hotels!
Our Rating
Room = 4.7 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.6 / 5
Food = 4.4 / 5
Location = 4.2 / 5
Service = 4.5 / 5
Overall Value = 4.7 / 5
Total = 4.52 / 5
Address
TownePlace Suites, 3510 E Kansas Ave, Garden City, KS 67846
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