Hilton: Stamford Conference Center

In February, I had to go to a conference in Stamford, Connecticut.  I wrote here that I would be staying at the Stamford Hilton.

If you are driving, I don't recommend driving up to the front of hotel (pictured); instead drive down to the garage and park first. The entrance has a very tiny driveway and one can be stuck in their car waiting for someone else to move their car.

I used the conference rate and got my rooms for $115 a night. 

The lobby is large, spacious and full of light:

The lobby also provides many places to sit:

My room was on the 9th floor or the executive floor:

I was given a spacious corner two bed room:

The first thing you see when you open the door is a long hallway.

And the hallway continues:

To the right in the hallway is the bathroom. The bathroom was typical:

My luck with hotel bathrooms is not great. This one was disgusting:

                                        

 

When I arrived, I only had 15 minutes to change before a meeting. Needless to say, I stopped by the front desk and asked them to send someone up to clean.

The rest of the room was standard:

My room rate was only good for double beds, but I could have up to four people in the room at no extra charge. Why is this important? Well, my gold status with Hilton gives me free breakfast benefit and since I put down that there was three people staying in my room, I got to treat two friends with me at the conference to breakfast:

The hotel has club, but it is only open Sunday through Thursday's. The other days of the week, members with Gold Status get complementary breakfast (the buffet) in the restaurant downstairs:

There were both cold and hot options for breakfast plus an omelet station:

 

The hotel has a small gym and a pool. The gym is open 24/7, but the pool is open only from 6am to 11pm:

The gym has treadmills, elliptical, and some free weights.

 One needs to go through the gym to get to the pool:

The entire hotel had amazing photographs in the hallways:

Overall, the stay was great. This is the second time I have stayed at this hotel and each time has been great. Why would someone stay here? First, there are a ton of businesses in the area. Second, Stamford is not far from New York City via MetroNorth. Also, the Jerry Springer Show is taped down the road.

The hotel was spacious, the room was somewhat clean and my status was recognized...overall, a great stay!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Follow us on Twitter @doit4thepoints!

 Have a question for us? E-mail us at chris@doitforthepoints.com or jd@doitforthepoints.com

Got a Hotel Stay Coming Up? Double Check Your Rate!

Over the next two weekends I'm headed to Portland, OR twice, once for a guys weekend with JD and our friend Joe and the next weekend with Kelsey and my parents who will be driving down from Seattle. I'm really excited for both weekend trip and excited to explore Portland (read: eat doughnuts, drink beer and eat lots of food truck food).

For both weekend I have booked rooms at the Hilton Portland & Executive Tower. My hope is that with Hilton HHonors Gold status we will get upgraded to their Executive Tower so we can have access to the Executive Lounge as well as breakfast for all of us over the two weekends.

When I first booked the rooms they were running at over $150 per night, which isn't horrible, but I'm always up for a deal. So over the past few weekends I have been checking back to see if rates had moved and was lucky enough last weekend to see that the rate had gone down for both weekends! For this upcoming weekend it went from around $150 to $113 per night (score!) and for the next weekend it went down to $130 (still not bad).

I know it's a simple bit of advice, but checking back to see if rates have changed is something that I often forget to do and one of the main reasons that I book a refundable rate. In the end if the rate goes down you have a cheaper hotel stay, if it doesn't you still have a room booked and won't face last minute rates. So...have any upcoming stays you need to go check now?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Follow us on Twitter @doit4thepoints! Have a question for us? E-mail us at chris@doitforthepoints.com or jd@doitforthepoints.com