Categories: TRAVEL

A Week at the InTown Suites in Charlotte, North Carolina

Recently, my best friend and I spent a week in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area for the NASCAR race. This wasn’t our first trip to the area; we knew there was a lot to see and do in the week between the All-Star Race and the circuit’s longest race, the Coca-Cola 600. As this race occurs on Memorial Day weekend, motel rates can be astronomical. Rooms can go for nearly double their regular rate during this week. Knowing that we would be in town for 7 days we needed to find a motel that would charge us as little as possible. We decided on the InTown Suites located on Rocky River Road West in the University Area of Charlotte.

The InTown Suites is an extended stay motel which requires guests to book one week at a time. You can’t just say for one day, you have to stay for a whole week. The rates are inexpensive for the week with rooms starting at $189.00 for a standard one bed studio. Reservations can be made online or via phone and do not require a credit card like most motels do when booking a room. I chose to make our reservation via phone and in a matter of minutes I had a room that would be waiting when we arrived in the city.

We arrived at the InTown Suites on Rocky River Road West at approximately 6:30pm. I was greeted by the general manager of the location who told me that I could choose from two rooms. I was given a key that would allow me into both rooms. Both rooms were identical and the only difference was their location in relation to the elevator. Since we were in town during a busy week and we were given a room on the third floor we received a $10 discount making our room only $179.00 for the full week. Additionally we had to pay a $50.00 deposit which would be refunded at the end of the week and any applicable taxes.

Due to the layout of the motel we were unable to park in front of our room which was a little bit of an annoyance. The elevator made it easy to get our things into our room. The standard room is set up similarly to a studio apartment with a small kitchenette. The kitchenette includes a smaller version of the average refrigerator and freezer combo, sink, cabinets, and two burner stove. The bath area is what you would find in your usually motel however instead of having a shower/tub combo the bath only included a shower though it was larger than most shower/tub combos. The bed area has your standard queen size bed with a small night stand and television setting on a small dresser. Also in the room was a small table with two chairs. It was a tight fit but we were able to set up an air mattress for one of us to sleep on.

As I mentioned before the InTown Suites are not like most motels. At InTown Suites the office is only open from 11am to 7pm Monday through Saturday. They are closed at all other times which means if you arrive during a time other than the scheduled office hours you won’t be able to get a room. In the event that you get locked out of your room they have a person on site that takes care of after hours issues. Additionally housekeeping only comes to your room once a week to do their routine cleaning. All and all it’s like living in an apartment complex.

Pros

Our stay at the InTown Suites in Charlotte, NC lasted for one week and in that week we had the chance to see several different aspects of how this location of the national chain works. For the most part we were satisfied with the room. There weren’t bugs and the room was very clean when we arrived. The air conditioning unit worked well and kept the small room at a comfortable temperature. Since we were in a corner room away from the main flow of foot traffic the noise was a minimum which is something you very rarely find in a motel in a large city.

Cons

While we did not have any complaints about the room itself the staff was less than what I would have hoped for. Having worked in customer service for several years I am one of those people who believe that if you work an industry where you have lots of contact with people you should have the personality to go with it. I have to say that I didn’t feel at all welcomed by the staff. The man who checked me in and out was wearing a nametag that said he was the manager but he wasn’t overly friendly.

One night we returned to our room at about 10pm to find that our key would not work. After going to the office and getting the number for the courtesy officer we called the number. Of course no one was there to answer the call which was really frustrating. After driving around for a while we returned to the motel to find that the courtesy officer was just returning from across the highway. Upon confronting him about not being able to get in our room he allowed us to get back in our room. Unfortunately his demeanor was not very nice. When I complained that we were upset about not being able to get in touch with him immediately, he rudely told me that he had two hours to respond to our call. I guess they forgot to include that in information packet I was given when we checked in. I’m glad the building wasn’t on fire or someone wasn’t trying to break into our room.

Another complaint that I had with the location is that when housekeeping came in for their weekly cleaning they did not take our towels and replace them with new ones. Luckily we had gone out a few nights before and purchased some more towels since the two tiny towels they gave us were less than adequate for the week.

Overall, the stay was not bad; however, I would not want to stay in this particular location again in the future. This shouldn’t be a problem considering that there is another InTown Suites location less than a mile away from the one on Rocky River Road West.

Tips

If you are planning a stay at InTown Suites in Charlotte or any other city these tips will make your stay more enjoyable.

Bring your own pots and pans if you plan on using the kitchenette area. I never considered that they would not provide at least a basic pan for cooking.

Pack your own towels. We were always out of our room before the housekeeping staff arrived for the day and returned after they had left for the day therefore we could never get more towels for our room. The two towels they provided were smaller than most bath towels and if you are going to be there for a week you want clean towels.

Leave a note for housekeeping in your room. It would have been nice not to return to the wet towels still piled in the middle of the floor in the bathroom and to have had them replace the toilet paper. I guess we should have left a note requesting this be taken care of.

heck with the desk when you check in to see how long the courtesy officer has to respond to your calls. It would have been great to know that they had 2 hours to get back to us. It might have saved a lot of frustration and anger.