Great facility, pretty good staff

I think this Westin is a lovely place to stay for the quality of the building, the room, the bathroom, the bed, the bedding, and the location.
There is a good, grassy park just a couple of blocks away, and patches here and there even closer for your dog to find relief.
There is a bar in the lobby with good cocktails and live music.
The location is fun - next to Beale St for dive bars and food options. Right next to the FedEx sports arena.
The staff were fine - bad for food recommendations (avoid the tourist trap Central BBQ they suggested - bleh!). The breakfast in house at their restaurant is expense account okay but adequate and vastly overpriced otherwise. Think for chicken and waffles over browned dry waffles and chicken tenders pulled out of a freezer bag full of premade ones, yet a $20 price tag.
Like the rest of Memphis, there is a little lazy cynicism going on that “the tourists will come and buy no matter what, and they don’t know any better so don’t put your heart into making the good stuff for them” kind of way.
New Orleans fell into that kind of cynicism for a while in the 80’s and 90’s and then they had that glorious food and hospitality renaissance. Hopefully Memphis experiences a similar positive uprising.
But until that change happens, for my money - I’m going to keep driving to Nashville where there is more pride and love going in to the food, drink, and hospitality at the moment.
Memphis does have great beer, though: Tiny Bomb is outstandingly delicious!

Jun. 23, 2023

Paws Up

This is a great place to stay - I can see why its ratings are high. The rooms were newly remodeled with fresh fittings and a comfortable bed. Excellent lighting. The lobby has a lot of charm. The onsite pub may not have the healthiest food, but it is scratch made and tasty. Their Irish pot roast was the winner. It is close to the highway, but safe and quiet. Nice staff. Plenty of parking. Lots of grass to walk your dog around until they attend to their business. I wouldn’t want to pay a fortune for it, but this is a place I’d happily stay at again. It was full of booking.

Jun. 23, 2023

Nicely staffed and well run hotel

Hyatt Place Downtown Nashville was exactly what we expected from the brand and “Hyatt Place” label leaves designation level. The room was clean, comfortable, and spacious. There is no exciting chic boutique vibe, but the beds were good with pleasant pillows, the breakfast was fine with good coffee, the bathroom had an excellent shower, the staff were pleasant, our dog was absolutely allowed, and there are loads of good restaurant options nearby. You can self park or valet park in their garage. Self park with unlimited in and out is $49/night. Valet is a bit more.

The garage has three levels and the elevators for it are the same as the ones to get you to your rooms. You need to use your room key card for access. The room key card would not open the parking gate for in or out: we had to hit the Call button to get the nice valets to run over and open it for us. They apologized and said the gate seems to be having issues. The workaround for the way in is to just pull a parking paper ticket to get in but use the call ticket to get out.

I would totally stay here again except there is a huge homeless issue in downtown Nashville, and the hotel is in an area full of them. There is hardly any good places for dogs to go to the bathroom downtown, and any grassy/mulch area is in demand by the homeless for their own rest or relief. It feels a bit unhappy and unsafe. Most of those guys are fine, but a few are menacingly unhinged by drugs, mental health issues, etc exacerbated by the difficult conditions they endure. Our dog refused to go #2 there the entire 48 hours of our stay. We kept circling the many blocks trying to find patches which would pass her smell test. She was pretty much just shaking her head “no.”

Tip: if you go out the back exit of the lobby floor and cross the street behind the hotel into the car pull in area for the Hampton Inn behind the Hilton you’ll find the closest, safest, and best quick pet relief patches. There is a long mulch strip along the drive. And a sort of grassy/rose bushes and shrubs spot along a bit further which our dog decides was the best place.

My best tip: Merchants is a fabulous restaurant less than a 10 min walk from the Hyatt which is on a Broadway corner. The more casual downstairs has a wonderful tea marinated pork chop, good cocktails and a delicious Pilsner from Memphis called Tiny Bomb. Their duck fat tater tots are excellent. They also have an upstairs elegant steakhouse that looks top notch. Reservations are a good idea for either but we managed an early hours call ahead and walk-in.

Ella’s on 2nd is also very nice, with a fantastic apple and fennel salad. I could eat that salad every week! Probably for my next Nashville stay with a dog, I might try staying a bit further out like in the hip but close in 12 South neighborhood. Or like somewhere especially closer to Vanderbilt and the Hillsboro Village quaint restaurant and shopping strip. My usual MO is to stay in the heart of things and walk everywhere. But the heat and the homeless of summer downtown Nashville took some of the joy out of that.

Jun. 16, 2022

Normally 5 bones

I absolutely love the Hanover Inn, and I will always try to stay there when visiting Dartmouth. I rated them a 5 last year after our stay in 2021. I have a "why" and a "but" regarding this to offer pet travelers.
Why do I love it? They are both dog and people friendly. The location is perfect off of Dartmouth's Green, right in the heart of the campus life. It is the ideal hotel facility for its clientele, the right mix of lovely but not ostentatiously perfect. Their Pines Restaurant is expensive, but the food and drink are excellent and the service is beyond exemplary. All of the staff there is friendly and sweet. There is a very handy self serve coffee station ready for guests in the morning. The beds are comfortable, the rooms are quiet, and the bathrooms are appealing.

My disappointment with this year's visit is hopefully just a side effect of the COVID travel ramp up surge, a moment in which so many hotels and restaurants have had staffing issues. Hospitality has been stretched too thin on personal during the sudden slam of high demand. We checked in to our carefully pre-booked, dog friendly room with our well behaved and freshly shampooed Australian labradoodle. My husband and I have mild dog allergies plus we really don't like intense dog smell, so we chose that breed and we keep her very clean. As soon as we opened the door a greasy reek hit of dog stink, combined with a touch of cigarette smoke. It was gross to the point I had trouble sleeping that night, it was the kind of smell that is intense enough to taste.

The Hanover Inn is deservedly hugely popular; and so every room was booked. There would be no room switch for us. The cleaning staff should have taken the time to steam clean that room or whatever they do when a guest has fouled the room. That is what those pet fees we pay are for, so they it covers the extra time and effort the staff needs to put in for a deep clean now and then. I don't like to whine, but we let the front desk know about the smell and asked if there was a remedy. I felt sheepish complaining about dog smell when I have a dog, I do know how ridiculous my complaint could sound to someone else. But, this was some serious reek. They sent up the housekeeping head, a nice enough man. He set us up with an ozone generator and a spray bottle of deodorant. I went to town pumping the nozzle and it got a little better, but the improvement went only so far.

Anyway, once things settle down and they staff back up enough in the housekeeping department, I hope the Hanover Inn gets more diligent. It is too good of a hotel to let things like that slide. If I stay there again, and if I got stuck with a room in that condition again, I would be pretty upset, and that would be my last stay at the Hanover Inn.

Oct. 08, 2022

In the middle of a remodel

I try to find us nice places to stay that allow dogs, places with character and excellent locations.
The line of Graduate hotels and the line of Kimpton hotels are both excellent for that. I very much like this Graduate. Athens, GA is an even cooler town than I hoped it would be. It is full of historic character and creative individualistic businesses. As per usual with Graduates, this hotel in in walking distance to the University and to tons of places to eat and drink. Also in line with the Graduate way, the rooms are decorated with a sense of humor and style that is charming and engaging.

But this property is what was called a motor court motel. The Graduate was in the process of renovating in as we were there in August of 2022, converting it into a full on Graduate experience.
I believe this means our room was newly redone. It looked visually great - less upscale than other Graduates we've stayed at like in New Haven, Philadelphia, and in Chapel Hill, but very creative and fun.
It is great that they allow dogs. But they need to keep up the cleaning in those rooms. For a newly redone room, our room already had that doggy stink which we've never experienced in Kimpton or in the other Graduates. And it they aren't going to be careful about odor control and cleaning, the remodel designer should seriously consider leaving the dog friendly rooms with exposed concrete floors which they could seal.

You have to pay for the privilege of staying with a dog, presumably because that creates a contingency fund for extra room cleaning effort. Housekeeping needs to keep up with that. So heads up if you are smell sensitive. And just know also that this is a fun redo over the skeleton of a motor court motel. They need to set their prices accordingly. FYI you'll be charged for parking, the pet fee, and all things like coffee, breakfast, are a la carte add ons. The check-in/coffee and breakfast lounge area is stunning design, full of exposed brick and vibrant colors: very cool.

Oct. 08, 2022

Hip Hotel, Friendly Staff, Perfect Location

The Kimpton Monaco is now my favorite dog friendly boutique style hotel. I also love the Kimpton Nine Zero in Boston, and the Graduate New Haven for similar reasons, but this Kimpton by Independence Hall in Philadelphia is now my favorite.
The decor is stunning. You can self park in a nearby parking garage for less than $30 a night with unlimited in/outs, the neighborhood is packed with great food options like Spasso Italian grill with its fabulous veal porcini, Ishkabibble’s II for excellent cheesesteak; loads of museums close in, but importantly for travelers with dogs: the Monaco is in a safe neighborhood full of lovely green parks to walk your dog. There several right across the street from the hotel entrance.
The staff are genuinely welcoming to guests and well behaved dogs. The Red Owl cafe in house has great food and a full bar. The hotel has a complimentary wine happy hour which guests seem to love and appreciate since the lobby lounge area to sit and talk is so charming, and there is coffee included with your stay in the same spot in the morning.
The cleaning staff keep the rooms mint and fresh, no doggy smells from former guests and everything was immaculately clean.
I love, love, love this hotel and look forward to staying here again!

Aug. 15, 2022

Wonderful location

This AC Hotel delivers on being well situated, extremely well thought out in design, with ideal scale rooms full of great lighting, all the plugs and USB ports wherever needed and excellent showers in the bathrooms. Every floor has a water bottle refill station. The lobby has a spa ice water in the afternoon/coffee in the morning station. The staff were nice and lovely green lawn is right across the street for dogs to be able to go.

The rooms use luxury vinyl planking so there won’t be creepy dog stains/smells if some guests are not as considerate as they should be. We loved staying here with our Australian Labradoodle. The AC was full of business guests, friendly corporate types and some families like us. It is a 5 minute walk from the Green Elephant, a fabulous pan Asian restaurant that happens to be vegetarian but so good it is great for meat eaters anyway.

It is also a 10 minute walk from Cure, and Moxy: more excellent restaurants. Basically, the AC is within 10 minutes walking from the heart of historic Portsmouth. And, valet parking is $40/night, but there is the Founder’s Place Parking Garage which is new, well lit, super secure, and only $1/hr to park in which you can walk to from the hotel in less than 10 minutes. So park there if the idea of expensive valet parking bothers you.

Jul. 29, 2022

Stylish, dog friendly, and right by Yale

I would stay at then Graduate New Haven again in a heartbeat. My family and I loved the playful decor. They were genuinely welcoming to our well behaved dog. There are lots of wonderful restaurant options within a short walking distance—particularly on College St. And Yale is as close as can be to the Graduate. Breakfast is not included but there are coffee and pastry options on the ground floor in the mornings for purchase. The beds are comfortable and the bathroom is spacious enough and immaculate. There is a self parking, secure parking garage right around the corner from the hotel which runs about $10 per overnight stay. The garage elevator will take you down to an exit only pedestrian gate which opens onto a pathway which walks you directly to the sidewalk right across from the hotel’s entrance. It was very convenient. Great choice for dog folks, Yale visitors, and boutique hotel enthusiasts!

Jul. 07, 2022

Great for the price

This Aloft is right at the Airport, but less than a 20 minute drive from downtown Buffalo, so visitors from out of town can get their wings pilgrimage in to Gabriel’s Gate or one of the other classic wings joints like the Anchor quite easily. It is an Aloft, so if you’ve stayed at one you know what you will get. The room will be sleek and modern in style and cleverly designed to get the maximum of usage capability out of every square inch.

The careful plan yields an excellent and highly workable bathroom/closet area, very functional desk/work area, and enough bedroom floor space to not feel cramped. The beds use all washable coverings and are comfortable. The lobby has cocktail and food zones plus an entertainment area with pool tables, and I think there was an indoor pool. There are plenty of grass areas outside for your dog to relieve themselves easily, with waste bags and a repository to clean up the results.
The staff were nice, and laid back.

The only off putting bits about our stay was the clientele were a little crass. Our room had clearly been recently occupied by a smoker who stank up the room even though the hotel is non-smoking. They’d done their best shy of a total steam clean, masking the smell with whatever heavy duty products they deploy, but it was still a little unpleasant and really needed a shampoo/steaming.

And then a peewee boys’ hockey team had clearly booked the hotel for the night. A bunch of rowdy tiny guys with mullets were rampaging all over the lobby and the halls while their families hit the lobby bar for stress management. It was a little bit hilarious and also a little bit annoying/exhausting. Oh well, we managed to sleep and it is not like having someone be a jerk and smoke in their room, or having a bunch of hypered up mini ice jockeys come in for a stay was the Aloft’s fault. I still think this hotel is a decent balance of comfort for value, and it is certainly very suitable for a decent place to stay while traveling with a dog.

Jul. 07, 2022

Great room, dog friendly, excellent location, nice staff

I would stay at the Revere again. They were very nice, the garage was right there where you can pull in, and it had switched to self park because of the rise of COVID cases, which frankly was more convenient for us because we had an SUV full of cross country road trip luggage, along with our labradoodle, to load and unload. The people working there were helpful and friendly. The beds were comfortable, the decor hip, and the bathroom was fantastic. The room did lack a refrigerator. If the Kimpton Nine Zero had been the same price, or within $50, I would choose it over the Revere for the larger room, even nicer decor, refrigerator, equally or even more dog friendly accommodation. I feel like both are similar with the Kimpton getting the superior edge, and both are right off of the Boston Common. Still, the Revere: an excellent choice.

Aug. 07, 2021

Charming building in a great location for Winston-Salem

This building the Cardinal is in is amazing! It is the former RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company Headquarters, and so it is a gorgeous art deco luxe skyscaper office building downtown transformed into a charming boutique style hotel. The staff were nice, the room was well appointed and designed, with a mini fridge etc. We loved the bathroom. BUT: the beds were only pretty good for comfort, and the pillows were sad lumps of foam rubber. For the cost, they could do better. I've stayed at two other Kimpton, and the beds/pillows were better. [and sure: I am a bit of a picky sleeper. Still, I really enjoyed my brief one night stay here. And they were dog friendly, which was lovely for us as we were road tripping with our labradoodle.

The bar in the lobby looked like a fabulous place for a drink, and the neighborhood downtown had a happy upscale urban renewal feel to it. We got dinner to go from Milner's Southern American. Decent she crab soup, a good salad, good rolls, excellent with with pretty good but not exceptional fried chicken. I overall highly recommend Milner's for a close (8 min drive away) good pandemic friendly takeout experience with regional food flare. We also got their "good quality" 6 packs of beers to go, which made sleeping on those sad foam rubber lumps of pillows much easier. I would 5 star this Kimpton Cardinal even if they just upgrade those pillows, if not also those firm mattresses which could stand a topper add on.

Aug. 07, 2021

I may never stay at a different hotel in Boston

This Kimpton ruled for location and for its beautifully designed room, which was a pleasure to stay in. They were genuinely dog friendly. We could walk right to the Boston Common, and to the North End for delicious food. I loved the style of this hotel, with its comfortable beds and the price seemed pretty fair for the quality. The desk staff were all really sweet, too. I look forward to staying here again!

Jun. 30, 2021

Convenient location, highly functional concept hotel, dog friendly

This Aloft was a solid place to stay with our dog. We walked her around by the water. The corner room we booked was clean, highly functional, and worked well for us. This is located within a Syracuse urban renewal project, which is overall not totally completed, but it is going in a great direction. We’d driven, and so we could run out to grab wine from a great nearby Liquor Warehouse which had very decent choices. Then we ordered pizza to pick up from the very nearby Apizza Regionale which was some of the very best pizza I have ever had in America - I’d describe it as artisanal Italian style. It was fabulous. Their chocolate hazelnut budino dessert was also stunning. Yum! Maybe I wouldn’t walk to those places, since the neighborhood transformation from sketchy to superb is not complete yet. If you didn’t drive, see if Aloft will have their shuttle driver take you where you want to go.

Jun. 30, 2021

Fabulous hotel in one of America’s most charming cities

If you haven’t been to Savannah: go! Walk around the historic center, eat she-crab soup at Chive or a more traditional Savannah mainstay (the Olde Pink House springs to mind), and have a wonderful time. The Mansion on Forsyth Park is hip, creative, comfortable, well run and well maintained, and it’s location right on Forsyth Park makes it super convenient for travelers with well behaved dogs. Bonus: sigh up for an Oliver Bentley’s dog walking history tour to wear out your pup, get exercise for yourself, while learning some Savannah history.

Jun. 30, 2021