Home2 Suites By Hilton St. Louis Forest Park

“Newer hotel in a redeveloping residential neighborhood”

Two night stay in St. Louis. Selected this hotel since most of what we wanted to see was in nearby Forest Park. It has convenient access to main highways and streets but you should plan on driving to everything. Definitely away from downtown St. Louis and the Gateway Arch and Ballpark. Hotel… more

Two night stay in St. Louis. Selected this hotel since most of what we wanted to see was in nearby Forest Park. It has convenient access to main highways and streets but you should plan on driving to everything. Definitely away from downtown St. Louis and the Gateway Arch and Ballpark. Hotel is obviously fairly new. Room was clean with comfortable bed. Outside free parking lot. Breakfast bar included. Staff was friendly. It is an extended stay hotel and is nearby major hospitals. We found the location quiet.

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“This should be your first choice if you are visiting at Barnes Jewish”

But you need to read this so your five star stay doesn’t become a two star one. Here is how to manage your expectations. Pros: 1. Large comfortable hotel rooms, including suites. So far as I could tell the sofas were all sleeper sofas as well. We had a full kitchen with dishes, eating utensils… more

But you need to read this so your five star stay doesn’t become a two star one. Here is how to manage your expectations. Pros: 1. Large comfortable hotel rooms, including suites. So far as I could tell the sofas were all sleeper sofas as well. We had a full kitchen with dishes, eating utensils, microwave, full fridge/freezer, and dishwasher. Sign also says that you can borrow a cooktop and skillet free of charge, but we didn’t try it. Suites had separate controls for temperature for each room. You do have to share a bathroom as there were no two bathroom units. 2. There is an area for snacks, drinks, and even some prepared meals for purchase. 3. Indoor pool, gym includes, treadmill, bicycle, nautilus type equipment and some free weights. 4. Onsite coin operated washer and dryer. The washer and dryer both operate for $0.50 and the front desk can change cash for quarters. You do have to come up with your own laundry detergent though. 5. Distance from the Barnes Jewish Hospital is 0.3 miles and is a very feasible and safe walk with sidewalks the whole way. Or you can take the free shuttle to any of the area hospitals within a 3 mile radius of the hotel. Shuttle seats 4-6 people and also delivers and picks up to restaurants and stores within 3 miles. This included the Fabulous Fox theater. Weekdays the shuttle started at 0600 and ends at a sort of nebulous time of about 9:30 PM. Weekend schedules were less certain. As best as I could tell, official start time is at noon but if they can find a driver earlier than that, you can still get a ride. You don’t book anything in advance. When you get to the lobby, ask the front desk to call the shuttle driver. If you are out and need to be picked up, call the hotel number, listen to the recording, stay on the line, and then ask the front desk to send the driver. There is only one shuttle and driver at any time, so you may have to wait for it to complete another trip and you should give yourself extra time. Although the shuttle area doesn’t include the airport, there is a Metrolink that could take you to the Central West End stop next to Barnes Jewish Hospital. I don’t know if they would pick you up from the station if you’re not already a guest, but I do know that they can deliver you to that station to go to the airport to fly out. 6. Hot breakfast buffet included from 0630-0930 weekdays and until 1000 on weekends. Breakfast choices included some combination of cold cereal, hot oatmeal or grits, biscuits, rolls, eggs (disc shaped for making a breakfast sandwich), sausage patties, bacon, spinach and egg pastries, chicken strips, potato puffs, waffle maker with lots of nut and fruit toppings, yogurt, milk, coffee, tea, and juices. Best thing about the breakfast buffet is that you don’t have to coordinate your waking or breakfast times that way. 7. There is a hospital rate, at least for Barnes Jewish, of $145. There may be similar rates for the other hospitals. Importantly, you have to know this and request it. They don’t offer it, even if they know you are taking the shuttle to the hospital every day, and at least one desk person told me that it could not be retroactively applied to the previous days of my stay. However, the general manager did make the adjustments. 8. Staff generally is friendly though not necessarily proactive in problem-solving. Outstanding staff members at the breakfast buffet were Michael Walker and a new worker, Connie, who started during my stay. Both were exceptionally hard working and made sure to keep the breakfast area supplied and tidy. 9. Onsite parking is free. The main part of the parking area is behind a gate, however, the area is still accessible without a room card. Here is where you have to manage your expectations: 1. Housekeeping happens every other day. This includes making the bed, emptying trash, and resupplying towels. However, it’s inconsistent, sometimes trash doesn’t get emptied and recycling rarely got emptied even if the room was otherwise serviced. In three weeks, the room never got vacuumed. One thing we did learn is that if you have your Do Not Disturb tag on your door when the housekeepers come through to assign rooms to be cleaned, your room will be struck off the list and won’t be cleaned at any time that day. So I quit using the Do Not Disturb tag and just double bolted my door at night. Cleaning didn’t seem to start before 0900 anyway. If you do miss your cleaning, you’ll have to go to the front desk for towels or amenities. The housekeepers never checked the levels of shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel, so you will get your supplies from the front desk as well, and you’ll have to carry them to your room, then dump what you don’t want outside your door (so sometimes the hallway does have kind of a trashy look). 2. There were a couple of times that the phones were not set up to pick up with the recording. On those occasions, one time we happened to see the shuttle driving by and managed to flag it down. The other times we elected to just walk back from the hospital. 3. Although it got better during the course of our stay, especially when Connie started, the breakfast area could be haphazardly supplied early on. This meant that on a busy weekend morning, there would be no utensils, plates, or bowls and the milk and yogurt fridge could be completely empty. We learned to stash our own milk and yogurt the day before and if you’re in a real hurry, you might have to bring your own dinnerware and utensils from your room. There was at least one time that guests started taking the milk out of the paid amenities fridge because there was none in the buffet area. Be prompt about arriving for breakfast on time. There is no grace period and they close at 0930 on the dot. They didn’t go so far as to unplug a waffle if it was already in the iron, but they do pull the curtain across the food area on time. The latest I ever saw it close was about four minutes late. So don’t wander down fifteen minutes late. 4. If you have any room requests, you have to call the hotel to ensure it. So booking a certain type room online, or booking adjoining rooms won’t be honored, even if you booked it that way online on the hotel’s website. 5. There is only one bank of elevators at one end of the hotel. There are four floors. If you have impairments with mobility and you can’t walk a hundred paces to the other end of the hall, avoid rooms with low numbers (like 301 or 302). Rooms closest to the elevator were rooms like 328 to 332. 6. When you book your room, book for the absolute maximum number of rooms you might need. You can cancel any portion of a reservation that you don’t need, but I made the mistake of extending my reservation piecemeal each time a setback occurred at the hospital. While I was able to keep my room, what did happen every time would be that the key would be deactivated and the room would get struck off the cleaning list again, even if I particularly requested to have it serviced on its usual scheduled day.

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