Spending the weekend in Lansing. Had a very good stay. Especially enjoyed the breakfast. Room and facility was clean. Bed was very comfortable. Liked the location. Didn't use the pool but others were enjoying it
The Crowne Plaza is a late 1970s/early 1980s hotel that needs extensive renovation. Hallways, ceilings, windows, doors, fixtures, the bathrooms, etc. All feel original to the hotel's construction. The lobby feels recently renovated but the decor is a weird mix of styles and color schemes. Nothing really fits together. There's certainly no theme. This is especially obvious in the hotel's bar and restaurant, Bordeaux. With a name like Bordeaux, you expect a French-themed bar and restaurant. Half the wall art are black-and-white photos of London, England. The rest are an assorted mix, including reproductions of French-looking art. There's no club lounge, the parking is self-parking in an uncovered parking lot, I didn't see a bellman or doorman to assist with luggage, and no newspapers were anywhere to be found. There was no hotel directory in the room nor any laundry bags. Room service doesn't seem to be offered either. The gym is spacious and well-equipped, but it is not open 24/7. That's a little unusual. I booked a king premium room, which is one of the hotel's higher categories. My first room had hair on and under the toilet seat and mold or mildew in the bathtub. The front desk moved me to a new room and gave me a $20 credit for dinner. The second room also had hair on and under the toilet seat. The windows in both rooms look like they have haven't been cleaned for years. Mold, dust, debris -- you name it. Just disgusting. The third room, the two-room presidential suite numbered 534, was cleaner but still very dated and not terribly well-designed. For example, the door that separated the bedroom and bathroom from the living room closed and locked me out from the other half of the suite. There's no door stopper and no way to unlock that door when the suite is being used as a two-room presidential suite. The closet is in the living room and not the bedroom. They have special bedding for the bed, including at least five or six decorative pillows. But when you remove the decorative pillows, you're left with just two normal pillows to sleep with. There's no mini-fridge nor any bottled of waters provided. The vending machines have been removed and there's no club lounge. The hotel doesn't provide soap in guest rooms, not even in the presidential suite. Instead, you get a wall-mounted dispenser containing hand wash. The dispenser isn't tamper-proof and may or may not be full. In my case, the first two rooms had empty or half-empty dispensers. No dental kit, mouthwash, shoe mint, etc. are provided. A robe was in the closet, but no slippers. These issues aside, two things that stood out about this hotel were the staff and the food. Both of my meals (breakfast and dinner) were very good to excellent. The dinner menu is pretty extensive with something for everyone. Despite being called Bordeaux, the restaurant doesn't have French food. The breakfast menu was significantly more limited, but the food was equally as good. All of the staff