I recently spent one night at the Omaha West Hilton Garden Inn. It’s a fairly new three-story hotel on the outskirts of this Midwestern city. They told me it had been open for about a year.
Being a born and raised Californian, I was impressed on the journey from Eppley Field airport to the site. Lots of open spaces, friendly helpful people, and very cold air, since it was early December.
Upon reaching my destination, I entered a very homey-looking lobby. One side had a living room with a hidden plasma TV, out of sight until he walked to the corner where it was hanging. The other half had some kind of restaurant. I say “in kind” mainly due to the fact that it was used for those who chose to have breakfast there in the mornings or attend the cocktail hour and snack on Wednesday nights. Management was kind enough to have fresh pots of regular and decaf coffee and hot water with tea and packets of hot chocolate with homemade cookies available at all hours. A nice touch, especially since the outside temperature at 3pm on the day I arrived was 45 degrees. Warm for the natives, frozen for me!
The front desk staff was extremely wonderful! I asked them if they could print me the record of my return flight for the next day; a young woman took care of that task, while her companion searched my room. I thanked them for their help and went to settle in. The room was on the first floor, right next to the indoor pool and spa area. I had to be on an appointment to speak, so as I took a look around, I didn’t have enough time to enjoy it or the exercise room across the hall. There was also a guest laundry room available.
My room was a pretty good size with two queen beds, a desk, and a decent bathroom. Complete with all the necessary amenities: shampoo, lotion, soap, hair dryer. Oh, I forgot my toothbrush and saw that there was a small service room next to check-in, but the friendly staff delivered one to me at the house. My room also had a microwave and coffee maker with the right ingredients for making tea, coffee, or hot chocolate.
I did not have to take a taxi to my conference as the hotel had a shuttle service ready to take me anywhere within a five mile radius. A nice feature. Being on the outskirts of Omaha, my view was of an open field and what I could see of the open-air mall just under a mile away.
These were the advantages. There were also a couple of not so good things. One, even though this area knows the weather is going to be cold, my fairly large window seal was not good at all. I had set the temperature on my thermostat to 70, but when I sat trying to work on my speech at the desk by the window, the room was so cold that I kept wearing my coat. Later in the evening, on my return, I wanted to protect myself from the cold with a hot bath, but found that I only had warm water, at best coming out of the beak. When I called to see what could be done, the employees were very apologetic but explained that there was nothing they could do. BRRR.
Overall, the Hilton Garden Inn West was a wonderful experience. If I ever get a chance to go back I would probably want to stay there and recommend it to others.
