Candlewood Suites is such a wonderful and comfortable hotel. Bakery right next door. Easy access to restaurants and the college. The rooms are all equipped with a full size refrigerator as well as a range and full size sink with garbage disposal! The in-house snack bar has everything you need and everything you may have forgot. Free hot coffee all day and night. Staff is extremely friendly and make you feel at home. The suite itself has a wonderful wall length desk and eating area, the beds are extreme comfortable as well. I will always stay at this hotel when I'm working in Manhattan or just coming for weekendbto see a Kstate home game.
The hotel is modern and new, with clean and comfortable rooms, and a convenient location adjacent to shopping, dining, a magnificent holiday lights display, and not too far from KSU. The pool and hot tub were plenty fine (and a delight to my two nephews and one niece staying in another room). The fitness center was spacious with good, well-maintained equipment. Normally, for these sort of ”cookie cutter” hotels, I'm happy to award 4 stars if they ”check all the boxes” (and 5 if they go ”above and beyond”). However, in a few areas, most notably the breakfast service, this hotel came up a tad short. I stayed two nights and had the complimentary breakfast on both mornings. I showed up for breakfast about 45 minutes after it opened (i.e., not 5 minutes before close), and experienced the following: (1) oatmeal almost empty one morning (I scraped the last bits out of it); totally empty the next morning (2) cinnamon rolls cold one morning; out the next morning (3) scrambled eggs down to a few unappetizing ”crumbs” one morning and the next morning were replaced by some pre-fab ”omelets” (both egg serving trays were allocated to ”omelets” that morning) (4) pancake machine out of batter one morning. HI Express's cinnamon rolls are an emblem of their brand; the breakfast area attendant should be monitoring them and replenishing when necessary. And it was not like it was especially busy; the breakfast area seats were perhaps 25-30% occupied. ALSO: they ran out of pool towels. And, it seemed like every time I walked past the front lobby, the front desk was unattended. I know desk attendants might need to leave the desk now and then, but it seems like a hotel should strive to keep the desk staffed except during the wee hours. I am fairly loyal to the HI Express brand. One reason for that loyalty is that its complimentary breakfasts are a cut above those of their competitors in the mid-tier lodging category; it's an area of differentiation in a category where differentiation is difficult to achieve. I would therefore suggest that all HI Express locations try to be diligent in keeping their breakfast experience positive. Yeah, once in a while, one item will run out or run low. But it should not be almost every warm item.
My experience was very good. The hotel is being totally renovated and will be completed in October. The halls smelled fresh and clean and everything in common areas was clean and in good condition. My room was clean and also in good condition. The couch and drapes, wallpaper and paint looked so good, I thought it had been remodeled, but they told me it hasn't been, yet. Bed was comfortable and internet and A/C both worked well.