We stayed at Embassy Suites by Hilton (Pittsburgh), the furthest of the 4 hotels as the others were all booked by the time we looked for accomodation. Reception was on floor 25. I think it’s a US thing for the floors to start at 1. Ground floor is the first floor.
You are given an electronic card as key, which allows access to residential floors. The staff is very approachable, the location great and amenities good. Breakfast is given free, complimentary it’s called. The building is also very stylish as it was a bank previously.
The only problem is the $75 USD/day in addition to the price per night. This is if you need to take dinner or snacks available or some other services. It is refunded if you don’t use those services. But, it’s a surprise that you have to disburse on arrival. The actual price was also different from the booking price, from ~$205 to $251/night. Not a great experience on this side.
We went to a small room the first day with a sofa that could be transformed into a bed. Next day we were upgraded to another room with two queen beds and one sofa-bed for the same price as we booked two reservations. The conference venue was within walking distance. Google Maps is not too optimized for walking venues and we discovered shortcuts over time.
For the sprints, I stayed at an AirBnB ‘hotel’. This was a building with many floors and rooms run by the same host. You are given access to the main gate and door lock code at check-in. Wifi, laundry, and dryer were available.
When I first entered, the bed was in a mess and the washing machine door would not open. They moved me to another room, which was better, bigger even with iron which was non-existent in the first room. The host was very responsive but not a great experience in terms of repacking and moving around. They wanted to move me to yet another room until I told them about my early flight.
At the hotel, even the lift was nice as it was noiseless and fast with nice damping on arrival. You get what you pay for sure, but next time it’s going to be an AirBnB most probably as hotels charge more than they ask you for. The AirBnB’s decor was also nice though.