Residence Inn St. Paul Woodbury

We had booked our hotel after driving 14 hours to just stay the night. We pulled up at 10 to check in and had bags in hand with my three kids walked In first. The lady at the front desk I didn’t catch her name but it was July 15. She didn’t acknowledge me looked my at and turned her head. There wasn’t water available like a lot of hotels and I did t bother to ask because I knew what this was. My husband walked in after me and tried to check in she proceeded to tell us they were booked when we booked our room. We sat down to call the hot line and figure it out. We sat maybe thirty minutes with out this lady asking can I help, I’m sorry, can I get the kids water something. Again. I knew what this was she was racially profiling. She came over at one point and handed my husband a paper telling him to stop trying to check in and her computer is letting her know so he needs to call the hotline. The man on the phone was very nice and helped us. But the lady at the desk needs to be spoken to about customer service and needs to go back to training 101. I have never written one of these and she made me that uncomfortable for me to want to just want to wait in the car until we found a room.

We have been going to this hotel almost monthly for over 2 years and have used it every 6 months since it opened. Sadly it is not our go to place anymore as there has been a change in management that has been a definite downgrade. The hotel is also getting worn out and the beds uncomfortable. We have chosen to look elsewhere since our last visit over Thanksgiving. I wish it wasn’t so but life does change.

Recently stayed here due to a surgery and could not have asked for better service on the front end. Now getting to breakfast on time was an issue for me and when they say they are closing it is a done deal! They close with no exceptions! I have to admit I have had better breakfasts at other Residence Inns, that being said, I was NOT there for the breakfast and my recovery was the important part of the stay.

This is a long stay hotel. As such, there’re some expectations that guests in other hotels are willing to overlook but significant for long stay guests. First, the good. It’s clean, which is important. It’s got a kitchen with dishes and pans, plus a large frig. That’s obviously helpful for long stay guest. It’s got a pool, which is nice. Breakfast is the typical fair, with hot items, again good. However, a few shortcomings. One minor, two pretty serious. The minor is the lack of an oven. The other two is the lack of snow plowing and poor internet service. When I checked in, I noticed the parking lot was full of snow. This is something like 3 days since the last storm! They haven’t bothered to plow the parking lot at all. At breakfast, I overheard two other guests complaining about the slow internet and unable to upload/download files. But I was to only experience it later. From my window, I could clearly see the parking lot of this hotel was a mess. Parking spots full of snow. No section of the parking was cleared of snow even if I were willing to walk a bit. I took a couple of photos showing the difference between this hotel and its neighboring sister hotel, the Courtyard by Marriott, which had completely cleared most of their lot’s parking spots. But not surprisingly, I couldn’t upload the photos for this review due to the poor internet service

We stayed here for a couple days so we could visit my husband's mom who lives in the area. When we first arrived in the parking lot, it was hard to tell which door was the front door and it was snowing and my husband was in a wheelchair so we took a chance on one and fortunately, it happened to be the right one, otherwise I would have had to load my husband back up into the car and drive around. A sign that indicates that it's the front door would be helpful as it's not obvious from the outside. Once inside, there was a sign at the front desk stating that they were helping another guest and would be back soon. That was strange because I could see a woman at a computer in the back room. We waited for a while because I thought that maybe she didn't work at the front desk. Finally I decided to call "Hello" into the back room and she came out. She was very friendly and gave us keys to our room. When we arrived at our room, the first thing my husband noticed was no grab bar near the toilet. We have never stayed at a hotel that didn't have a grab bar near the toilet. We choose not to stay in "handicapped accessible rooms" when we travel because we have yet to find one that was actually designed with a disabled individual in mind and they are more often than not, harder to navigate than a regular room. I called the desk about this and the woman offered to move us to a handicapped accessible room. We packed up and headed back downstairs. Got the key to the new room and went back up. The room key didn't work so we have to go back down to the desk (mind you at this point, I've driven for over 5 hours, I'm tired and I have to push my husband in his wheelchair). The woman does whatever magic they do with keys and hands it back, so we head back upstairs for the third time. Try the key in the door and again it won't work. The woman at the desk decides she's going to try with a master key so we head back up with her and again the room will not unlock. So now, we're stuck and have to stay in the original suite. So we grab our things and head back up. Having been a hotel housekeep many, many years ago, I am very picky about the cleanliness of a hotel room and this one was clean. The glasses in the cabinet looked like they had just been wiped since the last use so I immediately washed all the dishes just to make sure they were clean. As I was unloading the car, the front desk clerk went up to the room and gave my husband a toilet riser with handles which was very helpful and a nice surprise. What wasn't such a nice surprise was when I turned it over and saw that it hadn't been cleaned since it's previous use and it had some pretty heavy use. There was dried urine and feces on it. I went down to the front deskk to request some cleaning and disinfecting supplies so that I could properly clean the toilet riser as there was no way we could use it as it was. She told me that they didn't have anything except dish soap. That was NOT going to cut it so I went back u

This is the very WORST hotel I have EVER stayed at. I traveled out of state for over 20 years, necessitating hotel stays every week, so I am a very good judge of what the staff of any hotel should be providing and relating with guests. The Woodbury Resident Inn's management put their staff over the needs and concerns of their guests. The staff themselves were never available. When one could be engaged they were rude and had no interest in meeting the needs of the guest. I was staying there due to my home flood. I was EVICTED! Evicted from a hotel!? The rational given "the safety and wellness of my staff members come first". What about the safety, wellness, happiness of guests. This was from 'Mikala Ness, Assistant General Manager, Residence Inn, Woodbury-St. Paul I could go on and on and on about the despicable behavior of the desk staff and assistant manager, but I think you get the message.

I have had to travel to Minnesota often over the last several months and this place has become like a second home. Friendly and caring staff, clean and spacious rooms and an excellent atmosphere. I recommend this hotel!