Gateway Hotel & Conference Center — Hotel in Ames

My wife and I were in Ames for a weekend in late April 2025. I was attending events at Iowa State -- both on the campus and at C. Y. Stephens Auditorium. We knew about the Gateway, and decided to book there. Rates were competitive, and we got a king room for a good price.||The hotel is quite lovely. There is plenty of parking, and it's near the Iowa State Center and yet out of the way of most ISU-event traffic for most major events. The grounds are quite lovely: grassy, any number of trees and bushes but still with plenty of space if you wanted to wander barefoot through the grass or just set up a blanket and take it in.||The room was delightful -- quiet, comfortable, with a nice bathroom and plenty of space. Our only complaint with the room would be the pillows. Like many hotels these days, you do not get full-size pillows -- you know, the ones everyone grew up with, and almost certainly the ones you have at home. Nope. The pillows these days are those half-size ones. If you haven't had them yet, they literally are half as wide as a normal pillow. To make up for it, you get a lot of them. On our king bed, I think we had seven. And, like so many hotel pillows these days, if you manager to stack all seven of them one on top of another, you might get one decent pillow out of it. Hotel thinking must simply be, "Well, they'll be tired, so they won't notice that there is no support whatsoever in the pillows. But we'll give them lots of these cute little pillows so they won't notice the terrible support." ||WRONG. I've never had a good "half-pillow," no matter how swanky or fancy or high-priced the hotel. Be warned. And if you're traveling by car and brought your own pillow, well, good for you.||That side, the bed was terrific. Somehow, we both got a good night's sleep, and, yes, we both used multiple "half-pillows" to try to get some support for neck and head.||The only other thing that really could be improved is the free breakfast, which is served in the on-site restaurant/bar. It was a fine breakfast, with a large chafing dish of scrambled eggs, as well as bacon, OJ, and other drinks available with wait service. The eggs were fine, except . . . it honestly looked like one giant mass of eggs. And by that, I mean, you couldn't tell whether they had scrambled one huge elephant egg, or 14 dozen chicken eggs. Did it taste fine? Yes. No complaints there. The bacon, given that central Iowa is true farm country, was . . . good but not great. Service was fine, but I got the sense it was the restaurant manager on duty and no one else. We got seated by a window both mornings we were there, so we had a lovely view. Was it a tasty breakfast? I'd give is four stars out of five -- tasted fine, but not remarkably so. ||Bottom line: this is a very fine hotel. The hallways on the floors confused both of us -- do we take these stairs, or go to/through the door at the end? But that was just a teeny negative. Everything is well marked. The decor is certainly pro-Iowa State, but not overwhelmingly and obnoxiously so. Again, plenty of parking and the grounds were lovely, and Highway 30 -- the main east-west route there, and the means to get to I-35 just a few miles east -- is no more than a minute away by car. ||We would encourage you to stay at the Gateway if you're in Ames. Again, you're close to things, but out of the way of most traffic, and the hotel really is a good hotel. There are just a few things that could...

It's been awhile since I wrote a hotel review, as really, most hotels are average. Sometimes you have an excellent above average experience and you want to note that. And then there's the below average, terrible hotels. And the Gateway is one of those. Firstly, it's way overpriced for what it is. Sure, it's got a good location. Sure, it's got the large capacity and conference center, allowing for even wedding receptions or other events. Convenience is worth something. But it's fairly dated and drab. The only modern room furnishings I noticed from the last time I stayed here when I was in college 10 yrs ago is an LED bathroom mirror. The rest of the room hasn't changed since the 80s or 90s probably. All of these notes probably only drop my review one star though, because I'm nice like that and an Iowa Stater, so I do appreciate the Gateway's collegiate ties. But, but, but. What I can't accept or forgive is the complete lack of comfort that I had while attempting to sleep here. The bed was hard as a rock and didn't provide a sliver of give to my body. Maybe it's only designed for military men used to hard cots? And even worse was the pillows. I honestly can't remember worse pillows at a hotel. They aren't even full size! When we laid down at night we actually thought they were tiny square ones! Turns out they actually are slightly rectangular but they certainly aren't full size. Have fun with your face constantly falling off them. Oh and they have zero support to them. There's "down feather soft" pilows and then there's so soft that they completely flatten. Trying to stack two of them throughout the night tossing and turning did not work. My biggest regret for this weekend will end up being that I didn't bring my own pillow from home, and perhaps an...

My husband and I were in Ames for a wedding and to celebrate my/our birthday with my twin. The Gateway was near the wedding venue as well as the Iowa State campus. We had a wonderful stay. Like many hotels now, they do not offer daily room servicing, but we are accustomed to that - gotta change with the times! There was clear notification in our room that daily room Our room was spotlessly clean, well stocked, and with a very comfortable bed and linens.||When we needed it, we had very prompt service. Our remote for the TV didn't work, and the maintenance worker was at our room in five minutes or less to exchange it. We ran out of coffee to have for our second morning, and the front desk person said they'd bring it right up, and we knew they meant it. We told them we were just going out, so we'd stop at the desk to get it. They had it ready and waiting for us. All the staff was so friendly and helpful.||Our room had been recently updated, including the bathroom, and we loved the convenience of a huge vanity with plenty of room for makeup, etc. The shower was large and elegant, unique in several way, including the ability to switch from a rain shower head to hand held. We loved the barn door effect on the bathroom.||We had dinner and breakfast in the hotel restaurant and cocktails in the bar after we returned from the wedding. Savannah, the bartender, was friendly and served us some drinks of her own design. Wait staff at both meals did an outstanding job.||Overall, we had a simply wonderful stay. Our only recommendation would be to have both elevators running, but even with just one, it was not a real inconvenience. We'll be back and highly recommend the hotel,...