Quality Inn & Suites Arden Hills - Saint Paul North — Hotel in Arden Hills

I was in town for a conference and extended my stay over Labor Day weekend to attend the MN state fair and chose Quality Inn/Arden Hills due to the location to the highways and location to the shuttle bus to the fair - less than a mile away. Check in was pleasant and they had maps for the MN State Fair shuttle bus pick up locations at the front desk, nice touch! After check in we decided to reduce our stay by 1 nite and the front desk was very cooperative in allowing the last minute change thru Hotels.com. Our King room was very clean and was smaller than average but had everything we needed. I have to say our bed was THE most comfortable bed I've ever slept in at a hotel, huge pillow top. 2 types of pillows on the bed too! It was a bit of a challenge to get into bed tho, it's very tall - I'm 5' tall. Bathroom is small, can't fit 2 people but was updated and nice. Towels are average fluff and shampoo, conditioner, make up remover wipes and lotion are provided. Our room door had issues - it wouldn't close without slamming but once reported to the front desk they said they would get it repaired once we checked out. Breakfast area is small but the 3 days we ate there, it was never crowded. They use their space very efficiently. All food items wee kept well stocked throughout breakfast. They had a decent hot breakfast w/ eggs (Sat being the best w/ veggie omelets and sausage). Lots of cereal choices, rolls/breads/sweet rolls, fruit and pancakes. My only 2 complaints about breakfast are the orange juice was on its way to going sour (on all 3 days) and the hot water for hot tea was run thru the coffee maker so it tasted like coffee (yuk!). It's nice they offer coffee after breakfast hours and a free newspaper in the AM. We did laundry while there and the laundry area was convenient but the price was not clearly noted on the machines. The small digital screen read 2.00 so we assumed that was the price. Front desk was great in cashing in our dollars for quarters. The washing machine is the water high efficiently type so hardly any water was used during the wash so I have to question how clean our clothes got. The hotel is walkable to Target, Starbucks, Trader Joes, Pancheros, a MX restaurant, a frozen yogurt place, Jimmy Johns, Wendy's, Chipotle, Five Guys burgers and a gas station is at the corner that has a car wash. Perkins next door is now closed and a new hotel is being built right next door. Over all our stay was delightful with friendly, polite staff; clean facilities; yummy free breakfast and...

First off, I booked a room here 6 months in advance for the state fair. Our plans for the weekend changed and we wanted to stay downtown Mnpls instead, but this hotel wouldn't let us cancel for free so we were stuck driving all the way downtown and had to pay for parking. |I requested a top floor AWAY from elevator room. We were given 3rd floor, but directly next to the elevator! Which made a huge clanking noise every time it was used and disrupted our sleep. I also had trouble breathing in our room, the mold/mildew smell coming from the AC was horrid! No windows open and the fan either runs constantly or not at all so then it got too hot, ugh. The bathroom is so small you can hardly turn around in it. If give the room a 5 out of 10 for cleanliness. Bed is high up but fairly comfortable. Breakfast options weren't great, cheap pastries, bagels, and some hot foods that were empty or looked dry. Another couple wouldn't let us use one of their 2 empty chairs because "they might need them" and the only open table had one chair because another family with a coughing child (not covering their mouth) took the chair for it! The first morning we had to sit next to gross coughing (no covering) men, the 2nd morning we ate in our room. No one asked how anything was when we checked out our said thank you. No housekeeping so had to use the same towels twice, yuck! Cracked my knee on the hard table corner right next to the bed when I got up in the night to try to fix the AC. Desk chair was broken and sideways. Crumbs in all the drawers. Would never stay here again...

We had a 3 night reservation at another hotel in the area but when checking in to that one, it was horrible (burn marks on the bedding, hair in the sink and shower, etc...) We started looking for a new hotel in the area and this hotel was about 10 minutes away, so we checked out of the disgusting one and booked this hotel. This was after 10:00 on a Thursday night after we had just driven 14 hours and I was extremely tired. When booking online, I accidentally booked the room for the following week, not the current one (I was so tired). Upon trying to check-in, the reception desk could not find my reservation (my mistake) but after getting my reservation number, found my error. They moved my erroneous reservation to the current week and actually got me a slightly better rate. The room was super clean and the beds were amazingly comfortable. I use a Sleep Number bed at home and usually sleep poorly on hotel beds, but this was not the case here. All 3 nights, I slept great. We were a bit late for breakfast the next morning but still got a couple danish and muffins. We did make it to the breakfast the last 2 days and it was very good. We especially liked the fresh pancake maker. This hotel turned, what could have been a horrible vacation, into an enjoyable one. We are coming back to the St Paul area again next year and we will definitely be booking...