Embassy Suites by Hilton Asheville Downtown — Hotel in Asheville

What an incredible hotel that exceeded our expectations! The staff was exceptional, welcoming, and helpful during our four day stay. This included the front desk, valet, and restaurant staff. We booked last minute.||The hotel is very accessible and easy to negotiate from the valet parking to ease of doors, flat wide surfaces. There were no accessible designated rooms when we booked or upon arrival. The front desk worked to find the best location for our family's unique needs. This effort was greatly appreciated and room met our needs with a low bath tub and accessible bars in the bathroom. And still a beautiful room.| |Finding the hotel entrance was a bit of a challenge as the entrance road is hard to notice and the signage is modest. Even though maps lead well to the location and we were familiar with the area, we drove by twice. A hint would be, turn at the red light, it is not an alley. ||The hotel is beautiful with structural waterfalls and a fireplace in the spacious lobby. We booked a suite that was affordable and located near the elevator by request. We never heard the elevator or any hallway noise. The room was very comfortable with a kitchen light area (frig, sink, microwave) set apart by a dining table. The living room area was comfortable and became a great child space during our stay. The doors reduced noise between areas. The bathroom is large, well lighted, with a great shower. Beds were comfortable and we had a great view of the mountains.||The morning breakfast was in a beautiful space with lots of options - yogurt, fresh fruit, cereal, toast, omelet station and varied hot food station. Best egg white omelet with veggies I've had in a long time. Each omelet is cooked by order and the cooks often remember who ordered each one despite there are two cooks and about seven pans working with a lot of people passing in the line.||The evening drink time was less successful for us. The line was long each evening as guests sorted out cocktails. We had juices ate fresh fruit, cheese, and varying pretzel-type snacks. The sitting area was the same as used for breakfast. We are here once, grilled cheese, fries, wings. Burgers looked good and guests stated how great they tasted. The menu is limited but the staff worked hard to make this pleasant, which those of us with children appreciated. ||The valet service was great and well worth the cost. Nice professional folks. I accidentally forgot a local restaurant leftovers in the backseat of the car. When I noticed this, they brought my car back and reparked it without giving any annoyance to my mistake. Service with a smile. ||Finally, while we didn't take advantage of this, the hotel is in walking distance to downtown and many guest were seen heading that way. The hotel is also easily accessible to I-240, which can get you to other areas of Asheville. The hotel is located on the edge of the Montford historical district. Many may not be familiar with this area and miss the lovely historical homes just blocks away. And it is one of the former Black historical locations of Stumptown, often sited in NC historical references. Another historical Black area downtown is "The Block" where the YMI Cultural Center is located. Historically it is connected to the Biltmore House as one of the places Vanderbilt's Black craftsmen lived when it was being built. While the hotel is nicely located, also recognize the history of the area and the spaces before these newer entities were built.||We enjoyed the hotel and it's location. We hope to return and would encourage others...

The Good The room was a good size and had two doors to the sleeping area so that you could use the bathroom separately if needed. However, the bathroom door and bedroom door hit each other if you left one of them open and tried to open the other. It was in a good location within walking distance of downtown restaurants and entertainment. The swimming pool and water fountain were good. Check-in was smooth after we had parked the car (see "The Ugly"). The free breakfast was just about acceptable, although the choice of fresh fruit was minimal and the buffet potatoes were rather soggy and uninspiring.

The Bad The hotel is conveniently located off I240, but the signage to the hotel is severely lacking, and it is not clear from the GPS mapping exactly where to go. The street (sorry, alleyway) down to the hotel lobby and parking deck is very small and narrow, so big SUVs will need to be careful. Overall, the impression is that the hotel does the minimum to claim they provide the service, but they are not dedicated to providing high-quality food.

The Ugly Initial impressions of the hotel were very poor because of the required valet parking, which adds $30 to your nightly rate. Although this is clear on the hotel website, if you book through a third-party service as we did, it will come as a shock when you turn up at the hotel and realize that they force you to use their valet parking service. The alternative is a multi-story car park a couple of blocks away, which will cost you $20 a night anyway. It seems the days of free parking are over. Another disappointment was on the second day of our stay. The card key simply stopped working, and we were left waiting for five minutes before someone came along. They insisted on checking our ID before giving us a new key card. While I understand security issues require ID, it still felt bad not being trusted simply because their technology malfunctioned. Another issue that one would have thought the hotel would have sorted out is the elevators. They are quite small, but making it worse, the elevator doors close a few seconds after they open, so there is little time to enter if you have luggage. Another problem is that they do not have enough luggage carts, so when we wanted to depart, we had to make three trips to bring all our luggage down from our room, all the while coordinating with the valet parking so that we did not have our stuff sitting out on the pavement for the duration. When I asked one of the staff about the cart, they offered no bellhop service or someone to carry bags, but simply said we'd have to wait to...

Very nice hotel. Spacious, great ambiance. Kasey was superb, very friendly and welcoming. I checked in, and went to my room to unwind. I had driven from New Jersey. I loved the room and the view of the mountains. After a short nap, I went to the E'terie restaurant to have a drink and a meal. Brazil was marvelous. He worked the bar like a master. I did feel he could've used some help. It was extremely busy, and as one who travels a lot, I must say: I've never been to a bar where one individual has to do so much work. Nonetheless, he made it happen. I ordered an item that wasn't on the menu (baked Honey BBQ wings with sauteed vegetables). There wasn't much of a selection when it comes to wings, nor is there a selection of sides, with the exception of fries and potato barrels. However, the Chef accommodated me. The wings were magnificent! What made me cry is seeing Chef Max(?) PERSONALLY bring the meal to my table. I felt like a Queen. 🥳 He conversed with me (as well with other patrons) and took the time to check on my table. I wanted to tip him, but he politely declined (to which I understood).

The bad, and it's VERY bad. $30 valet parking is absurd. I guess this is one of the hidden charges they have. Capitalism at its best Furthermore, pulling into the hotel is an accident waiting to happen. Whoever designed the entrance and parking areas should be fired.

The entrance to the hotel is extremely narrow. It reminded me of some of the roads I traveled in Europe. It's VERY narrow, and if you don't watch it it, you'll run head on with another vehicle leaving the property. I drive a BMW...a relatively small model. When turning into the drive, I nearly got popped by an SUV exiting. I can't blame the other driver. He barely had enough room to exit. Moreover, if you decide to take a drive, you'd better hope the hotel isn't busy. The reason being, you will spend a very long time in a line running out into public street blocking traffic.

Lastly, the parking spaces are very tight...much tighter than anywhere I've been. I'm a bit of an amazon (5'11, 190), but still, even with cars parked perfectly within the spaces, it's VERY HARD getting out of your car. If you are a man/woman of large stature, you may want to pay that $30 valet fee. You're not getting out of your car. If you drive a large vehicle (SUV, Truck), God Bless You. Life will be tough when it comes to parking. I guess they made the spaces so small to force you to pay the $30 valet fee.

Rooms: 5 Food/Bar: 5 Friendliness: 5 Parking/Accessibility: -2 (yes, that's...