Comfort Inn Williamsburg Gateway — Hotel in Williamsburg

I've been staying at Choice Hotel properties for over 30 years. The Comfort Inn Williamsburg Gateway is among the top Comfort Inns I've ever stayed at. Although small in size, (the layout implies it may have been added on to after its initial construction) it projects an upscale ambiance. From the helpful front desk staff to the fresh and clean smelling room and bathroom I was duly impressed. I'm sensitive to odors so I'll mention that this hotel smelled fresh and clean throughout - as if it were newly built. No overpowering flowery scents or obnoxious cleanser smells you experience in hotels trying to cover up unpleasant odors. This property has been well cared for and meticulously cleaned from day one.

All the usual amenities were present: plenty of parking, wide hallways, easily accessible rooms, large clean bathroom, comfortable beds, large TV screen, fridge, microwave, single serve coffee maker, full-length wall mirror in room, and quiet operating heating/AC unit, roomy work desk with outlets, and strong wifi.

On the topic of complementary hot breakfast: There was the usual selection of breads, yogurt, cereals. Hot sausage - way too spicy. Scrambled eggs - wet and soggy. Make-your-own waffles (regular and cinnamon batter) - cooked up nicely. The biggest disappointment was the weak tepid coffee. To me, a good (or even great) cup of coffee to start the day is essential. However, the only Comfort Inn's with decent coffee that I've stayed in were in NYC and Pittsburgh. So, I wasn't surprised. On the plus side, there were a couple choices of International Delight creamer singles. But if you put more than one in your cup of coffee, you may as well drink the creamer cups alone.

The Front Desk personnel was friendly and welcoming. After checking into our room, initially my laptop would not connect to the internet and I needed to get some work done that night. After several failed attempts, I called the front desk for assistance and the young man came right up. He did his best to find the problem and finally went to get someone with more expertise. (I eventually discovered the problem was a setting on my laptop and corrected it myself.) Once fixed, I had large folders full of photos to upload and the wifi was very fast!

Most memorable was the hotel's unique and interesting interior decor. The color palette of neutral and contrasting shades of beige, cream and white was soothing, while the myriad artful textures and patterns in the wall tiles and floor coverings projected a modern art museum feel. While enjoying a hot breakfast in lobby dining area, I appreciated the lovely art pieces hanging on the walls. It was clear that each piece was carefully chosen and may have provided the inspiration for the decor of the entire hotel. The beautiful surroundings most certainly off-set the less than outstanding breakfast.

This particular visit was a one-night stop over on our way further south. But the next time we plan to visit Williamsburg, we'll be staying at this...

More of a 3.5 star review than a 3 and more of my disdain is geared towards the marketing of Williamsburg and their package deal descriptions, but I just can't round up to the 4. You get what you pay for I suppose. We stayed here as it was one of the hotels that the Busch Gardens/Williamsburg package deals suggest. It had decent reviews and the price was right so we went with it. DO NOT ACCEPT the description given that it's "just a walk away from Colonial Williamsburg". Um...no. It's just over a mile away from Colonial Williamsburg. And, while that seems walkable....you have to factor in the amount of walking you will do at the historic site and the walk back. There are no shuttles from this hotel. It's about a 15 minute drive to Busch Gardens and Water Country. Plan on a little bit longer ride if you go in the morning as traffic on 64 is ridiculous. There are alternate routes but they're just as long time wise. As for the hotel itself, the staff at the front desk seemed like they hated their job when we arrived. No smiles. No welcome. We had to approach them and initiate the conversation. The room itself was clean, the beds were comfortable and the housekeeping staff were friendly and did a good job. The A/C fan made a racket all night. The continental breakfast was pretty good - wide selection. However, the way it is set up when mixed with the large breakfast crowd makes for long lines and mass confusion (kind of like you were at the parks already!) Actually, the parks were better organized. And, I realize they may have to set it up that way....it's just poor design. If you can beat the breakfast crowd you should be ok. Coffee was good and that was the main thing, at least for me. Kids appreciated the waffles .....when they could get to it. The fire alarm went off twice during our stay. Once at 3am and the next day at 7am. The elevator broke on our last day. Poor housekeepers trying to clean rooms having to go up and down stairs with linens .....not cool. But they did it with a smile on their face. For the price....like I said...you get what you pay for. And, it's not really close to anything. There are multitude of places to stay in the area...

We are Choice members but have never encountered a Choice property like this one ever before. We booked online with Choice website but at check-in we apparently did not understand what the clerk tried to explain to us. Our suite was on 2nd floor (of 4) just above the lobby. We could see the top of the door from the ground floor. In retrospect we now understand that the clerk attempted to alert us to special conditions with the room location and so offered us another room - not the suite type that we had reserved. We declined that change. Bottom line: 1. The room could not be reached with the luggage cart. It was up 5 additional steps above the 2nd floor level. We had to haul our heavy suit cases up those steps. Also, the maid service cart could not be rolled to our room as well. 2. Due to Choice cutting construction costs or bad hotel design or both, there was only one elevator and it was at the opposite end of the hotel from the lobby. We had to push a cart from the lobby with our luggage to the far end of the building, go up the only elevator, and then push it all to our room (minus the 5 additional steps up) where, by-the-way, we overlooked the lobby where we started. My wife and I are seniors and in reasonably good health. However, prior knee surgeries for both of us make elevators important. We had a choice from our room location of long walks to/from the elevator or steep stairs up/down at the lobby location. We do not require handi-cap accommodations but this situation was a bit much and for us quite unique. We simply cannot believe Choice's decision to design and build this hotel property...