The Elements of a Comfortable Extended Stay

Most of the time a hotel is a place to lay your head for a few nights, maybe a week at the most. However, in recent years, hotel brands became aware of the need for properties that cater to longer stays. Extended stay hotels specialize in the amenities and functionalities needed for longer stays. The Home2Suites by Hilton and the TownePlace Suites by Marriott are two well-known brands.

A lesser-known brand that appeared on my hotel searches in South Florida was the Element by Westin. I had never seen one before and I had certainly never stayed in one. There are fewer than 80 Elements in America, so many of my readers might not have any experience with this brand either. So, Mr. HomeFree and I decided to book our first stay with the Element brand at the Element Miami Doral.

The ultra-modern, sleek exterior design gives arrivals a clear sense of what to expect inside. The lobby is an interesting mix of elegance and function. In modern interior design, minimalism often equals cold. This lobby, in my opinion, walked the delicate line between uncluttered and impersonal. Function clearly takes precedence, though. For example, one half of the lobby houses the breakfast area with large communal tables. While the other half contains a sunken area for socializing and working. In this half, there are both living room-style seating areas and a huge countertop workspace that seats 12 people and is equipped with outlets for laptops and such.

How Element by Westin Does Breakfast

It is in this lobby where guests can fuel up for the day with the Element’s free breakfast. This is comprised of the usual assortment of continental breakfast items, such as pastries, bagels, toast, yogurt, single pieces of fruit (i.e. bananas or apples) and one pre-made hot item. During my stay the pre-made hot item was usually scrambled egg cups baked in muffin wrappers.

The unique twist on breakfast that the Elements adds is one made-to-order item each day. For example, one day they served an egg white, tomato, and avocado scramble. Another day they offered an egg, ham, corn and sweet potato scramble. A member of the Element’s kitchen staff stood with a frying pan hot & ready. A vegetarian could easily have requested that the ham be omitted from the sweet potato scramble. The portions were small (served on a dessert plate) but sufficient as a complement to your yogurt or fruit or bread selection. Personally, I preferred the egg white scramble because egg whites are so hard to find on hotel breakfast buffets and the produce was impressively fresh.

Our Extended Stay Room

Overall, our room was an enjoyable place to be for a week. Though, there were some details that confused us. For example, the bathroom was unusually large but the space between the desk and the bed was dangerously narrow. It was necessary to walk carefully between this gap to avoid whacking a knee on one side or the other. The frame of the platform bed stuck out much farther than the mattress. My brilliant husband came up with the idea of draping this dark wood frame in an extra white sheet, so neither of us collided with the furniture corners during midnight bathroom visits. This worked like a charm, but it should never have been necessary in the first place.

Lastly, having a loveseat for relaxing is always preferable. It is nice to have the option of sitting somewhere else besides on the bed. I did spend my evenings on our loveseat relaxing after a hard day’s work writing/editing/formatting riveting content for my readers (ha, ha).

A Few Bathroom Notes

As mentioned above, the architect should have narrowed the bathroom by 12 inches, so that the living room/bedroom area could be 12 inches wider. There was also a fancy rain-style showerhead. That looked impressive, but the water pressure was terrible, so the allure was lost on me.

The toilet had dual flush buttons, so if water conservation is your personal soapbox issue, be aware that this hotel clearly makes conservation efforts (which might also explain the shower’s water pressure). Lastly, there were plenty of hooks in the bathroom! If you are wondering why that deserves an exclamation point, then please read any of the other 999 posts where I review hotels and discuss this issue.

Extended Stay Office Hours

If you are traveling for work, or are a remote worker, then our room type is for you. We stayed in the Larger Studio, which according to Marriott’s website measures 392 square feet. There was a full-size desk for working. Additionally, there were two counters that could serve as extra workspaces. (Though, there were only two stools, not four).

We chose to dedicate the desk to work (as intended) and we sat side-by-side on stools at the counter that divided the kitchen from the bedroom. It was a bit tight, but our meals were casual, so it functioned just fine. No one is eating a five-course meal in their hotel room, anyway.

Though it may seem like a small thing, having a dedicated desk where I could leave my computer set up and not have to remove it from the table in order to eat dinner every day was a lovely bonus.

An Extended Stay Kitchen

The kitchen was impressive for one very important reason. While a full-sized refrigerator, microwave and dishwasher are standard for extended stay properties, a cooktop is not. Sometimes you have a two-burner cooktop and sometimes as discussed in my article linked above, you must request an induction burner from the front desk. However, a four-burner stove top is the equivalent of a unicorn with a rainbow tail. There was our unicorn! A full-size cooktop!

There were plenty of utensils for eating and cooking as well. Typically, the greatest challenge in this arena is that there are fewer pots/pans than what you need to cook a meal (especially with four burners). However, in many cases if you request another saucepan from the front desk, they have enough extras to accommodate your request.

A Final Word

The Element Miami Doral was a successful first-time experiment, overall. Though there were a few design flaws. I think it well established in this blog that most hotel rooms have at least a few illogical features. If a business traveler prefers to eat healthy and cook their own meals in order to stay true to their regular regiment, then the Element brand is a nice option. If a company is looking to host an out-of-town colleague, the Element brand would give a nice, polished first impression. For families traveling together, this particular Element location shares a pool with the Aloft next door. The pool courtyard is what separates the two properties. It is an unusual layout, but it allows many of the rooms in both hotels to have a reasonably attractive view out the window. Lastly, if you are a business traveler looking to impress a colleague and you aren’t worried about the budget, the Element also has a steakhouse restaurant on the ground floor, which is convenient for guests of both hotels.

Have any of my readers tried an Element? What was your experience?