Home2 Suites by Hilton Azusa Review

Work brought me down to our Los Angeles district again. I looked for a closer place to stay near the office and found the Home2 Suites by Hilton Azusa. At the same time, there was an Amex offer for a stay at a Home2 Suites and this was the perfect match. I was able to stay close to work while using one of the Amex offers. On my way to Los Angeles, I stopped at Vandenberg to watch a Delta IV Heavy rocket lift-off.

Location

Web: www.hilton.com

The Home2 Suites by Hilton Azusa is conveniently located next to I-210 which gives you easy freeway access to Los Angeles and other places. Don’t worry, the proximity to the freeway is no issue at all. Two burger joints and a gas station are within walking distance from the hotel and there are more restaurants in the near vicinity. The hotel is a great base camp for adventures in the San Gabriel Canyon.

Check-In

After I finished work, I headed to the hotel, which was just a few minutes away from my project site. I arrived early evening. Because of Covid-19, the main entrance was locked and you needed your room key to gain access or have to ring the bell button next to the door. The front desk clerk buzzed me in after ringing the bell and my check-in was straightforward.

I grabbed one of their luggage carts and unloaded my car and headed up to my room. My car was loaded with valuable items and I just didn’t want to leave them out in my car overnight. After unloading everything in my room, I brought the luggage cart back where I picked it up. Unfortunately, I see so many morons (sorry for the language) who just take the luggage carts and then leave them outside in the hallway. In other hotels, I have seen people taking them to the parking garage and abandon them there. This makes me so mad at how lazy and rude hotel guests can be. After dropping off the luggage cart, I parked my car in one of the designated Diamond Member parking spots. I am just curious if they even enforce if only Diamond members park there? Probably not. I love the designated Diamond member parking spots in front of the hotel. I wish other hotel chains would offer the same.

There is also a security guard on-site at night. Parking is all around the hotel. Around the parking lot in the back of the hotel is a giant wall, this gives it some added security and I feel safer leaving my car there. If you have an SUV or pickup truck, you can back up straight to the wall and they cant open your tailgates.

1 King Bed Studio Suite (Room 428)

The room has a kitchen area immediately to the right when you enter the room. It features a full-size refrigerator, kitchen sink, microwave, coffee maker, and dishwasher besides utensils and dishware. My utensils drawer had a shortcoming on forks and no spoons at all. I assume housekeeping never checks if they are fully stocked. What’s missing is a toaster and a stove or stovetop.

Opposite the kitchen space is the bathroom. It is quite spacious and features a walk-in shower. The shower has shampoo dispensers mounted to the wall but because of the pandemic, the vanity had a bunch of single-use shampoo bottles sitting on the counter.

The right side of the room continuous with a work desk and office chair, followed by a closet with three drawers and a TV on top of it. After that is another desk-like area and a pull-out table followed by a tall closet for hanging your clothing which you can close with a curtain.

The opposite side of the room holds a sofa bed with a companion sitting cube. Next to the sofa, on the bathroom wall, is a dressing mirror. On the very end of the left side is the king-sized bed. The headboard has a built-in nightstand on the right side of the bed while the left has an extra small table right next to the bed and in the corner of the room.

At the very end of the room is the only window and it gives you a room at the parking lot in the back. The view from the room is definitely nothing worth mentioning.

Public Areas

The Home2 Suites by Hilton Azusa has an inviting lobby area to hang out and relax. It’s a bright and open space with plenty of seating options. The lobby features also a small “business center”, a desk with two workstations to surf the internet or for a print job.

Close to the elevator is the entrance to the fitness center. It is a typical fitness center with all the equipment you might need for a good workout. You need to use your room key to gain access to the fitness center. The same door to the fitness center also gets you to the adjoined guest laundry facility.

On the other end of the hotel building, you find the outdoor pool and patio which features two BBQ grills you can use and plenty of dining tables with sun umbrellas. There are a few pool loungers around the pool. I assume the amount got reduced because of the pandemic to keep space between the different loungers.

Dining

Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, breakfast service was limited. However, they had one of the best breakfast offerings overall. Instead of the continental breakfast buffet which gets usually offered. They downsized it and you can get only single-packed items for the time being. You can find small cereal boxes, pastries, and even breakfast sandwiches. Everything individually packed or wrapped. In case you crave waffles, a staff member can make them for you. In the little fridge under the left side of the breakfast table, you find juices and different flavors of yogurt as well as milk for your cereal.

Coffee can be found on the opposite side of the room. Coffee is served here 24 hours a day, which I love. Other than that, you can grab some items from the small marketplace next to the front desk.

Besides that, you have a McDonald’s literally next to the hotel. If you crave gas-station food, there is one right in front of the hotel. It gets even better. One of my favorite burger places, an In-N-Out,  is just across the street from the hotel. It’s a super short walk and I would consider walking there, as driving there and making the turn back to the hotel parking lot can be impossible at times with heavy traffic.

Conclusion

Overall this was just another good stay at a hotel. The Home2 Suites by Hilton Azusa is nothing extraordinary or special. I got what I expected. Because I was traveling for work and only staying a week, I didn’t care too much about the hotel. I knew I would be working long hours and just spend a few hours at the hotel itself. Mainly just the evening and at night to sleep. Therefore this hotel did the job.

I had a second stay at the hotel and arrived just after 8 p.m. I went to my room and noticed that the office chair was missing and therefore I can’t work on my PC. I went back down to the front desk to let them know. The agent just asked me if house keeping could bring one up. I told her, for sure as I am waiting for it but that was it. Nobody ever showed up that night. The next morning I talked to the agent on duty about my chair issue and I had a chair in my room within 15 minutes. That’s how it should be.

On my third stay, the office chair was broken and you couldn’t adjust the height anymore. It was all the way down and that makes it impossible to get work done. I asked if they had another one, but I just got a cheaper replacement model with no armrests and not as comfortable.

Internet can get quite horrible as well. As Diamond member I get free premium internet. At least I am supposed to be. Every single time I got charged for Wi-Fi and had to tell them about it. Unfortunately, I missed it during my first two stays but it got refunded to my credit card. Be alert Even with premium internet there were times, especially during the evening hours when everybody is at the hotel, where the speed was just horrible. The speedtest site was barely loading and I got speeds of under 1Mbps multiple times throughout my stays.