We spent several nights at the Marriott Residence Inn in Pasadena, California during the tree saga and quite appreciated the full kitchen and space, though the breakfast and parking made us prefer the Hyatt Place down the street.
Marriott Residence Inn Pasadena Review
The full name of this property is the Residence Inn by Marriott Los Angeles Pasadena/Old Town. It seems that in the Glendale-Burbank-Pasadena area, most hotels tack on Los Angeles in the hotel name to let out-of-town visitors know they are still very close to Los Angeles City and right in the heart of Los Angeles County.
The hotel sits right kitty-corner to another Marriott property, a Courtyard.
Booking
At ~$250/night this was about on-par with the other hotels we stayed at and although my loyalty is to Hyatt not Marriott, we were hopeful this hotel might be an ideal solution for our family because of its central location and because of the kitchen (as an aside, there is no Hyatt House nearby our house…).
Lobby
The lobby was spacious, with plenty of seating and a fireplace.
Upgrade?
I booked the studio hoping for an upgrade to a one bedroom suite due to my Marriott Gold status. LOL. Yeah, right. See, I’m just not a Marriott guy.
Room
Anyway, the studio apartment may have complicated consortium, but the layout of the room worked well. As you entered, a kitchen area on the left (stove, but no oven, as well as a microwave, dishwasher, and refrigerator), a bar with seats dividing the living room and kitchen, and a bed off to the side with a bathroom adjacent to it.
Not much of a view:
Parking
Parking was not included and cost $30/night. The parking stricture was underneath the hotel and both difficult to navigate and generally quite full until you went down two levels. That added a lot of walking and time to get between the car and the room and was annoying.
Breakfast
Breakfast was only offered between 6:30 am and 9:00 am on weekdays (7:00 am to 9:30 am on weekends) and included a selection of hot and cold items like eggs and sausage plus cereal, fruit, bagels, muffins, and oatmeal. Nothing fancy, but it did the trick.
Patio Area (Pool + Grill)
I really liked the “patio” area of this hotel. There were BBQ grills and fire pits, bean bag toss too, and a pool and hot tub. My kids had a lot of fun here and this was a nice common area. Here we met another family who was going through exactly the same thing we were…
Laundry
Laundry facilities were available…at a cost of $3.00 for wash and $3.00 for dry.
Fitness Center
A 24/7 fitness center was quite large and always empty, with strength training and cardio equipment.
Corner Market
In the lobby, a 24/7 market was available with snacks, frozen meals, drinks, and sundries.
CONCLUSION
This was a nice stay, though the parking situation became tedious and the lack of an oven really hindered our ability to cook ourselves. Overall, we preferred the Hyatt Place down the street, but for Marriott folks this is a solid option and the location was great.
Another family uprooted (pun intended, sorry) at the same hotel? That’s a crazy coincidence.
Thanks for the review!
Hi Matthew,
Planning a stay in this specific hotel but I’ve seen many reviews on TripAdvisor of people complaining about A/C not working for many days in a row.
Did you have any issues with the A/C?
It was not warm enough to use the A/C – sorry I cannot comment on that. I know it was an old-school unit.
Have you looked at air bnb? Or too expensive. Prob a lot more bang for your buck.
AirBnbs in my neighborhood were pricing at $14K. A bit absurd.