One nice thing about hotels is that they usually have commercial ice makers which are great for filling up coolers. But what about when you don’t have a cooler, but you have a few drinks that you’d like to ice down over night? Well, all you need to do is convert the sink into a makeshift cooler!

I never want to pay hotel rates for drinks, so I will typically stop at a store and pick up a few drinks. In order to cool them down I close the sink drain, lay the drinks in the sink, and proceed to fill it completely full of ice.
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After staying at a number of hotels in Springfield, Virginia I can safely state that the Springfield Courtyard Marriott is the nicest hotel I’ve stayed at in the city. As a result, it is the one I’ve chosen to spend at least the next 8 weeks in as my home away from home.

It is unfortunately the most expensive of the Springfield hotels, at $199/night, but the service and room quality made it worth the price. Also, since I’ll be staying here for several weeks I spoke with their sales manager and she made me an attractive offer which is much more palatable.
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I quite enjoyed the stay at the Marriott Residence Inn in Tyson’s Corner, Virginia on May 14, 2007 even though I was only there for one night, mainly because it was very much like having a home away from home.

This hotel is actually more of an apartment. In fact, if they ever wanted to they could shut it down and sell the property as condos. My room was essentially a one bedroom loft apartment with the bed upstairs and a bonus hide-away bed downstairs.
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This is the first in a series of several Washington D.C. area hotel reviews. I’m doing a few weeks worth of consulting in the area at the request of a friend, and finding a place to stay has been a challenge, so I’ve had to stay at a different hotel almost every night so far. The good news is that I’ll be able to give lots of feedback on a wide variety of hotels. So, here we go…

I stayed at the Marriott TownPlace Suites in Springfield, Virginia on May 9, 2007. The experience was fine, and I will stay here again, but there is no way this is a 4.5 star rating hotel as TripAdvisor reports. Sure, it’s cheap, and its OK, but it’s just a solid 3 - perhaps 3.5 in the hotel universe.

Unfortunately my photos make it look nicer than it actually seemed when I was in the room. When I was there the furnishings seemed like Wal-Mart quality and this does not translate well in the photos. There were also a number of other little annoyances.
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