The Good: Great room size, General location, Awesome amenities
The Bad: Not as clean as it ought to be, Driveway, Unremarkable breakfast
The Basics: The Quality Inn in Saint Ignace was a pleasant surprise well worth returning to!
As my wife and I get ready to head to bed on Christmas Eve, I’m actually finishing off the last of my reviews from the awesome trip we went on over the summer! On our way back from Minnesota, we had one last wonderful surprise: the Quality Inn Lakefront in Saint Ignace, Michigan. Good hotels at the beginning and end of our one big vacation made for an enjoyable bookend to a somewhat erratic vacation. The Quality Inn Lakefront in Saint Ignace was a truly impressive Choice Hotel, even if it was pretty clearly a retrofitted or converted former motor lodge.
Location
The Quality Inn Lakefront, MI089 in the Choice Hotels numbering system (a number quite useful when making phone or online reservations), is located at 1021 North State Street in Saint Ignace, Michigan. This is the part of Saint Ignace that is right on the lake, away from most of the town’s attractions. Saint Ignace seems to be something of a tourist trap and the Quality Inn Lakefront is away from most everything else. This is a simple, three-story building set back off the main roads, with a separate building for the office and another one for the pool. This Quality Inn is away from virtually everything else.
The Quality Inn Lakefront has a single entrance, right off North State Street and the actual hotel is set down a surprisingly steep driveway. The driveway makes this a very poor hotel for those who are utilizing the hotel as a stopover on a longer trip and might be hauling any sort of bigger vehicle; the driveway is that steep. Mapquest directions are more than adequate for finding this hotel.
The Quality Inn Lakefront has a motor lodge feel, whatwith the rooms all being though the rooms being accessed through outside doors. The three story hotel has rooms that all have one end that opens to the parking lot and another that faces the lake.
Room Size
The hotel's desk clerk greeted me at the front building after five minutes and seemed utterly disinterested with checking me in, which was a little disappointing because I had prepaid for the room and wanted to check in fast.
When we got to our room, my wife and I were very impressed. The room had a lot of lights and a giant hot tub, right near the balcony and sliding door to it. There were also a number of mirrors all around, including surrounding the hot tub. Measuring twenty-eight and a half feet deep by twenty feet wide, the room included a king-sized bed, two person hot tub, bathroom with shower and bathtub, desk, and two nightstands. This room has the standard closet as well and dresser with the television. The room did not feel cramped by the hot tub.
Cleanliness
From the first moment I opened the door to the room at the Quality Inn in Saint Ignace, I had a good feeling about it. However, the more I looked around, the less impressed I was. The wallpaper was not peeling, but it was darker than looked clean and the rugs were not as clean as they ought to have been. There was a bench inside the room and ours had a pretty noticeable, dark, footprint on it, which was unfortunately unclean. On the plus side, the nonsmoking room lived up to that. The nonsmoking room smelled like nothing at all. There was no evidence or trace of scent that would have indicated it had ever had a cigarette smoked in it. Instead, the entire hotel smelled good.
Every time I enter a new hotel room, I flush the toilet and this Quality Inn easily passed the first flush test with no difficulties, which admittedly surprised me. The shower, hot tub and toilet were all clean. Still, some of the towels had spots. The wallpaper in the room was tasteful and none of the wallpaper or paint was peeling. Still, I found several spots on the wallpaper, even at eye level.
The common areas were all clean and well-maintained. The lobby was clean and well-lit.
Amenities
The Quality Inn Lakefront has decent amenities, at least in our room. There were the standard coffee packets, shampoo, soap, and lotion, along with an air conditioning unit. There was also a microwave and refrigerator. The hot tub was one of the largest of any hotel we had been to. The room we had had a two-person hot tub and I would be remiss if I did not mention this. The hot tub was billed as a two-person tub and it truly lived up. It was clean and easy to use. This was a nice way to relax and it operated flawlessly, and it only took about ten minutes to fill up.
This hotel had a free breakfast. The Quality Inn Lakefront in Saint Ignace had a pretty unremarkable breakfast with a few cold and hot cereal options, a make your own waffle station and a few bread/muffin options for toasting. The breakfast was unimpressive.
In the room, the television has approximately twenty cable television stations and the television was one of the largest I've had in a Choice Hotel. We got a great on-line deal on the room, but it still cost us $85/night after all of the taxes. This was a fairly good deal for a hotel right off Lake Huron.
Overall
The Quality Inn Lakefront in Saint Ignace is wonderful, though it is not perfect, and has issues with cleanliness and some of its amenities. The view alone is incredible and the hot tub made for a great way to relax!
For Michigan other hotels in the Choice Hotels chain, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Econo Lodge – Grand Rapids, MI
Quality Inn By The Bay – Traverse City, MI
Comfort Suites Lakeside – Houghton Lake, MI
8/10
For other hotel reviews, please visit my Travel Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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