When arriving at the Residence Inn the reserved and confirmed 2-Bedroom-Apartment was not available, they offered a One-Bedroom-Apartment which was not properly cleaned (very dirty dishwasher and bathroom) and smelled very strong like they heavily used some perfumed room spray.
We left the hotel after 2 hours and moved to the Residence Inn of Redmond which was fantastic.

I personally prefer to stay at Residence Inns when I travel. When I had to book a business trip to visit Redmond, I jumped at the opportunity to stay at the location in Bothell, as the price was fit my budget.

I have been in various styles of Residence Inns, from those that are in one large building to those that have separate buildings with only a few suites in them each. This Residence Inn falls into the latter category, with each building housing about 6-8 suites (I never did a formal count). My room was in building 8, which was on the far end of the property, and was on the second floor. Basically, the one thing you can count on when staying here is that you will need to walk between buildings to get to the main check in/lobby building for breakfast. Considering the weather patterns in Seattle in winter, this turned out to be a chilly, damp (if not lightly rainy) walk each morning. Also, the pool and hot tubs are located outside, and are consequently closed in the winter, although one hot tub was open according to a manager, but it was in a rather dark area outside the lobby...not too inviting, and I never saw anyone in it.

I had a one bedroom suite, and the arrangement was more than sufficient for just myself. The room was clean, and, in the first time I've ever had this happen, the maid attending to my room (who did not speak English, according to a friendly note in my room, which meant to assist in expressing whatever needs I may have by circling the items that needed any attention) did not leave any extra soap or shampoo for me each day. I literally had the same soap bars/shampoo that I started the week with (I was there Sunday through Friday). Realistically, this was fine with me...I'm just used to hotel maids overloading you with soap/shampoo when it's obvious you don't need it, or getting rid of your bars each day and giving you new ones.

The breakfasts each morning were decent (the hot item was changed each day while I was there), and the evening receptions weren't bad either. I particularly liked the 'blonde' beer selection (can't remember the brand), but they also had wine, sodas, and another hot dish.

There are no pay-per-view movies available on the TVs; they just have the usual assortment of about 25 channels, including HBO.

Overall, there were a couple minor problems that I did have with my stay which made this an average stay:
1) The high speed internet access is controlled via access points that appear to be strategically located throughout the property in various guest rooms. Mine had one, but my PC never seemed to find that particular one. Overall, the speed/quality of the high speed internet was slow/poor. At times it would burst through and work well, and then come to a crawl and be slower than dialup.
2) The air handler in my room started to make a rattling noise one night, loud enough that one couldn't ignore it, and it was behind a locked door. It was around 7:45-8:00pm when I called the front desk to bring it to their attention, and the guy at the front desk said "Oh, well, the maintenance crew is gone for the night". And...what does this mean for me? This is loud, and I don't care to switch rooms (I was well settled in). "Well, um, I will send a housekeeping person over, but I'm not sure what she'll be able to do." The woman came over (she didn't really speak English...), but she did manage to find a key for the door on her keychain, and we were able to wedge a towel between the air handler and the wall to stop the vibration. I mentioned it to the front desk the next morning (to makes sure it would get fixed), and it never made the sound again for the rest of my stay. My concern here primarily lies with the reaction of the guy at the front desk when I called to complain about it. He should have offered to call one of the maintenance crew back in if needed, but this seemed to be an impossible task for him to achieve. This should have been one of the first options offered if housekeeping were not able to assist.

If those two issues hadn't come up, I would rate my stay as 4 out of 5 overall, and better than the typical stay.

I have been staying at this hotel for business on and off during the last 3.5 years. The staff is very good and Marriott has improved its breakfast buffet (starting April 1). Some of the rooms have been updated--but not all of them have. The work out room is sad--only a treadmill, fake stairstepper, and junky weight lifting set up. Other Residence Inns are nicer, but this place has very good staff and is in a convenient location.

Great front desk staff, my housekeeper was very friendly, and attentive to my needs. I look forward to returning to your wonderful hotel.

Kudos!!

Ron Jenkins and family