Having some time on our hands on a recent Saturday, Retired Guy and I checked out the six downtown Providence hotels.Knowing that all hotels price rooms depending on a variety of factors, we decided the fairest thing would be to just go up to each desk and say we were looking for a room for that night, which was a Friday in March, and that we'd like to view what they had available. If we needed to explain why we didn't take the room, we said that we were shopping around for his daughter's upcoming wedding — an event we're planning for, even if she and her boyfriend aren't yet.
We didn't press for any deals; we just said that we were comparison shopping and didn't want to spend more than we had to.
Despite the range of types of hotels (from business-oriented to luxury), the room prices we were quoted didn't vary all that much: $109 for the Biltmore to $169 for the Westin. At the Westin and the Renaissance, $20 more would buy us a room with a better view, and at the Biltmore, $50 more would give us a "junior suite" of two rooms, which looked like a great deal to us and at $159 was right in line with the prices we found at the other hotels for single rooms. All of the hotels add a daily parking fee of about $24.
The Biltmore is the grand old lady of the six downtown Providence hotels. (All the photos shown here are the Biltmore.) Its location is the best in the city, being right on Kennedy Plaza and within walking distance of the East Side, the mall, and Federal Hill. Its '20s-era lobby,
with its sparking chandelier and glass-walled elevator, is opulent with details that can't be duplicated today. The rooms we looked at were comfortable looking and showed the character of an older hotel. The only area where the Biltmore didn't match its newer, shinier competition was in the bathrooms, which were clean but plain. For $109, we could have had a perfectly fine room, but for $159, the suite would be worth more than the difference in price.Next: the Renaissance
