Last week I had the opportunity to head to NYC on a trip with Extended Stay America. I hadn’t stayed at one of their properties before, so I was looking forward to checking out what they had to offer.
Based in Charlotte, N.C., Extended Stay America has 629 locations in the U.S. and Canada. The company owns and operates hotels under the brand, Extended Stay America ®, which serves the mid-priced extended stay segment. It is the largest owner/operator of company-branded hotels in North America and employs approximately 9,000 employees in its hotel properties and headquarters.
Their spacious hotel rooms (more like suites) feature refreshed amenities, from free in-room Wi-Fi access and complimentary grab-and-go breakfast daily, to flat-screen televisions with premium channels and kitchens in every hotel room. And we aren’t talking about a tiny corner of the room that they are calling a kitchen. We are talking about a “kitchen kitchen” here folks. Each kitchen has a cooktop, microwave, toaster, full sized refrigerator, and plenty of counter space.
Extended Stay America invites roaming chefs to explore home- cooking on-the-go with “Away From Home Cooking” in-room cookbook, available in all guestroom kitchens to deliver the great taste of home wherever the road leads. Created with Food Network’s Sunny Anderson and Extended Stay America associates, “Away From Home Cooking” features 24 super simple, tasty recipes with additional resources available online at AwayFromHomeCooking.com.
ESA properties also have things like a laundry room, pool, fitness center, and outdoor spaces to relax. They really do have everything you need whether you are a weekend warrior, on a trip with your family, and staying longer for work. It would definitely be easier to come home after a long days work (or play) to an ESA suite with plenty of room to relax and cook a meal.
One of my personal favorite things about ESA is their Keys of Hope program. In 2012, Extended Stay America formed a lasting partnership with the American Cancer Society, forever changing the lives of those in need of lifesaving cancer treatments away from home. Donating 40,000 hotel stays at 629 U.S. locations, Extended Stay America helped more than 6,700 patients and their families save nearly $1.2 million associated with traveling for necessary cancer treatments. Constantly striving to care for the many communities in which it operates, Extended Stay America’s Hotel Keys of Hope program offers cancer patients an affordable, comfortable place either free of charge or at an incredibly discounted rates of $12 — alleviating demand on the 31 American Cancer Society Hope Lodge facilities, which often run at capacity.
In 2015, Extended Stay America renewed the partnership by more than doubling its previous contribution of free and deeply discounted rooms to a record breaking 100,000 rooms over the next two years, impacting an estimated 15,000 cancer patients. The Brand also launched a nationwide program encouraging guests to leave their room keys to help save lives. For every key left in the lobby’s Hotel Keys of Hope collection box, Extended Stay America will donate one dollar of hotel room value, eventually adding up to the committed total contribution of $1 million dollars.
I enjoyed having a spacious room to come home to each night after a busy day. I was there for 4 nights and loved being able to unpack and “make myself at home.” My only complaints? The bathroom was not made for tall people. Pretty much every time I bent down to turn on the shower I’d stand back up and hit my head on the towel rack above the toilet. Oh, and the fridge was loud. That is probably a “me problem” because I don’t do well with noises when I’m trying to sleep. Other than those two small things, it was a great place to call home for my visit to NYC/NJ.
Stay tuned for more on what we did and learned on our NYC trip! Spoiler alert: I met AND spent the day with Sunny Anderson!
*Disclosure: I was given complimentary travel and hotel stay by ESA. As always, all thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.
