When we drive long distance to visit family on the East Coast, we usually end up splitting the drive into a two-day trip, and we rarely know where we'll end up stopping for the night. Our hotel experiences have run the gamut from almost sumptuous to barely tolerable. (All we look for is a clean, comfortable room to sleep in until morning; we really aren't that picky. Barely tolerable experiences have included non-smoking rooms that nevertheless reeked of cigarette smoke, a room that smelled so strongly of a petroleum-based cleaning chemical that it gave us headaches, and a bathroom that was quite literally falling apart.) The room we got at Comfort Inn in Clearfield was close to the sumptuous end of the scale.
When we arrived, we were greeted by a friendly hotel clerk who offered us a room with two queen-size beds (for our family of 4) for about $80. The lobby was bright and welcoming, and the clerk showed us where breakfast would be served in the morning.
Our room was small, but had adequate space for our suitcase and the carry-on size items we brought in with us, and was well-appointed. It had the usual array of lamps, dresser, utility table, night stand shared by both beds and heater/air conditioner under our control. There was a closet for hanging things (which also included an iron and ironing board that we had no use for, but other travelers might want to know about), a small refrigerator, coffee machine with about half a dozen varieties of complimentary coffee, microwave and nice-sized TV set. There was a console sink on the wall opposite the bathroom door; the bathroom contained the toilet and tub/shower. The exhaust fan in the bathroom was pleasantly quiet. There were plenty of towels and washcloths in the bathroom, and enough disposable cups that we didn't have to share. There was ample bedding on the beds, including four pillows on each bed.
The pillows might just have been the most interesting feature of the room. They were arranged standing upright against the headboards, with little signs explaining that one pillow in each pair was soft and one was firm, and how to tell which was which. I'd never seen anything like that before in a hotel. (I normally sleep with two pillows, so I just used both of mine.) All the pillows were fiber-filled - no down filling to set off allergies - and felt new and springy.
Everything was immaculate and in good working order, and there were no lingering odors of any kind. If the room was lacking anything, it was spare electrical outlets. The only other shortcoming I can think of was that the curtains on the window were not room-darkening and a bit too gauzy to provide privacy, and there were no blinds. All in all, though, we were very comfortable for the night, and all of us slept well.
Breakfast was typical of this class of hotel: self-serve, with hot and cold cereal, milk, several juices, coffee, tea, bread and a toaster for making toast, and a selection of pastries. There was even a make-your-own waffles station. The hot cereal was Quaker-brand instant oatmeal. The cold cereal was in brand-name, single-serve containers where you just peel the top off the container, which then becomes your bowl, and add milk as desired. The milk was good (choice of whole or skim), the juice machine served up fresh-tasting orange juice, and the coffee was pretty good.
Checkout was simple enough, with no unexpected charges. There is a mandatory safe charge for use of the hotel safe, which the hotel removes upon request when you check out. (Our check-in clerk pointed it out to us when we arrived.)
There is an indoor pool, but we did not have time to make use of it. read more
