Hampton Inn Houston Downtown [In-Depth Hotel Review]

I stayed at the Hampton Inn Houston Downtown with my family of 5 on Black Friday. We squeezed in this quick overnight staycation on a last-minute Spend a Night on Us certificate redemption. It was fun to stay downtown and enjoy the holiday festivities, and I was happy to check out this hotel I’ve been curious about.

Standout features at Hampton Inn Houston Downtown include the excellent location, pool with a view, and abundant free breakfast buffet.

Let’s see how our stay went at this downtown Houston hotel.

Location

Located on Crawford Street between Capitol and Rusk, Hampton Inn Houston Downtown is in a great downtown location. It’s basically right in between the Houston Astros’ Minute Maid Park and the George R. Brown Convention Center.

On our way to Astros games, we’ve walked past this hotel many times, as Minute Maid Park is a 3-minute walk from the hotel. It first caught my eye because it’s 2 hotels in the same building, sharing a lobby and elevators with the Homewood Suites by Hilton Houston Downtown next door.

Getting There

We drove downtown from our home in the Houston area. If you’re arriving at Hampton Inn Houston Downtown from George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), it’s about a 30-minute car ride, though it could be much longer than that if you’re fighting traffic. William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) doesn’t serve as many flights as IAH but is generally just 20 minutes away from downtown by car without major traffic.

Booking

Booking this hotel was completely unplanned and last minute. I literally booked it as we packed and headed out the door to the hotel. I did it last minute because I had an expiring $200 Spend a Night on Us certificate from a Hilton Grand Vacations timeshare presentation I attended in May. The certificate expired 6 months after the date it was issued and was only good until the exact date we stayed.

When I chose the Hampton Inn certificate at our timeshare presentation, I intended to use it at the Hampton Inn & Suites Galveston or the Hampton Inn Pensacola Beach because we’ve stayed at those properties before, wanted to return, and I knew nights at both often hover around $200. We didn’t get a chance to visit either of those hotels in time.

My next plan was to use the certificate at the Hampton Inn and Suites Aurora South Denver, where we spent 5 nights in October. But I completely blew it by putting off mailing in the rebate, which had to be sent in within 30 days of our stay.

So I had a certificate good until November 24th and no Thanksgiving travel plans. I was about ready just to let the certificate go, but on the last possible day, I decided it would be fun to spend the night downtown, sort of for free, and earn some Hilton Honors points along the way.

Hot Tip:

Don’t let procrastination cheat you out of rebates! If you get one of these Spend a Night on Us certificates, check the dates and ask for a printed receipt at checkout so it’s easy to send in your rebate right after your stay.

Cost

I paid $174.19 for our 1-night stay. That included a $146.88 room rate and $27.31 in taxes and mandatory charges. I should get the $146.88 room rate back as a rebate from the free night certificate, which I mailed off within the allotted time.

With base points, my Diamond elite bonus, a Double Points offer, a Multiply Your Points promotion, and my 250 MyWay preference points, I earned 7,595 Hilton Honors points from this stay. On top of that, I earned 12x points per dollar for Hilton spending with my Hilton Honors American Express Surpass^® Card* to get another 2,088 points. That’s almost 10,000 points for a really cheap stay.

The rebate won’t apply to the taxes or other fees I paid, and I won’t get the full $200 out of it because I didn’t spend that much. Also, I’ll get a gift card rebate instead of cash, so this wasn’t exactly a free stay I can pay back to my credit card. Still, getting a mini staycation and some points out of it was worth it, and I did not abandon my rebate.

I’ve checked out this hotel’s prices before, and the rate we paid is pretty typical. But if you want to stay during major events, like opening day for the Astros, you’ll pay closer to $250 or more per night, or a Hilton Honors award cost of 60,000 points.

*The information regarding the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass^® Card was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.

Hot Tip:

Always check for Hilton Honors points promotions before you book a stay. More than 4,000 of the points I earned on this stay were from points offers I activated. Those bonus offer points were more than I got from the bonus points earned with my Diamond status and credit card combined.

Checking In

We arrived at the hotel in the evening and checked in quickly.

The front desk confirmed we were staying for a single night, informed us of the breakfast hours, and then told us how to access Wi-Fi and get to our room.

Elite Benefits

As a Hilton Honors Diamond member staying at a Hampton Inn, I was entitled to 250 Hilton Honors bonus points or a bottle of water and a snack. I opted for the points.

The Lobby

As the Hampton Inn Houston Downtown shared a lobby with the Homewood Suites next door, the lobby was fairly expansive for this type of hotel.

The many seating areas included 2 dining areas, with a dining room for each hotel, though only 1 was used on the day we visited.

The lobby featured restrooms with water fountains near the Hampton Inn dining area.

Near the dining area were some newspapers guests could take.

Across from the front desk was the lobby market with drinks, frozen snacks, and pantry items.

Amenities

Signs near the elevators directed us to the various amenities available at the hotel. The dining area, business center, and front desk were on the first floor, while the pool, laundry, and fitness center were on the fourth floor. Another laundry room was on the twelfth floor, and ice was on every floor.

Pool

The pool is one of this hotel’s nicest features, though it was too cold for us to enjoy it during our visit. This pool is on the fourth floor, though it felt higher up than that, and the deck was reasonably open to enjoy some views and a lot of breeze.

Depending on the time of day, buildings nearby shaded the pool. It wasn’t very large, and I imagine this pool and the deck get pretty cramped during the summer.

Ample loungers in bright turquoise and yellow lined the pool deck. Part of the deck overlooked a large parking lot, but other areas had a view of a ballpark or downtown.

Getting to the pool required using our guest room key.

There was also a safety gate once we were outside.

The pool was open from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Another entrance to the pool featured towels and a towel drop.

In the hallway near the pool was a set of accessible restrooms.

Fitness Center

The 24-hour fitness center was on the same floor as the pool. It required key access. Although my key lit up green on the scanner at this door and the pool, the fitness center door was locked with a bolt, and I couldn’t get in.

I couldn’t get inside to see what exactly was in there, but from the door, I saw towels, a Peloton machine, and a few aerobic machines.

Business Center

The business center, located off the lobby, featured desk seating, plenty of workspace, a couple of screens, and a printer. I tried turning the screens on, but they didn’t work.

Meeting Rooms

The meeting rooms were on the fourth floor, near the pool and guest laundry.

Laundry

The guest laundry room was also on the fourth floor near the pool, which required key card access.

The laundry had 2 washers and 2 dryers. All of the machines were coin-operated for $2 each.

The room featured an emergency phone.

At the back of the room was a chair and a folding table with an outlet below.

Parking

Hampton Inn Houston Downtown only offered valet parking. It cost $49 to park overnight or $59 for vehicles over 7 feet long. A daily valet parking option was available for $25 but didn’t include overnight or in-and-out privileges and could be different on event days.

I prefer to avoid valet parking and knew we could find a much cheaper self-parking option, so we didn’t go with the hotel’s parking for this stay.

An unaffiliated parking lot across the street had a $30 parking sign and plenty of spaces. Street parking was also available but limited to 2 hours during paid parking hours.

I wasn’t sure about the parking across the street, specifically whether it was $30 overnight or per day (which would be $60 total for overnight if it was $30 per day). On our way downtown, we looked up parking options on SpotHero and found an overnight lot for $15 a block away.

The Room

I booked a 2 queen bedroom and got a room on the sixth floor. It was large enough for my family of 5, as we brought an inflatable bed for one of the kids. While we were comfortable here, I thought the lighting was pretty dim. Every available light was on in the photos I took of the room.

Bedroom

The 2 queen beds had all-white bedding that was clean and comfortable, with plenty of fluffy pillows. Each bed had a tall, soft leather headboard.

Between the beds was a single nightstand featuring a clock, phone, and 2 adjustable lamps. An outlet was on the front of the nightstand.

Instead of a drawer, the nightstand had a surface that pulled out for more space. I thought it was less useful than a drawer, but I could see how this might be nice if you need more space to charge devices.

Walking into the room, we found 2 short stools that, pushed together, worked great for luggage storage.

A dresser with clothing storage space, a refrigerator, a coffee maker, and a TV was at the foot of the beds. A desk with a chair and lamp was attached to the end of the dresser.

Inside the dresser, we found wire pull-out shelves for clothes. Unconventional, but I would have used them if we’d stayed more than a night, and these are preferable to open shelves.

On the other end was the small refrigerator, which worked fine but didn’t have a freezer. And in the middle was the coffee maker, which was small and used pods. There was always fresh coffee available in the lobby, so we didn’t use the coffee maker in our room.

The LG TV sat on top of the dresser.

The dresser featured an outlet with 2 regular outlets and 1 USB outlet on the end, near the room entrance.

On the other end was a desk area with a chair, mirror, and lamp. There were outlets below and on the lamp.

A closet was past the bathroom door to the right of the room entrance. It featured space to hang clothes with hangers, a shelf for storage with extra bedding that came in handy for sleeping a fifth person, a small safe, a luggage rack, and an ironing board. I didn’t notice an iron to go with the ironing board.

Right next to the closet was the bathroom. The bathroom and closet shared a sliding barn door. I appreciate the efficiency, but I found it odd and dysfunctional. If we wanted the closet door open, the bathroom door had to be closed, and vice versa.

When we got ready in the morning, I got hit by the door as I came out of the bathroom because one of my kids opened the closet door to get a bag at the exact moment I was walking out of the bathroom. It was a heavy door. It probably would have been more painful for my kid to get hit by the door if the timing had been different and I’d caught them in the closet doorway as I opened the door to exit the bathroom.

Bathroom

Aside from getting smacked by the door, the bathroom worked fine for our needs. It didn’t have the 2-room bathroom setup I enjoyed at the Hampton Inn & Suites Aurora South Denver, but the counter space was ample, and the shower was pretty roomy.

The counter featured a single sink with storage cubbies underneath it.

Next to the sink were wall-mounted Zero% amenities, both hand soap and body lotion. I noticed the wallpaper was a little worn and dirty here. These seemed like wipeable smudges that didn’t get cleaned in between stays.

The cubbies under the counter had hanging rods for towels and pulled out to reveal shelves. This was a nice feature because we could store toiletries on the shelves and easily pull them out to see them better.

The shower had a glass enclosure, and we found enough hooks for our used towels. I liked that we could open the shower door near the shower head fixture to get the water running hot before actually stepping inside.

The shower featured the same Zero% amenities as the sink, this time offering shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in refillable containers mounted to the wall.

The shower featured a rainfall showerhead. The pressure wasn’t adjustable, but we could move the direction as needed.

The toilet was in its own small corner. While it wasn’t closed off with a door like some hotel rooms, it was behind a wall separated from the sink area.

The View

Our view from the sixth floor was nice. We could see a lot of downtown Houston, including the Jones on Main building, which was lit up red at night.

The daytime view was still nice, though we were surrounded mostly by parking lots and garages.

Food and Beverage

Our stay included a free breakfast buffet, which was pretty good for a hotel breakfast. We were directed to the Homewood Suites breakfast area, as the Hampton Inn dining section wasn’t open when we visited.

Breakfast hours were 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. daily, with an evening reception on Wednesdays from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Like other Hamptons we’ve visited, this hotel had a coffee station with hot coffee, decaf, and hot water during breakfast and around the clock.

Hot food items included scrambled eggs and breakfast bagel bites with egg, cheese, and bacon. I skipped over the scrambled eggs and got a couple of the bagel bites, which I regret not eating more of.

The other hot options were hash browns and breakfast sausages.

There were 2 waffle stations along with chocolate and fruit sauces for toppings. I was a little disappointed to see these waffles weren’t Texas-shaped as we’ve seen at some other Texas hotels.

Next to the waffles were breakfast breads, including bagels, English muffins, and sliced bread, with a toaster available.

Toward the end of the breakfast service, the beverages were a little low, but orange juice, cranberry juice, and iced lemon water were available.

There were 5 cereal selections in the dispensers. My kids were happy to see so many choices, though they only cared about the Lucky Charms marshmallows and Honey Nut Cheerios.

On another counter in an ice bin was a large selection of yogurts and soy milk.

I liked that there were cut fresh fruits as well as whole fruits available. While free breakfasts usually offer apples and oranges, cut melons and pineapple are less common. This encouraged my kids to eat some pineapple, whereas they usually avoid the whole fruits.

The dining area had a lot of space, and we had plenty of seating choices.

Another dining room area nearby offered street views.

I noticed on the other side of the lobby that there was another dining area that was not in use. This was the Hampton Inn Houston Downtown breakfast buffet, but it wasn’t open when we visited, and we were directed to the Homewood Suites side.

I’m guessing they use this space during busy days, but the combined dining room was fine during our stay.

We also saw a sign in the elevator for the 7Ten Bar and Grille, which we didn’t catch the night we arrived. It didn’t open until 3 p.m. the next day, long after we checked out.

This small bar had indoor and outdoor seating.

Hot Tip:

With my Diamond status, I usually get a food and beverage credit at Hilton properties. However, this credit generally only applies to hotel brands that don’t offer a free breakfast, so we didn’t have a credit to use at the bar in this hotel.

Service

We mainly interacted with the front desk at this hotel and only briefly at check-in and when we checked out. Both encounters were efficient and cordial, and exactly what I expected. I asked for a printed receipt on our way out the door because I needed it for my rebate and didn’t trust myself to actually print it at home. The front desk was happy to give me a hard copy. The staff kept supplies well-stocked at breakfast, and we were satisfied with our meal. Overall, we were happy with the service we got at Hampton Inn Houston Downtown.

Surrounding Area

The George R. Brown Convention Center is only a 5-minute walk away, as is Discovery Green park, across the street from the convention center.

Hampton Inn Downtown Houston is so close to Minute Maid Park that you can see the ballpark from the pool deck. It’s just behind the Incarnate Word Academy and Annunciation Catholic Church.

The hotel is pretty close to the Toyota Center, too, where the Houston Rockets play. That’s only a 7-minute walk, most of it through Discovery Green.

Hampton Inn Houston Downtown isn’t as close to the Theater District as it is to other downtown destinations, but it’s still only about a 15-minute walk. Alternatively, you can take the light rail a block away from the hotel on Capitol. That will take you straight to the Theater District near Capitol and Louisiana.

We mainly wanted to see Discovery Green at night while staying at this hotel, and it took just minutes to walk down Crawford straight into the middle of the park, which was lit up for the holidays.

We loved popping over to the park and trying out the ice skating rink that’s only there in the winter. It was as slippery and wet as you’d imagine an outdoor ice skating rink in Houston to be.

The downtown lights were lit up on Avenida De Las Americas in front of the convention center, too.

Just across Discovery Green is the Hilton Americas-Houston, where we stepped into the lobby to check out the hotel’s amazing Super Mario Bros. chocolate display. The display is only up through the end of December, but the hotel always has a small chocolate replica of the hotel in a lobby display case.

Hot Tip:

There aren’t many Hilton Executive Lounge locations in the U.S. anymore, but the Hilton Americas-Houston has one: the R24 Rooftop Lounge. I visited the lounge a few years ago and enjoyed the refreshments and great views!

There’s excellent dining in the area, with Vic & Anthony’s Steakhouse and Xochi within a block of Hampton Inn Houston Downtown’s front door.

Final Thoughts

Although it was a last-minute stay and just 1 night, we enjoyed our visit to Hampton Inn Houston Downtown. The room was adequate for our short stay, the view was nice, and the location was perfect for enjoying a holiday night downtown. I’ll consider staying here again — or the connected Homewood Suites — next time we want to spend the night downtown, especially if we’re hitting a Houston Astros game, an event at the convention center, or Discovery Green.