Courtyard Birmingham Hoover

So I really want to like this hotel. It is great for business and seems to be well taken care of by the staff. They are friendly and greet you warmly… Major brownie point. The rooms are clean and well adorned. Now you may ask yourself why only 3 stars. Well someone had the bright idea to add fragrance into the air… No just in the lobby when you enter the establishment but in the sleeping quarters as well. The fragrance is strong and doesn’t smell very good. It kind of reminds me of walking in front of Abercrombie & Fitch. It’s a bit of a turn off for me! Luckily, just as soon as it is starting to give me a headache I end up adjusting to it and then I can’t smell it anymore. I hope they read this review and decide to revisit the fragrance they are pumping into the air as it can be very off-​putting for those who are sensitive (and I am not sensitive to fragrances).

I like the décor of the place and my room was nice and big!
I definitely felt safe here. It is clean and filled with tasteful colors.
I got a suite, so it had a separate sitting area and bedroom. It was huge! I’m glad, because the gym was under construction so I had to workout in my room. I definitely wasn’t in need of space.
I liked having a fridge, but it froze all my food! It was too cold in there and I had to throw out my food anyways.
Strangely enough I asked for lotion in a note to the housekeeping and I never got it. They did take the tip though! I could have called to get more, but I found it weird they don’t automatically leave lotion in the room.
The road is incredibly congested after work. If you miss the turn into the Marriott, it will take another 5 – 10 minutes to make an (illegal) u turn at the light.

First, let’s get to the good. It’s convenient, safe, and clean. It has the basics covered. My bed was very comfortable, the TV was new and big, and the location was quiet. Plus, there’s a Jim and Nick’s BBQ next door, which is delicious.
Now, the bad. The hotel layout is odd. It’s not easy to get from the rooms to the front desk. Parking seemed to be tight as well.
Attention to detail is missing here. When I got to my room, as I was putting away my shave kit, I noticed the hotel shampoo is Paul Mitchell. Nice touch. However, by leaving me two conditioners and no shampoo, they suggested I need some extra hair therapy. A visit to the front desk fetched me some shampoo.
As I was preparing for my day, I found the ironing board was missing. There was an iron, just no board. A call to the front desk had one delivered. Unfortunately, the iron was a piece of crap and leaked all over my clothes. Fail.
The phone by the bed did not work. Luckily, there was one on the desk that was in working order (so I could call for that ironing board.)
When I returned to the hotel the next night, my room keys would not work. Another visit to the front desk to get them fixed. However, to note I have a big concern here: I just told the clerk I was in room 2xx and she just made me new cards without question. She didn’t ask my name or for ID. Big red flag here.
Overall, it’s not a bad place. I just expect more as a business traveler and this place marketed as a Courtyard just misses the mark.

Stayed here while on business. The staff is incredibly friendly and it’s one of the updated properties. I loved my first floor room facing the interior courtyard where I could go right out to the pool deck and do some work. I suppose my only gripe was the housekeeping staff… both myself and a colleague who was in another room had housekeeping knocking on our door… twice…even while our DND was on.
It’s in a pretty convenient location but the main road is incredibly congested. Lots of restaurant options around.

Have stayed here several times over the years. All have been satisfactory, but the place is starting to become worn. The air and heat in our room didn’t work at all and there was no hair dryer in the room. Also, insulation strip around door fell off when we walked in the door. Linens and everything were just worn. Parking can be a problem at high occupancy.

Overall my experience here was not great. Checking in and getting the room key was fine. They have a «bistro» (as they called it) in the lobby where they have a happy hour at night but I found out the next morning that they do not serve free coffee in the lobby and the food at the bistro is expensive. It’s no better than the local fast food place and much more pricey.
The room was nice, housekeeping did their job, ice machine worked, everything was clean but the layout of the room was strange. Not as flowing or natural as many other hotel rooms. Mini fridge was nice but I like to see a microwave also.
Then we get to my real problem. I was here on business, my company booked the room for me and I put down my credit card for incidentals. However, without telling me or my office, they need a faxed credit card authorization form to actually charge the room to the card it was booked on. Two issues I have with this… They didn’t tell me or my office until the morning I checked out. AND I didn’t have this done at another local hotel I stayed at a few months before. I won’t name that hotel but… It’s the one I will stay at from now on in any city.

I have very few complaints about my stay at the Courtyard Birmingham Hoover. I booked online and got a great deal for my last minute booking. Checking in and out was incredibly easy.
I can’t speak to the amenities or lobby, as this was a one night stay and the room and the back of my eyelids were about all I got to see.
The room was very clean and comfortable, situated on one of the upper floors, and featured a true balcony. Everything that needed to be there was there, and the hotel was quiet. The beds were very comfortable and, though we didn’t use it, there was a very nice LG 32″ LCD television in the room.
A few complaints would be the tiny pillows, thin towels, and lack of enough parking closer to the building. Also, my particular room had an old smoke odor, though the facility is ostensibly non-​smoking.
All-​in-​all, not a bad stay if you can get a good rate. I wouldn’t pay full price, however.

We needed a quick place place to stay over and this hotel did a very good job at it.
Pros: clean room, comfortable bed, the room was nicely decorated, the property was very well kept, the Wi-​Fi net worked very well and the hotel staff was friendly (nothing special but friendly). I took the advice of a previous review here on Unilocal and got a room away from the HWY 31 side and it was quite with no problems. Also, the location is close to a lot of restaurants and shopping.
Cons: The $ 10.95 breakfast buffet did not look worth it (however we did go down HWY 31 toward CVS and there is this awesome breakfast place called the Egg and I and it was cheaper and amazing), The hotel is on a very busy hwy, and other than that there were a lot of teenagers (looked like they were there with some high school football teams) running around in the halls and lobby without their shirt and wished the hotel staff could have handled that.
I do recommend this hotel.

I did the «name your own price» feature on
to get this room. It apparently is supposed to run close to $ 100 a night. I absolutely would not pay that much at this hotel. I got the room for $ 50 and I think it was probably worth that. For $ 100 I would expect a much nicer bed and much better water pressure in the shower.
The hotel was also packed with rowdy teenagers. I remember being a rowdy teenager once, so I wasn’t that upset but the hotel staff wasn’t doing much to keep them from nearly overtaking the hotel lobby. When I was checking in one of the kids actually bumped right into me while he was leaning on the front desk. How hard is it to keep them from hanging all over the front desk while other guests are trying to check in?
Don’t pay full price for this hotel, you will regret it.

The place looked worn; had a patio with the room. The patio door hardware was broken and the door glass had not been cleaned. The patio floor was dirty. The bed and bath were clean.