Residence Inn by Marriott Norman, Norman

I enjoying staying at this hotel. The Residence Inn is a unique place. This hotel has everything. I stay for a couple days at a time each week. My company brought me to Norman, OK to set up an IT system at the University of Oklahoma. I usually dread work "details" like this, because usually I'm cramped into a hotel room with a bed and a shower. Here though I have lots of room, a full kitchen, a big work desk (with high speed internet), a couch, and even a walk-in closet. The property itself is set up like an apartment complex, lots of parking. I can send out my dry cleaning in the morning and pick it up after work in the evening. Sometimes I also leave a grocery list at the front desk in the morning. They'll go shopping for me and put the items in my room. They don't charge anything extra, I just pay for the groceries. It's very convenient. My favorite part of the hotel is the free breakfast. It provides me a great start in the morning...this morning I made my own waffle and decorated it with strawberries and whipped cream. Nothing was frozen, all fresh. This hotel is designed for the weary traveler too as much as it is for the business person. Most of the suites have fireplaces, which is cool on a cold night. They also have a mini-market in the lobby area where you can buy anything from a TV dinner to a 2-liter bottle of soda. The staff is very gracious. They are always so sweet. About a month ago I came down with the flu. As you know, being sick and traveling is quite possibly the worst combination. After checking into the hotel I fell right to sleep. In the morning I could barely roll out of bed. I called the front desk and asked if they could bring me an extra blanket and box of kleenexes. The young lady who answered asked me if she could bring me something for breakfast. I told her that I didn't think that I could keep anything down, but I thanked her for the thought. Then she asked if they could get me any medicine. I had forgotten about that, so I put in my "grocery order" for some flu medicine. About five minutes later there was a knock at my door. When I opened it there stood someone from the front desk and someone from housekeeping. The clerk was carrying a tray with a bottle of orange juice, a couple of yogurts, some fruit, some soda crackers, a carton of milk, and a mini-box of my favorite cereal. Behind her stood the housekeeper with a blanket and kleenexes. They walked in, put the food in the refrigerator and the blanket on the couch. The housekeeper opened the kleenex box for me and put it on the nightstand. As they were leaving the front desk person told me that when the medicine was here that she would make the message light on my telephone blink, that way they wouldn't wake me up with a telephone call. About an hour later the light started blinking. I called the front desk and they delivered it to me, along with a cold bottle of water. I tell this story because I was so impressed by how they went out of their way to help me. I was so sick, and they made me feel like I was a part of the family. They really do care here.