I just had a very pleasant five night stay at this hotel. The lobby area is somewhat off-putting (very beige and kind of depressing), but the newly refinished rooms on the 6th ant 7th floors are very nice.

I enjoy having a kitchen, but although the hotel claims that the in-room kitchens are full kitchens, they really only have a microwave, fridge, dishwasher and two tiny burners. No full-sized burners and no ovens!

Also, unlike other Residence Inns that I have stayed at, this one only offers "evening snack" on Wednesdays, as opposed to Mon-Thurs.
And, unless you specifically ask, your sheets won't be changed--mine weren't changed at all during my stay.

That being said, if you are looking for a safe, quiet hotel in a rather sedate location (there's not much shopping, dining or nightlife within 1/2 mile of this hotel) this is a great choice.

This is my second stay at the Residence Inn. I really like this place and the location in Lake Union, and when using Priceline I now always hope to get this hotel. Although the hotel is currently being renovated, this didn't bother me in the least - they work only 8-5 anyway. Otherwise it's a very comfortable hotel.

Last time I didn't have a car but found it easy to get around - there are buses nearby (you can use Google's transit site for easy mapping of routes from, say, King Street Station - Amtrak - to the hotel) and now there's a tram that runs from almost in front of the hotel into downtown. But you can walk to Seattle Center, Queen Anne, etc. or even downtown very easily if you are in good walking shape.

This time I had a car and had remembered street parking was free - but if it was before, now all parking on streets adjacent to the hotel is pay-to-park, with "parking machines." As of this writing it's 75 cents/hour (cheaper than elsewhere in Seattle) and there are 10-hour spots adjacent to the hotel where you can park all day (free Sundays and holidays). But you have to get out there at 8am to pay for that day's parking. Next time I'd probably park in the lot for $20/night, given the last reviewer's observation that car windows had been smashed (there was still broken glass on the street when I parked there a few weeks later). But you don't really need a car if you are staying here and limiting yourself to the core Seattle sites, if you use the tram and bus or walk to things, use the occasional taxi.

Hotel has free wired internet in the room if you have a laptop (they supply the ethernet cable). Worked great for me.

This is our second stay here, both times for the Seattle boat show. It's a perfect location for that, but also great for other Seattle desitinations, especially since the trolly stops in front of the hotel and takes you downtown where you can walk or take the monorail to Seattle Center. The breakfast is well above average, rooms are spacious, nice to have a kitchen and coffee is always available in the lobby. We are very picky about coffee and found theirs to be well above average. There are many nice resturants, Joeys, Dukes chowder House were quite good. Only negative were the beds were quite soft for us, but would not stop a return visit. The parking is about $10 less than downtown hotels. Even though they are renovating, there wasn't excessive noise or inconvenience. Also, don't pay extra for a "water view", isn't really isn't much.

Our family (including 2 boys under 3 and a dog) stayed at the Lake Union Residence Inn this past weekend. Every staff person we met was very friendly and accommodating. Though we didn't book a "view room" (more expensive), we were upgraded when we arrived and our boys enjoyed watching the boats and seaplanes on the lake and the streetcar down below. We took full advantage of the kitchen as well as the robust continental breakfast.

Our room on the 5th floor hadn't been renovated yet but was very comfortable and clean. The king bed was so comfortable, with a nice variety of pillows. We got a rollaway bed for our oldest son and even that bed was comfortable - often rollaways are of the fold up variety and are miserable to sleep on. This was an actual twin bed on wheels with the same linens and comfortable pillows as our bed.

The hotel itself doesn't have a restaurant (no room service) but several restaurants (like Outback) offer delivery. The restaurants in the area are either seafood (across the street) or chain restaurants (outback, bucca de beppo). Belltown, with many cool local restaurants and coffee shops, is an easy drive or a 20 minute walk.

Since our boys wake up really early (5 a.m.), we really liked the fact that the pool opens at 5 a.m. It was a way to keep the kids occupied and away from the room so that we didn't disturb other guests who were probably sleeping. There is a deep pool, a small kids pool (3 ft) a dry sauna and a hot tub.

We opted to park on the street behind the hotel - the meter costs about $10 for the whole day as opposed to $20 in the hotel garage. The area around the hotel is all commercial (a public storage, cancer treatment center, day care center) so the streets were completely empty on the weekend. That's great for finding parking but probably not so great for security purposes. The Saturday night we were there, all the cars parked on the street had their windows shattered - probably about 12 cars in total. We just happened to be at a friend's house on Saturday night so our car wasn't hit. I have no idea what the hotel did for the owners of the cars. The neighborhood seems fine and this was probably just an unfortunate aberration. Obviously, if we stayed here again we would opt to pay for the garage.

I would definitely recommend this hotel to others, especially families. Having a kitchen is a great way to save money on lunches or dinners and it's also nice to have two separate rooms so that the kids can go to sleep and the adults can stay up a bit later. There's even a playground across the street, though we didn't visit since the weather was soggy and cold.