While my stay at the Omni Charlotte wasn’t perfect, it was better than I expected in a city that has plenty of good dining in walking distance.

Disclaimer: This hotel stay was necessary as part of volunteering work I do related to the health care industry. While I did not pay for the room charges, the opinions contained in this post remain my own.

Booking the Omni Charlotte

Official link to hotel: https://www.omnihotels.com/hotels/charlotte

My volunteer travels brought me out to Charlotte, North Carolina, a state that I haven’t been to in decades. And I can say that it was nice to be back. That’s the nice thing about traveling–it gives you a chance to explore new potential homes and revisit old ones.

Anyways, as this was a group event, the negotiated rate with the hotel was $229/night. That’s marginally better than the normal rate, which seems to generally hover around $250-$275/night. I can also say that it looks like one of the better options in the city. Not as nice as the Ritz-Carlton across the street but still better than other options nearby.

The downside with Omni Hotels is that you can’t really get “free” nights easily with the chain. Yes, they have a loyalty program called Omni Select Guest, but that program is almost exclusively a “stay X nights, get 1 free” program. You can’t just get a credit card and make things easier. Base members need to stay 20 nights to get 1 free. Elite members earn free nights twice as fast. Spending money at the hotel gets you there faster, but honestly not fast enough.

First impressions of the Omni Charlotte

I made it into Charlotte in the evening, not atypical of travel in from the west coast. What was nice was that the airport is so close to the city. It only felt like a 15 minute drive away, which was pretty efficient. Soon enough, I was moments away from pulling into the hotel parking lot.

If you’re valet parking a vehicle here, it will cost you $48/night. Not too unreasonable for downtown city standards, but still a bit high for North Carolina.

Once inside the hotel, you’ll see a small foyer right inside. To get to the front desk and the lobby, you’ll need to take the elevator up a floor.

And once you’re there, you’ll find that the front desk is pretty efficient. The friendly agent explained the features of the hotel, gave me some informational sheets about the area, and then directed me to the elevators. These were just the same elevators I took to get up here. One thing I’ll say is that the floor does some optical illusions with the pattern. It didn’t hit me as hard when physically there but just looking at these photos is making me a little trippy.

The room

My room for this stay was up on the 5th floor. What’s not clear to me is exactly why my room seemed to be in a dark corner of the hallway. The rest of the hallway was brightly illuminated but my corner was very dark. It doesn’t come through well in this photo but it felt like I was standing in the dark. I’m assuming that a light was just burnt out but I’d feel a little unsafe if I were a woman traveling alone in this part of the hallway.

Anyways, my room for this stay was 509.

The bedroom

The bed has a little bit of a posh look to it. I think part of that is just how out-of-focus the pictures are around the bed. It naturally draws your eyes onto the bed itself and makes for a nice visual effect. Sadly, the bed itself wasn’t what I prefer. I found the bed a bit too soft. It’s almost like I fell into the bed as though the mattress lost some of its strength. Others in my group thought the bed was plenty firm, so perhaps I just had an older mattress?

Across from the bed is a TV and the desk. Is it just me or does the TV just feel too small for the size of the room? Maybe they need to figure out the proper way to sell the TV that they did with the bed. One downside of the desk is that it’s simply not good with optical mice. Sigh.

On top of the desk are a couple of bottles of water, a Keurig machine, and the ice container.

Underneath the desk and next to the chair (awkwardly) is the mini-fridge. Usually this is hidden in a drawer or compartment but here they leave it so out in the open, it’s practically a footrest for the chair next to it.

Along the far wall of the room is a long couch that spans the length of the wall. If you had an extra guest and they needed to sleep somewhere, this couch could work in a pinch.

The view I had of the outside wasn’t that exciting. But I was also on the fifth floor, so I wasn’t expecting much of a view. I have no status with Omni, hence the low floor. Sadly, the walls were a bit thin. While my room didn’t face the street, I could easily hear what was going on in adjacent rooms.

Bathroom

The bathroom has a bit of a weird thing going on, starting with the door. This same door works the closet and the bathroom door. When you close the bathroom door, the closet is wide open. When you close the closet, the bathroom is open. I guess it saves space in an otherwise-cramped area. But it seemed a little weird functionally to me.

Once inside the bathroom, I was having all sorts of issues taking photos of it. That’s because the bathroom is very narrow. I couldn’t easily stand at one side to take a photo of the opposite side. And that difficulty will show in the photos below, so let me apologize in advance.

The bathroom vanity felt nicer than the average hotel I’ve been in. I’m guessing it’s the combination of the wallpaper, which seemed to provide a nice contrast to everything else, and the material of the counter itself. If it weren’t so narrow, I would have really liked what was going on here.

The shower stall was fine enough. I could turn on the water without getting doused with cold water, which is a typical pet peeve of mine. The main complaint is that I have to choose between good coverage and good water pressure with this faucet head. Why can’t I have both at once?

The shower amenities are by Klur, a brand I hadn’t heard of before. I thought they were good enough though.

Omni Select Guest likes to hand out free drinks

If you’re like me and only stay in Omni Hotels once in a blue moon, you’ll still want to sign up for their Omni Select loyalty program. Even if you don’t stay enough to get a free night, every member can get a free drink compliments of the hotel.

Unfortunately, while many Omni Hotels will give out a complimentary alcoholic beverage, local regulations apparently forbid this to be used towards alcohol. Therefore, you’ll get either coffee or soda with this one.

One other quick note–if you have even the regular member tier of Omni Select Guest, you’ll get “deluxe” internet for free. What makes it deluxe? I don’t know actually. It just is deluxe by default but you can always upcharge to a “premier” internet option.

The Club 14 Lounge

If you’re not used to the Omni Select Guest program, you might be surprised that lounge access isn’t actually a benefit for those holding elite status. If you want to enter the Club 14 Lounge, you’ll need to either have a room that enables access or inquire at check-in if a buy-up is available.

What’s included in the lounge? Per the Omni Charlotte’s Instagram account, you’ll get breakfast, midday and late night snacks, hors d’oeuvres, and select beer and wine. Yes, select beer and wine is complimentary for those who have access.

Details on specific hours of operation aren’t well-publicized, but from what I can tell, the general hours of operation are from 6:30AM to 10PM. Breakfast is generally 6:30AM to 10:30AM and evening appetizers and drinks start around 5PM.

Alas, I didn’t have access, so I cannot confirm.

Dining options at the Omni Charlotte

Trade Restaurant & Bar

Hours:

• 6:30AM – 11PM Sunday – Thursday
• 6:30AM – 12AM Friday – Saturday

Let me qualify this by saying that I ate at Trade but only as part of a conference meal package. The food was fine enough but not good enough to prevent me from dining elsewhere for dinner. What’s not clear to me is if the actual food is materially different from the conference food. Thus, I feel unable to give an analysis of the food here.

What I can say is that there are some party games here near the bar. If you’re just looking to stay inside and have a family with you, having some games to play is pretty neat. I’ll give them credit for that.

Coin Bar

Hours:

• 12PM – 8PM Monday – Thursday
• 12PM – 10PM Friday
• 11AM – 10PM Saturday
• 11AM – 8PM Sunday

Unfortunately, this was closed for the season when I visited and so I don’t have any pictures of it. This one is sometimes referenced as a “rooftop” bar, but it’s near the pool and the pool sits on the second floor of the hotel. I’ll let you be the judge of whether that counts as “rooftop”.

The bar and pool are only available during the summer, so don’t expect to spend much time here unless you are here over the summer.

In-room dining

Hours:

• Breakfast: 6:30AM – 11AM
• All day menu: 11AM – 11PM

Unfortunately, in-room dining is not available at all times of the day, but it covers most hours you might want it. Ordering is simple enough. To see the menu, you’ll need to scan the QR code found in your room. It will then take you to the menu.

I ordered the double-fried chicken, which was pretty good. Sometimes when you order fried chicken for in-room dining, it comes over to you soggy. Not this one. It was plenty crispy and the hot honey was heavier on the honey and less on the hot. One other nice thing was that the food didn’t seem to have a heavy markup. Yes, you’ll still pay a delivery fee for in-room dining and a mandatory service fee. But the prices for the food itself didn’t feel heavily marked up to start.

Fitness Center

The Omni Charlotte is attached to a shopping mall. Near the entrance to that mall on the same level as the lobby is One Athletics. This is an independent fitness center that hotel guests have access to. To get in, you’ll need to show your ID and register with the front. I fully intended on checking out the gym, but it actually closes quite early on the weekends (5PM). I guess working out late on the weekend isn’t a popular thing to do in Charlotte.

While I missed the fitness center, others in my group checked it out. I only heard positive remarks about it and apparently there’s also a basketball court inside.

When you’re in town, go check out The Cellar at Duckworth’s

A not-too-long walk away from the Omni Charlotte is Duckworth’s. What you’ll want to do is enter the restaurant but don’t bother dining on the main level. Instead, you’ll want to head down one level to a very popular American Speakeasy. If you have plans to check out The Cellar at Duckworth’s, you’ll either want to make a reservation in advance or get here early enough. The first time we tried had more than an hour wait. Thankfully, we were successful on the second attempt.

Down here, I’d recommend sitting at the bar if you have the opportunity. The bartenders and delightful to talk to and watching them make drinks is an artform.

One example is this very smoky drink. I had just as much fun watching the bartender make this drink as I had drinking it.

The people working here are honest. I did something dangerous by asking the bartender to make a drink that he liked. That could easily lead to a massive upcharge on top-shelf liquor but I trusted him. He rewarded the trust by making something delicious that didn’t cost more than other cocktails on the menu.

One last thing–the food here is amazing as well. While I don’t have a picture of it, I ate some ribeye steak when here. It was delicious between the flavorful crust and the tenderness inside. Do yourself a favor and come to The Cellar at Duckworth’s. It’s absolutely worth it when you’re in town.

Recommendation: Yes

The Omni Charlotte meets everything I’m looking for in a hotel. Sure, it’s not a perfect stay, but what is? The hotel is centrally located, has friendly service, and I have no major issues with the sleep I got here. Do I wish the Omni Select Guest loyalty program was more attractive to casual members? Yes, as I would probably stay at Omni hotels more often if they made it easier to collect points to redeem for award stays. But the reality is you’ll have to stay here in spite of that unless you’re a Omni loyalist yourself.

Still, I enjoyed the stay more than I thought I would coming in, which easily leads to the recommendation.

What Omni is your favorite to stay in?

Suggested reading:

• Are Mattress Runs Worth Your Time and Money?
• How Rewarding is a Night at Each Hotel Loyalty Program?
• Can You Gift Free Nights to Others? A Guide By Hotel Chain