3 Things I Liked: citizenM Hotel Seattle South Lake Union

citizenM Hotel Seattle South Lake Union is one of two citizenMs in Seattle! In recent years, I have become a fan. It’s a hotel that brands itself as “affordable luxury” which to might be open to debate.

I would not classify them as “luxury” but they are not far off from it either. They provide all the essentials and do that well without unnecessary bells and whistles.

I was in Seattle for the Museum Of Flight a few months back for a short 3 night stay. I looked at a handful of hotel options and really was not too fussed about anything in particular so I booked this for just over $600.

Location & Check In

The hotel is located a few minutes north of the waterfront and downtown Seattle. There are several big chain hotels in the area such as Hyatt’s and Pan Pacific.

You can take the green 1-line from the airport in around 1 hour, which involves 10 minute walking which I did on my way back. On arrival I got an Uber which was just under 30 minutes

The hotel encourages you do check-in online, via their app or site and provide essential information needed.  And then all you have to do it verify your ID in one of their kiosks to get your room card. The concepts are well covered here

That is exactly what I did, but for some reason their machine had issue with my passport on this occasion so I was looked after by one of their “ambassadors”. Otherwise you do not even need to have any contact with staff if you don’t fancy it!

First impressions were exactly what I had imagined this place would be. Modern, tech driven and had a sense of calm and young vibrant energy all at the same time.

The clientele are mostly young, with techies and marketeers not hard to spot with Amazon offices surrounding the area..

citizenM Hotel Seattle The Room

I booked a standard room and a standard room is what I got. One thing you should know is citizenM rooms are super compact! The rooms are roughly 150 square foot but yet, have everything you need…

The bed is a full double size, that will comfortably sleep 2.

The bed has slide out storage units that you can pull out and store your luggage. Note if you have a large suitcase, you may struggle to squeeze it in, but a medium sized suitcase should be fine.

You then have a compact desk area with a funky chair

Placed on the desk is your entire rooms control panel pad. You can use this to control lighting, blinds and temperate levels of your room with various pre-selected modes to make things easier.

When you’re ready for bed, just one tap and your whole room will be in sleep mode!

Next by the shower room you have your closet area with luggage storage space there if you need it..

In the middle of the room you kind of have this dressing/sink area with more storage and a mini fridge..

There are some shelves with some books, which are very handy. On this occasion they had a selection of the School Of Life books which I would recommend to anyone.

I always get a Tokyo hotel feeling in citizenM, which is mostly a good thing, but there are some missing touches like slippers and Japanese PJs etc

citizenM Hotel Seattle Bathroom

For it’s compact size there is a decent sized shower and restroom here, with essential amenities..

The shower pressure was amazing!

In & Around The Hotel

Part of the identity of citizenM is their social spaces designed in a home living room vibe, and this was no different here

Generally each hotel uses local inspirations to decorate the spaces with local artists and artifacts. It had a very cosy yet funky vibe in the evening. During daytime, there was enough natural light to supplement and accent the spaces in an all together different mood.

In the close vicinity of the hotel, you have various good eating options from Japanese/Thai, Mexican down to a Whole Foods store to buy fresh deli food.

If you fancied breakfast in the hotel itself, they cater this quite well..

They have a good range of fresh styles of eggs, fries, cold meats and cheeses down to healthier cereals and fruits and yogurts..

Breakfast was not included in my room rate, but was just $18.95 to add on on the day, I preferred the flexibility of that and ended up eating here 2 of the 3 mornings!

Overall Thoughts

I liked my stay here and would certainly book again. The location was very convenient for all the tourist attractions and made it easy to get around on foot to much of the places of interest. I was even looking to extend my trip by a day but was unable to change my flight back.

What citizenM provides in general is a level of simplicity and consistency that you know what they are about and what kind of comfort to expect. It is minimalist.

If I do not have time to research a hotel in a specific location, I will book a citizenM if available in that city. It’s nice to have an easy go-to option with hotels!