Van Buren Hotels

"My favorite thing about this place is the basement fitness center. They have a new, single room fitness center on the first floor that’s fine for a casual exercise enthusiast. It’s still probably better than most hotels (it has a decent complement of weights, medicine balls, and kettlebells), a leg extension/curl machine, a multifunction weight stack machine, a bench, and a few cardio machines. The basement gym is so much cooler if you are a bit more into working out, though. It rivals a small commercial gym. Two rooms of cardio equipment, but the weight room is the gem. A squat rack, Smith machine, leg press, benches, 1000s of pounds of free weights, dumbbells up to 110s, multi-station cable crossover machine, dip station, three distinct weight stack multi-stations with different exercises (shoulder press, chest fly, leg extension/curl, hip an/adduct…), and so much more. I was told about the new room when checking in, and was told they were doing away with the “out dated” basement set up because it wasn’t cost effective to maintain or something. I was given a separate key to access the basement gym when I asked about it, and had it all to myself with my son. When checking out, I again mentioned how awesome the basement was, and lamented that they were doing away with it. The checkout woman said they weren’t likely getting rid of the stuff, they just weren’t going to advertise it, but if you knew and asked they’d give you access. The gym was the sole reason I chose them!"