March 2023 featured my annual ice hockey trip supporting the Pittsburgh Penguins. Right before the first match on my list, I stayed at an IHG branch I never had slept in before. The Even Hotel Pittsburgh Downtown is closely located to PPG Paints Arena and thus felt to be an ideal stay for that purpose. Here are my thoughts.
Even Hotel Pittsburgh Downtown – Location
Even Hotel Pittsburgh Downtown is located at Forbes Avenue, two blocks away from the Steel Plaza station of Pittsburgh light rail. All downtown attractions are in walking distance, the walk to PPG Paints Arena is less than ten minutes. The same block of buildings also features a Target store, which might be quite handy. There are also some restaurants in very close distance, apart from the food services at the hotel itself.
On the opposite side of Forbes Avenue, there is also a parking garage, which is also used as the parking facility of the hotel. My rental car stayed there overnight without moving it, which was a 28 USD parking fee. The hotel gave a 30 USD fee at that time – not sure if that is then including in and out priviledges. The parking situation is unfortunate, as you have to go down to street level, cross the street, enter the hotel and go up to reception at fifth floor. There is a foodbridge directly connecting the hotel with the parking garage, but it was not usable during my stay.
Even Hotel Pittsburgh Downtown – Atmosphere
A very strange feature of this Pittsburgh hotel is that it in fact just covers two floors, the fifth and the sixth floor of the building. The rooms are located at an almost rectangular shaped aisle. The hotel has roughly 160 guest rooms, so that the round trip on that rectangle is quite long. The hotel is trying to promote active and healthy life, which you will also see in special room features I name below. The lobby feels very modern and friendly, having a bar-and-market place alike dining area.
Another feature of Even Hotels, which rather felt like silly marketing to me is that all hotel rooms have even numbers. This means that on one side of the aisle you have room numbers which are multiples of four and on the other side those which aren’t. It may sound funny, but I felt that it is extremely distracting and confusing (even though I studied maths and generally feel I am not too bad in calculating things).
Even Hotel Pittsburgh Downtown – Room
For my Thursday to Friday night in March 2023, I had booked a King Premium Room. The prepaid, non-refundable rate, including taxes, was 165.57 USD. The rate included breakfast. Unfortunately, my room was more or less at the opposite end of the rectangle from the reception, which meant that it took me roughly three minutes from the room door to reception only – very bothering. The room itself was huge, especially if you bear in mind that you are in the heart of the city. I liked the workdesk and the whole cupboard around it. The bed was nice as well. There was a switch to adjust the light to different colors, which did not work for me (maybe I was too dumb…).
The shower bathroom was really nice as well. You saw that the hotel recently had been renovated. Amenities were given in different dispensers. As you saw in the pictures above, one of the main features of the Even Hotel chain is to stay fit – apart from some gym items, there was even a small book with suggestions how to practice in the room. Despite being a couple of floors above traffic, the room did not feel to be really soundproof. It was noisy even throughout the night.
Even Hotel Pittsburgh Downtown – Breakfast
Breakfast in the Even Hotel is served in the marketplace area at reception. Some items are made fresh, others are available in the fridges of the shop (e.g. yogurt, juices, fruit etc.). The whole thing was very confusing, starting with that check-in did not give me a breakfast voucher despite my rate included it. The ordering process felt weird to me, as the staff also did not give me any hint about the value of the value. The freshly made omelette was really nice, though.
Even Hotel Pittsburgh Downtown – Service
As said, there were some issues at check-in. Overall, the staff was nice, but other US-American hotels definitely gave me a more welcoming feeling. In line with the concept, the gym of the hotel was large and looked really nice. WiFi worked out well, too.
Even Hotel Pittsburgh Downtown – My View
I feel that the idea behind the Even Hotel brand is very modern and may attract many people. However, parts of the concept, especially not having uneven numbers, unnecessarily limits the comfort of your stay. The service issues, the rather noisy room, parking and the long commute from the room are additional negative points I felt to be specific for the Pittsburgh Downtown outlet. Overall, a good stay, which could have lead to a better rating with some minor adjustments.
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