After the 2008 renovation, the hotel's rooms page opened with two simple offers — a king room or a double room — and then buried the reader under the most complete amenity list on the boulevard. Both are preserved here as guests found them.
Double Room
"Your room features two plush double beds with cable TV, free local calls, AM/FM clock radio, coffee maker, voicemail, iron and ironing board, free wifi, hairdryer and more. Our ADA-compliant rooms include a step-in shower area with shower chair." Two doubles at standard-rate occupancy of four made this the race crew's room of choice — the rate card charged the same for four guests as for one.
King Room
"Your room features one plush king bed with cable TV, free local calls, AM/FM clock radio, coffee maker, iron and ironing board, hairdryer, voicemail, free wifi, and more." Business travelers gravitated here, and the earlier Business Class kings added breakfast, a big desk and upgraded toiletries — see the features page for the pre-renovation room classes, including the suites with adjoining living rooms.
Exterior Corridors, Two Stories, Real Florida
The hotel was a classic two-story exterior-entrance motor hotel: park near your room, carry your cooler ten steps, prop the door while you unload. Rooms faced either the palm-lined courtyard pool or the parking areas, and the whole property was navigable without an elevator — though luggage carts and staff were always at hand.
The Amenity List
The 2011 site enumerated everything, and the list rewards reading in full. Highlights, by category:
Around the Clock
- 24-hour front desk and 24-hour security
- Electronic room keys
- Wake-up service, voice mail, free local calls
In the Room
- Cable TV, alarm clock, AM/FM radio
- Coffee maker, microwave and refrigerator
- Iron and ironing board, hairdryer
- Free wireless internet (and wireless in the lobby)
Family & Budget Friendly
- Children stay free; cribs available
- Florida-resident, military and senior discounts
- Free self-parking, bus parking, free newspapers
- Pets accepted on leash
On the Property
- Outdoor pool and sundeck in the tropical courtyard
- Restaurant, in-house bar and lounge, room service
- Business center, meeting rooms, ATM
- Dry-cleaning service, baggage handling, concierge services
Getting Around
- Complimentary airport shuttle and local shuttle within two miles
- Interstate access; golf courses, tennis and shopping nearby
- Golf packages with pre-arranged tee times (details)
Accessibility
ADA-compliant rooms included step-in showers with shower chairs, and the single-story room access from grade made the property genuinely usable for guests with mobility needs — the federal accessibility requirements hotels follow are published at ADA.gov. Photographs of the renovated rooms survive in the gallery.
Race Week in a Double Room
The double room deserves its own paragraph in any honest history of this hotel. Four race fans, two beds, one bathroom schedule negotiated over coffee, a cooler under the window air conditioner, and the Speedway visible from the walkway outside the door — that configuration, multiplied by a hundred rooms, was Speedweeks on the boulevard. The same room a month later held a golf foursome's gear bags, and a month after that, a family of four with mall bags and pool towels. Exterior-corridor doubles were the Swiss Army knife of Florida hospitality, and this hotel ran 127 rooms' worth of them with a front desk that guests praised by name in the guestbook for years.
The rooms themselves were the hotel's quietest feature and its most consistent one. Award inspectors measured them in 2009 and put the property in the top tier of its brand; guests had been measuring them for years by a simpler standard — clean, comfortable, and exactly where you wanted to wake up on race morning. Both verdicts are preserved in the news archive.