Well, it’s like this. We were on a road trip, and it was there. As you know, we’ve stayed in more than 50 Airbnb and B&B Properties, but sometimes it doesn’t work out and we have to stay at a regular place. In this particular stay, we were compelled to stay at a Tru.
We are not going to tell you where this was, because it doesn’t matter. All of these places are identical.
What is a Tru Hotel like?
This particular one was directly across from the Hampton Inn which we pick on all the time because of its predictability. There is a lot of question as to what the Tru is supposed to be. The marketing literature says it is supposed to be geared toward a younger kind of edgy crowd. The property was newer, and more European-like (austerely furnished) and was a bit bare bones even for us.
After consideration I guess you could say it was set up to be maintained efficiently, because it costs something to change the towels.
What is the Tru Hotel history?
Well, The True hotel is a brand of Hilton which was launched in 2017 because they thought the Garden Inn, Hampton Inn and Home2 Suites were not sufficiently addressing the market. The intended target market is the 35-year old Millennial who need a place to stay because it is close to their project.
The price? Well we found out that it is a little more than the local Hampton Inn.
The openly stated idea for this is to get people out of their rooms and into the lobby, which is supposedly what Millennials like. The question “what is a Tru hotel?” is answerable this way: It’s a hotel with an excuse for a snack bar and pool table. I guess in this era it is too dangerous to go to a “real bar.”
Here’s a link for these poor guys:
In the parking lot, there was a big group of construction workers with a cooler of cheap American beer, standing around in a circle and laughing. This was about 4PM we guess.
Comparison between The Tru Hotel and the Firefly
Drive Up Appeal
At the Firefly, you’re greeted by a chicken, or a friendly dog. We had some people just the other day drive up and tell us that when they saw some chickens in the yard, they got a sense of peace. This parking lot gives you the sense of concrete.
The EV charging station might be a coming thing, and we are not opposed to putting one in. We’d be even more in favor of it if we had an EV.
At the Firefly our intended target market is people who like chickens.
Lobby
At the Firefly, there isn’t really one. You’re usually met in front of the place by a person.
In The Tru, it was multi-use. There was a little booth for the attendants, who were trained greeters who will give you an electronic key. There was a big lobby, brightly colored. This particular one had a pool table and some treadmills . It has something called a “24-hour Eat and Sip Market” where you can get a variety of junk food and/or beverages, heat it up and in the lobby. We did see one thing we liked, which is a collection of sound-deadening work cubicles.
There’s a guest laundry someplace too. It’s set up to have a construction crew stay in it for a few days.
The Guest Room
The Firefly: No two of these are the same. They were set up to be unique. The two upstairs lofts have swinging beds, just because we thought it would be fun, and the downstairs apartment that we call the Cottage has a refrigerator, kitchen-like area, and a luxurious vintage bathtub that we call the Little Mermaid. This is an inside joke. We have inside jokes all over our place, and everything has a story behind it.
The Tru: There are no inside jokes. There is an industrial bed, with an industrial mattress. The windowshade is made up so that you will think it is art, and so they don’t have to dust it. Your view is of the parking lot, which is nice in a way but not really.
There is a foot wide shelf that runs all the way around the room, for your laptop and device. A TV is installed along the wall. There is a fridge, but no microwave. You’re not encouraged to eat in your room.
We usually like to borrow an idea from the places we stay, and in this place it might have been the rack that sat over the AC unit so you could throw your bag without taking up space. Speaking of AC, we never could figure out how to get it to work properly.
The Bathroom
The Bathroom at the Tru had tubes of industrial bulk shampoo for your showering pleasure. We talk a little about these in our latest book, because by now we are nearly authoritative on hospitality this way.
The shower itself was fine. It was made up of one of those real-looking plastic inserts which still looks like the tile was mislaid. If the tile in the Firefly looks mislaid, it’s because it was. The tile crew was inefficient, and we have a funny story about the shower pans in the lofts in our place too.
There was something up with the bathroom door in the room we were in. It dragged a bit annoyingly on the floor when you tried to shut it. We chose not to troubleshoot the question of whether it was because of the door or some uneven tiles on the floor. They probably used some comparably idiot contractors as us, therefore there were imperfections.
At our place, imperfections are part of the story.
There was also some peeling wallpaper, which is one of the drawbacks of wallpaper.
Breakfast
This was the funniest of all, because of the irony.
At the Firefly, if you have time for breakfast, you get breakfast served adorably. It’s by someone who wrote the book on it, because she likes to serve it.
At the Tru, you get breakfast served by a robot.
Here is a video, in fact:
Side Note: Did you ever wonder what is in those pancakes? They were not served by some adorable person. The batter comes pre-mixed in a big bag, shipped in from someplace and is loaded into that machine.
Before that it was packaged by another machine, bulk loaded in some food factory someplace.
We usually know what is in the Firefly pancakes, starting with eggs from one of the local chickens. There’s a 100-foot supply chain.
The Guest Experience
At the Tru, it was as sterile and predictable as possible, because that is part of the product. We’ve anwered the question “what is a Tru Hotel.” It did its job, and kept us predicetably safe.
At our place, we try to make it a little unpredictable in a good way, because that is part of the product.
We are explorers too, by the way, and we’ve stayed in more than 50 Bed and Breakfasts or bnb’s and have written the book on the short term rental guest experience. The publish date is April 5th, and we have a lot to say about what Airbnb is, how to read an Airbnb listing, some of our more interesting stories as it applies to B&B stays. When it is published, we’ll put a link on our “books” page so you can click us up. It’s part of the Bed and Breakfast Life, and we like sharing.
