Dreaming of The Q Hotel in Kansas City

John and I are planning a trip down to Kansas City this summer to attend a birthday party which will more than likely be a giant family reunion. When shopping around for hotels in a city with which I’m not that familiar I rely heavily on the internet and its opinions. Frankly, TripAdvisor is a downer… everything has mildew in the showers, stains, and a missing TV remote. I started looking on Hotels.com, Travelocity.com, Expedia.com, and almost everywhere else. I sorted by location (close to landmarks I knew of like the Plaza), by price, and by star rating.

Photo credit: Kansas City Royalty on Flickr

After searching for quite a while I finally came across The Q Hotel formerly The Quarterage Hotel which was renovated as recently as December 2007. It’s found in Westport, which is home to some of the oldest buildings in the city (19th century) made of brick and filled with bars, shops, and live music venues. Aside from location, it had everything else I was looking for… and most importantly free wifi.

According to their website The Q Hotel is Kansas City’s first GREEN hotel. It has an eco-plan that helped them earn this responsible and prestigious title from Energy Star appliances, bio-friendly cleaning products, water conservation, organic foods and wines, to sending leftovers to local farmers for composting. They also have a courtesy shuttle that’s a hybrid and offer up bikes so that guests can get around town. I’m pretty surprised there aren’t more initiatives like this with hotels around Vancouver.

I’d love to be able to stay here and blog about our experience at a green hotel. If anything, I would also like to be able to contribute a TripAdvisor entry that actually shines a positive light on hotel stays.