I’m giving this downtown hotel two stars not because it’s luxurious and stuffed with amenities but because it is relatively small and simple—and has the lowest room rates of any hotel in downtown Seattle. I really like this place. It’s in a brick building built in 1928, and it’s so unobtrusive that you can walk by and hardly be aware of its presence. It started life as a hotel but went through many subsequent incarnations and name changes before a Canadian firm bought and started refurbishing it in 2009. There’s nothing glamorous or showy here, but that’s part of its charm. The hotel is built on one of Seattle’s steep hills, so from the mid-level reception area you walk up to the lounge and elevators or down to the cafe facing Fourth Avenue. The rooms are typical of older hotels in that you can actually open the windows—a feature I always appreciate—and the layout is economical and straightforward. But there’s a spark in the decorating, so the beds have high wood headboards and snaps of red on white comforters. There are desks in the king rooms but not in the smaller queen rooms. Bathrooms are small but have been completely retiled and renovated—tubs are too small for bathing, but each one has a rainshower. Head down to the lounge in the evening—chances are you’ll notice that many of the hotel’s guests are from Europe, Canada, and Asia, travelers who recognize a good deal when they find it.