Myself, my wife, and 2 friends of ours (also a married couple) stayed at the Hilton Perimeter Park Hotel in Birmingham on 2/16/08 thru 2/17/08.

Quick check-in but one of the 2 rooms wasn't ready when we checked-in. We checked-in around 5:00 p.m. and I was a little surprised that the room still wasn't ready that late in the day, but no big deal, as we just put our luggage in the one room that was ready and needed to leave the hotel to get to our event for the evening anyway.

Hotel was easy to find off of the highway. We were using an in-car GPS as well, so I can't lie... that helped, too! :-)

Lobby and bar/restaurant area was very clean and orderly and the hotel staff members we encountered throughout our stay were very friendly.

Breakfast bar was what I'd consider slightly above average. Not sure how much it cost to eat at the breakfast bar, as we had complimentary tickets for a free breakfast for the 4 of us.

I'd say the rooms were average to above-average in size. We didn't feel cramped at all. Heating system worked just fine in our rooms as well. Bathrooms could have been a little bigger, but they weren't what I'd consider rediculously tiny either. Beds were very, very comfortable. Water pressure in sinks/showers was more than adequate.

TVs in both of the rooms were apparently almost on the brink. They need to go! Ours took forever to warm-up when turned-on to where you could finally see a clear picture and our friends' TV ended up being black-and-white, as something was apparently wrong w/the color. HILTON PERIMETER PARK HOTEL... UPGRADE YOUR TVs!!! Our rooms were room 709 & 711.

One of our rooms was a free one due to us using Hilton Honors pts., but the price of the other room that we had to pay for was what I'd consider very reasonable in cost. I believe it was $115 total (room + tax) for the one room.

Elevators were quick to come to our floor (7th floor) and no minor/major delays there.

There were several restaurants right around the hotel (I remember a Cracker Barrell and a TGI Fridays that you could literally walk to), which was nice.

Overall I'd give this hotel a 4 out of 5, with the only problems being the fact that one of the rooms wasn't ready for occupancy even at the late check-in time of 5 p.m. and the TVs were atrocious and needed replacing.

Would stay at this hotel again w/no qualms!

My wife and I stayed here on a football weekend in October 2007 (stayed in Birmingham, game in Tuscaloosa). We found the property to be, overall, a bit dated but perfectly capable of delivering a nice stay.

The good: The staff was incredibly nice, from check-in to check-out. They do not have valet parking but they do have a bellman who can assist with your bags (and the parking is free). Plus, they had a free tube of toothpaste for us when we realized we had forgotten to pack ours. The room was adequate and the bed big and comfortable. The A/C system was what I like in a room--the high setting was loud enough to drown out the silence and it certainly did the job in either cooling or heating the room. My wife liked the brand of the toiletries in the bathroom and the shower had excellent water pressure. The hotel is essentially located at the intersection of I-459 and Highway 280, making it very convenient for almost any destination in Birmingham. We ate at the hotel restaurant for breakfast on Sunday morning before we left and found it quite tasty. They seemed to be a bit understaffed (our waiter got caught up attempting to wait on a large group of disgruntled Tennessee fans), so our wait for drinks was probably a little longer than it normally would've been, but again, I'm nitpicking. The food was good and we enjoyed it.

The bad: The hotel seems to bill itself as a business traveller hotel, and that's perfectly fine, but once again: charging for Internet access? Really? In this day and age? Our room was showing its age--dated furniture, the carpet worn in places, a few chips to the paint--all in all, it could use a facelift. But, honestly, I'm nitpicking as the room was perfectly functional and comfortable for us. We also didn't hear any of the other guests in the hotel (solid walls, etc.) even though they were at or close to full capacity with it being a football weekend. Plus, they were hosting some sort of weekend conference for kids aging from, I'd say, 10 to 16 years of age, and with the exception of one elevator mishap (as in the kids got on the elevator and pushed every button, causing some very slow service) we hardly noticed them.

The ugly: The elevators. Aside from the above mentioned problem, the hotel had two elevators, and frankly, being on the seventh floor became a bit of a waiting game when trying to go down to the lobby. It took quite a while to get an elevator, for whatever reason.

All in all, this hotel definitely fit our needs and was convienently located for what we had planned for the weekend. They seemed to be at full capacity, what with the aforementioned teenager conference plus a rather large group of Tennessee fans in town for the Alabama game (an organized trip with the hotel as a base of operations), but the staff were quick to handle any situations that arose and were pleasant to deal with.

The Hilton Perimeter Park turned out to be a great choice for the five days I spent in Birmingham on business recently. The staff was quite genial, self-parking ample, and the hotel was the perfect midway point between St. Vincent's Hospital and Southlake, where spent my days. It is also conveniently located, with two very nice shopping malls and dozens of good restaurants within a few minutes' drive; and also a reasonable distance from downtown (which allowed me to catch "Harry Potter" at the IMAX and still be back at a decent hour.) Get a rental car, as I did. Birmingham is not a cab city, and there is a lot of ground to cover because things are quite spread out.

As with most of the big hotel chains, comfy beds have become a standard. During my stay, I went online and bought two of the hotel brand pillows for my guest room. I also always appreciate the standard Hilton alarm clock, which is very easy to set and has an MP3 port for those of us who don't tote around iPod speakers and feel a little silly wearing headphones when we're alone.

Room service was decent, though the menu offerings tended to run on the rich side, being the South and all.

The pool looked quite nice, and a bit different from your average suburban hotel pool, but though the 100-degree heat beckoned me to take a dip, I never had the chance.

I would definitely rebook at the Hilton Perimeter Park if I had the occasion to do business in Birmingham again.

We were placed here on a $46.00 per night bid on Priceline and the stay was worth every penny.

Location is good with easy access to the Birmingham bypass, although it was difficult to find the entrance at 11:30 at night. Restaurant choices are plentiful within a 1-2 mile drive, the onsite restaurant was too expensive with an 11.00 charge for eggs and potatoes.

The pool area was nice, although the room key issue still is a problem as 3 different people tried to reenter the hotel and none of the keys would work.

Free internet access would be nice, the 9.95 per day seems steep, but we did not need the service during the stay.