College towns, in my experience, typically have one very nice luxury property and a slew of chain hotels, some of which have descended into mediocrity over time. Everyone books the nice hotel months in advance on football weekends and graduation day.
So, it's an exciting development when an upscale property is built in a city like Gainesville, home of the University of Florida and a fair share of Doubletrees and Holiday Inns but which offers less choice at the high end.
Architecturally, the 173-room Hotel ELEO would fit well in Stuttgart, Lyon or really any European city. The six-story, serpentine structure hugs the shoreline of Rush Lake and features a glass facade on either side. An indoor/outdoor restaurant juts out from the ground floor with a parabolic, concrete overhang with several openings in the roof that light the dining space in spots.
The interior spaces also have a European feel to them, with an uncluttered lobby and large, modernist paintings on the walls. Guestrooms are filled with custom-made furniture from Italy, arranged unconventionally in part because of the undulating shapes of the units.
The room I stayed in as a guest of the hotel was divided by a multipurpose unit in a clean, light blonde veneer. Storage drawers and cubbies, a refrigerator and desk space took up the lower half, while above the desk sat a large-screen TV. On the other side of the divider was a twin TV for the bed area. This was kind of neat. While I watched a football game, my wife on the other side tuned in to a British detective show.
The lobby at Hotel ELEO is uncluttered and features modernist abstract art. Photo Credit: Tom Stieghorst
Punctuating the end of this arrangement is a round, marble dining slab with a contemporary light fixture hanging above it.
Our room faced Rush Lake, which provides a scenic view, especially at night when the five fountains in the lake are illuminated. The lakeview rooms and suites are more expensive than the cityview rooms on the other side of the hotel. (Lakeview rooms were listed at $186 by Hotels.com for a Sunday-night stay in January.)
The lake also provides an extremely pleasant place to eat. I can imagine a visitor from the north luxuriating in the 60-degree temperatures and sunny skies while dining al fresco at the Hotel ELEO restaurant, Covey Kitchen + Cocktails.
I've eaten at several good hotel restaurants recently; they seem to have improved from years past. The steak frites dinners my wife and I had were very good, as was the mushroom cheese omelet and roast potatoes breakfast I had the next day. Both were enjoyed lakeside in the fresh air, a venue that I would have picked even if Covid precautions didn't suggest outdoor dining.
The guestrooms at Hotel ELEO feature contemporary Italian furniture and fixtures. Photo Credit: Tom Stieghorst
Hotel ELEO's cleanliness was notable, as was the hospitality of the staff. We had a lot of socially distanced chit-chat with the bartender prior to dinner, and management was ever-present to check on our satisfaction with things.
Two features may give some prospective guests pause. Parking at the hotel is valet-only and carries a $15 a day charge. Cars are shuttled to a grassy lot across the street.
And across Lake Rush sits the UF Health Shands Hospital, a major regional medical center. Proximity to Shands will of course be a selling point for any Hotel ELEO guests who have business at the hospital or have family or friends admitted there.
My wife and I were amazed, however, at the amount of helicopter traffic generated by the hospital, even on a Sunday night. We weren't bothered by the clatter, but light sleepers particularly sensitive to noise might want to ask about it in the process of booking a room.