Holiday Inn Reno Sparks, Sparks

We stayed there because a convention I was attending for a women's service organization was being held there. I was sent as a delegate and the organization paid for my room. If the organization chooses me as their delegate next spring-- I'll stay somewhere else (probably dntn on the strip) and "commute" to the convention. And I'll probably insist my husband travel with me so he can drop me off and pick me up each day of this convention. The room was fairly small, the bathroom was not divided with a separate vanity and was very, very small. Closet was very small... trying to hang some formal dresses in the closet was a case of Houdini's miracles, at best. The bed was not comfortable, lumpy. The air conditioner in the room worked fine, but when you went into the hallway, it was extremely hot. We had several of our meals on the top floor, the "Sky Room". Breakfast was fine. Lunch was starting to get bad... the banquet kitchen was holding their doors open for ventilation for the workers. Dinners were just awful with the heat. The air conditioners couldn't get any cool air up there. This was a springtime convention and they were using fans!!! At a formal dinner! Many of the ladies ate and immediately went back to their rooms, didn't stay for the program because it was stuffy and hot. I overheard a few of the maintenance workers in the hallway and their chatter had serious concerns about overloading the electrical systems. The casino is somewhat separated from the hotel and banquet/meeting rooms portion. The casino got robbed one of the nights I was there. Oh, its great sleeping when the police helicopter is at eyeball level of your 16th floor room, hovering over the parking lot! The ground floor meeting rooms didnt' have decent air conditioning either. Our speaker opened a rear door and it was just opposite the trash dumpsters, so lots of flies came into our meeting room! The choice was ability to breathe and constantly swat those flies; or have stuffy, hot, air to try and breathe! I can't comment on hotel front desk staff because our check-in was handled by convention workers. Getting your luggage out of your car is another challenge because there is NO bellmen, only a security guard at the door. He stayed at the door, didn't patrol the parking lot, nor would he accompany you to your car. I think there were 2 luggage carts in the entire facility. When we were leaving, I noticed one of the speakers, with all her materials, "borrowed" a laundry basket from housekeeping!!! I have heard in 2011 this convention will no longer meet in Reno... erasing a 20+ year tradition!! It is easy access to the frwy. But if you're familiar with how frwy development can cut off neighborhoods, this is exactly the case. The neighborhood is really bad, filled with little junky bars and dilapidated houses, with bare dirt front yards. A few abandoned commercial buildings with razor wire fences. The neighborhood on the other side of the frwy has gorgeous homes and modern businesses that I would readily shop at. I have checked internet bargains for Reno area and this hotel is way overpriced for what the strip hotels offer. I have stayed on Reno's strip 10 months ago and the place was very, very nice. The dntn riverwalk area is beautifully landscaped and safe.

First, we were able to get a reservation for new year's eve 12/31/08 even though we only called 24 hours in advance. Although the Holiday Inn - Sparks is about 4 miles from the Reno strip, it is close to the Nugget Casino. The front desk clerk was very polite. She called our room after we checked in to see if we were happy with our room. The room was clean, new bed, firm mattress, nice crisp new sheets, nice fluffy new pillows, with a choice of firm or soft pillows, shower and bathroom all clean, newly remodelled, and not a speck of mold. The other guests all looked reputable, and it was quiet, even on new year's eve. I think the $99 price keeps the riff-raff away, because there are lots of cheap motels in Reno for them. The restaurant was great and reasonable. If you don't mind staying a few miles from the strip, or you want to avoid the casinos all together, this is a safe, clean enjoyable place for your family. The pool was closed for the winter though.

The Quality Inn Sparks Hotel Was A Disaster.Upon Arrival,The Front Desk Staff Were Terribly Rude To My Wife And I.They All But Refused To Give Us A Room,Which We Booked Over The Phone.During The Phone Reservation,The Woman Sounded Irritated That We Called.We Were Arrived The Front Desk Personnel Seemed Lost.The Women Couldn't Find The Reservation And Weren't Sure If We Even Had One.It Was Complete Chaos.The Woman That Checked Us In Was Irritable And Terribly Rude.At One Point Yelling At My Wife And I For Disturbing Her.The Other Gal Seemed Completely Lost.Our Credit Card Had been Charged Twice,No One Seemed To Want To Help With This Problem.When We Made It To The Room,The Room Was Old And Rundown.The Room Was Completely Over Charged,For What We Saw.My Wife Stated That This Hotel Was Simply Gross.The Sheets Didn't Fit The Bed And Were Covered With Hair And A Yellow Stain.There Were Maids Standing In The Hall But Our Room Was Never Cleaned Even After Requesting This Service For Two Days.The Ice machine Was Broken,The Soda Machine Was Broken.On The Last Day,I Spoke With A"Regular'Who Stays There And He said That He Was Sure They Found A Methlab Next Door.Finally,They False Advertise;A Restaurant,A BarInternet And Cable T.V. None Of These Things Were Found.The Bottom Line Here,DO NOT STOP AT QUALITY INN SPARKS!!!!!!

So, I am not one of those people who writes reviews...in fact, I don't think I ever have except maybe once or twice. The good: big room, decent location, close to a few restaurants. The staff was nice. The bad: 1. When we first drove into a parking lot, there was a car sitting in the middle of the parking lot. After we checked in and went back to get our stuff, the guy was still there, in his car. A few minutes later, two cars pull up and then they drive to the back corner of the parking lot. It appeared to be a drug deal. 2. When we walked into the hotel with our things to go to the room, we waited for quite awhile to get the elevator, since only one of the two was working. (We also noticed the water fountain was out of order...) 3. THe ice machines on several of the floors were either out of order or not producing ice. We know this because the one on our floor wasn't working, and we had to go to several other floors just to get to a working ice machine!!!! 4. They say it's "free high-speed internet." It's not wireless, which is fine. When I called the front desk to ask how to hook up my laptop, they said I would need a router....but they were out. So I couldn't access the internet I thought was available (I won't even go into the effects that had on other things). They put me on a waiting list, but I wasn't surprised that one wasn't available! 5. There weren't any non-smoking rooms available, which was OK. The room wasn't horrible with the smell of smoke, but I could smell it when I walked in the hallway and around the hotel (on our quest for working ice machines)! 6. In response to another review, we couldn't find anything to show locations of restaurants in the area (if there was a router available, I could have easily looked that up on the internet)...there were a few restaurants within walking distance, but we were looking for something just a little more upscale than Denny's for that night. Any one or two of these things wouldn't have been too bad, however, it seemed like everything we tried to do was hindered by something the hotel did not provide. I don't think my $163 was well spent that night...all of that happened between 6pm and 12pm the next day. We only had a reservation for that night!!!