Not worth the money.
By Betty, 07/08/08
We went to this hotel to see my son off to military basic training.
This hotel is supposed to be non-smoking and our room smelled of stale smoke and was musty. They allow smoking in the bar and the patio which overlooked the pool area.
We were going to be short on towels so I asked a maid in the hall for extra towels and a blanket. She said "Huh, no English." We then went down and asked the front desk for extra towels and an extra blanket. 3 hours we asked again and was told by the front desk clerk we were on the list of people who “wanted something” and they would get to it "soon."
We decided to try eating in at the on-site restaurant. We were seated at placed our order and were served an hour later and we never did get our salads and our food was cold.
There were a number of trays on the floor still at 11:30. A girl knocked over the stack of glassware and broke them spilling liquid on the floor. Some of it was still on the floor in the morning when I went to get ice at 5:00 as was the spilled liquid so I picked up the glass and discarded it in a nearby waste basket. I did not clean up the liquid. When we checked out at 7, it was still on the floor.
I did not speak with a manager. In all honesty, I was focusing on making my son's last night with his family as uneventful and stress free for him as possible. This is his first time away from home. His friend was equally as nervous and we wanted to make them feel relaxed with nothing to mar their remembrance of the last night home (or in the hotel as it were). While we do understand that the hotel was busy, we felt that it wasn't right.
In my lifetime I have watched the Holiday Inn go from one of the best hotels and my personal favorite, to one of the lower class of hotels. My husband and I spent our honeymoon in this hotel and have returned many times in the past 19+ years and each time it slipped a little. We did debate about returning to Holiday Inn but felt that we wanted to spend as much time as we could with the boys so opted to stay there.
While I know that each hotel is independently owned and operated the last three trips we have stayed with the chain and each time were disappointed. We are planning a 7 day vacation to Texas in August when our son graduates from Basic Military Training and based upon the reviews in and around San Antonio at other websites, we will not be staying at the Holiday Inn chain.
