Holiday Inn Exp Ste South Side, Pittsburgh

It's a clean and inexpensive place to stay in close proximity to downtown, especially considering that they offer a free shuttle to anywhere within 3 miles. Parking: $14 for parking is my only complaint, but there is FREE STREET PARKING right beside the Holiday Inn lot on 9th St. There are no street parking signs, so we parked overnight and were not ticketed. Tourism Pittsburgh gave me the Pittsburgh parking authority (or whatever they're called) to verify what streets allow overnight parking: 412.255.6123. I will say it does seem like there a few shady characters on 9th during the day though (Mental Health facility and Salvation Army are both on 9th).

The hotel was dirty inside and out. My room had mold in the toilet and in the sink, and there was rust on all the doors. It smelled like smoke and chemicals throughout my entire stay. When I asked for a new room I was told only smoking was available, which wouldn't have made much of a difference. If there is anywhere else available in the city to stay, please save yourself the nightmare of staying here.

I stayed here recently for a work trip. After a comedy of errors in both booking the rooms and staying at the hotel, I sent the below (abridged) complaint to the Holiday Inn national management: ********************** I have never experienced the sheer lack of service as I did recently at the Holiday Inn Express South Side Pittsburgh. Reservations and Payment: I booked a group of 8 rooms for four days. I needed an invoice or confirmation with the entire cost of the rooms in order to have my organization write a check for the total cost. I was told that the manager of the hotel was the only person who could provide me with this documention. Over the three weeks preceding the stay, I left no less than 9 voicemails for the manager. Each voicemail provided my name, email address, cell phone number, confirmation code, and a clear explanation of what I needed and why. On one of my repeated calls, I did finally manage to get the assistant manager on the phone; he promised to send me the required information immediately. I finally received the invoice a week later after an additional two voicemails; unfortunately, it indicated that the entire cost for the block of 8 rooms for four nights was approximately $1,500. I immediately replied to the email asking for the correct amount (a total that exceeded 5,000). I never received a reply to this email. I called the hotel five days before the group checked in so as to have each individual's name on the reservation so that they could check in easily. I spent 45 minutes on the phone with the very polite front desk person, painstakingly giving each name, receiving confirmation numbers for each guest, and going over the payment plan in detail. Upon checking into the hotel, none of the guests were able to use the confirmation numbers I provided them, nor were any of the rooms in their name. Upon checking out, it was established that half of the rooms were charged to each individual's credit card rather than taken from either the corporate card I used to pre-pay the rooms with, or the large check I brought with me. Upon trying to remedy this, I spent another 20 minutes with a very polite and helpful front desk clerk, only to find that not only were the majority of the rooms charged to individual cards, but that they couldn't even find one of the reservations. Service: Upon checking in, one guest discovered that the couch in his room had been vomited on by the previous guest. When he went to the front desk, he was told that there had been a sports event the previous night, and that someone would eventually be up to clean the couch. Upon arriving back at his room the next night, he found that "cleaning up" apparently meant reversing the couch cushion. He was never offered an alternate room, nor was the mess ever taken care of properly. Three of the guests did not receive maid service for three of the four days. They did not have "do not disturb" signs on their doors, and when they specifically requested service, it was not delivered. ***************************** I received a standard form response to this, which didn't address any of my actual complaints but promised to have the specific hotel contact me within 48 hours to further discuss this matter. Needless to say, I've not hear back from them. It's a shame since the actual property is pretty nice. However, in all of my frequent practice of booking hotel rooms, I've never quite had an experience like this one.

1st we get into the room and find a 40oz bottle of beer left in the fridge. My daughter thought it was champagne. Then the toilet seat had fecal matter all over it, all the front desk could do is apologize. We asked for another mattress pad because the pad on the sofa sleeper was filthy. They never brought one up. The shuttle service is horrible. Depending on the driver is where you get dropped off at and picked up. We were told we couldn't be dropped off at pointe park so we got dropped off at liberty travel which is a much longer walk. On the way back we were told we should be at pointe park. Excuse me we were told you can't pickup and drop off there. Well it depends on who is driving. Are you serious. It was one of the worst stays I experienced in a very long time. I will be going back to Pittsburgh soon and I will be seeking out other options

Not the friendliest of front desk staff. She had a bit of attitude and said our credit card was declined when infact it was charged after speaking to the bank. 'Hot' breakfast isn't anything extraordianary, standard continental plus a few hot items. Rooms were clean and comfortable. Good location. Carson Street is very close with lots of restaurants and bars. Free shuttle is available but isn't on any schedule, you just need to be lucky to catch it.

The room was nice, bed was comfortable, but we had gotten snow and the lot was the worse i've ever seen. coming from Michigan i would have expected more than to be handed a shovel, especially when you pay $14 to park. also the whole hotel smelt like chlorine from the pool, even on the 6th floor where we stayed. Also the movie rental said 13.95 and we checked out and found a 18.00 charge on our bill.

I loved the view of the water,and downtown lights at night but that is it. You will not get any sleep in this hotel,I found out the hard way that it is a huge Party hotel! We stayed there a couple of times,when we were in town,you will not get any sleep and when you complain,nothing will be done about it! Rude and loud behavior in the Lobby and halls not to mention the noise from the rooms! Will never stay there again!

Very clean hotel with somewhat courteous staff. Train was an issue most of the night. Wife and I were just passing through and stopped in for a room. I paid $169 for the room plus $14 for parking. A little pricey. Parking was good and security not bad but the neighborhood the hotel is located in is not a very desirable place. All in all I would stay there again if I went with friends but with my wife again I would choose a different hotel. The shuttle is always busy as there is only one van for the entire hotel. Amalfi's next door had great food.

I put 6 of our family members in this hotel over a weekend. This included 3 adults and 3 children. I chose this hotel for a large part because of the great reviews on-line plus the promised views of Pittsburgh. The facility is newer and the pool is nice, but the good news ends there. They got no sleep for two nights! Had we known this is a party hotel with no security I would have never chosen this! Friday night turned into a loud raucous with my family members out in the hallway after midnight asking the partying guests to quiet down. Saturday night was a complete wild party. The partiers came back from the bars and brought their loud drunkenness with them..and continued to party! Fights broke out complete with bloodied faces, ripped shirts, etc. It got so bad that other guests called 911 only to have the hotel staff cancel it saying "Security is on their way." When my family members asked questions of the hotel staff, we found out that they had one, ONE Security Guard on duty. Apparently one very sweaty security guard that night who was wildly running from one party to another. The staff member replied to my family member "You have to understand, we have 4 weddings and 2 bachelor parties." I expect the hotel management to handle it, period. Just in case you are wondering how out of control it got, a guest (I assume a partier) decided to smoke in the hallway (since there is no smoking in the rooms I guess...) and set off the fire alarm at 2:54am. That emptied the hotel for 1 hour. If the hotel was managed, the partiers would have been shut down or kicked out of the hotel and not had the opportunity to disrupt everyone staying there. My family members were not even staying on the main party floor!! When being dropped off at the hotel around 9:30 - 10pm Saturday evening, they witnessed an apparent bachelorette party of a group of girls going into the hotel with almost no clothing and wearing male genitals. Hopefully my nieces and nephews (ages 5, 8, and 10) did not see this! There were a few items to notice where cleanliness needed improving, but I can deal with that. What we paid for - at a premium at that - was two quiet evenings and a safe place to stay, we got neither. What a shame, there is so much potential and so many good reviews that I didn't expect this at all. By the way, others stayed at the Omni across the river for 10 dollars less per night and got two comfortable, peaceful nights of sleep. They witnessed a security problem being handled there--it was done so professionally and queitly that they had to ask the waitress why the police were there. It was handled quickly and quietly and no other guests were disturbed. I only wish I'd known in advance....but now you do.

We went down to catch the Pirates opening day 2008. Being all in our early 20's we wanted to be close to station square and of course E. Carson St. We got to the hotel an hour before game time. My credit card wouldnt work when i called i needed an hour till the funds went threw the system. They said no problem and gave us our parkeing pass no questions asked. We came back took care of business after the game walked to station square, about a half mile. Ate drank and had a good time. Great place great people will stay again for sure. Alot of business people seem to be the majority.