Holiday Inn St. Paul Downtown by IHG

Good location for Xcel Energy centre / arena This hotel is located across the street from Xcel Energy centre. I picked it for this reason, plus there was a parking package as an option. If you are going to an event at the arena this is a convenient option, however the price for the night of an event was about 2 1/2 times the price of the non event night. Arrival/ parking: you pull into the back of the hotel to park in a small area whilst you register. The parking garage they use can be accessed from this small lot, or from the street. You are given a ticket to scan to get in and out both on foot and for the vehicle. Check in/out: efficient and I got a quieter room as requested. The elevators are very efficient. Room: good size, clean, but dark. There were just 2 bedside lamps, a tiny desk lamp which was the light that came on when you turned on the light switch by the door, and a freestanding lamp tucked in one corner away from anywhere you might be. All the lights lit one tiny area around them, leaving the rest of the room dark. The bathroom had very bright lighting and this got left on more than it should to give more light to the rest of the room. Otherwise two comfortable beds, chair, desk, tv, small area with hangers, iron and board, fridge, drawers, coffee maker. No safe. Good WIFI. Bathroom: reasonable size, usual bathroom furniture. Hairdryer. Restaurant: attached to hotel, breakfast there both days was good, not a huge menu but most people would find something, staff were nice Vicinity: the area had a lot of restaurants, is busy a lot of the day and bustling if there is an event on at the arena. Overall, a convenient location, clean hotel with good service, but room was too dark and there needs to be a safe in the room.

Convenient location, that’s about it Fast overnight stay for a concert at the Xcel event center. Convenient location for that; parking is connected, although it’s not super obvious and you drive right by it then have to circle around. Yes it’s a HI express and you don’t necessarily expect much, but good grief this hotel needs to be updated and cleaned. Front desk area is small with two stained chairs. Rooms are small, which was fine for our stay but you open the door and walk right into a bed (two queens, not sure about the king rooms). Drapes were stained and old. Bathroom is fine but still had garbage remnants in the corner and the top shelf with the hair dryer hadn’t been dusted in some time. I’m not saying that’s every room, but someone got lazy in this one. Anytime you see posts on social media about certain things that aren’t usually cleaned in hotel rooms (remotes, glasses, hair dryer), you should assume that to be true. Fine otherwise. No safe in the room. Beds are firm if you like that, like sleeping directly on the ground. Pillows are nice. Didn’t see the pool. Staff was very friendly. Wild Bill’s (bar/restaurant in the lobby). It’s nice to have something right there but once the event lets out and everyone goes to the bar, you’ll hear it all unless you’re in a higher room. We were on the 3rd floor and heard all the street level crowd noise - talking, yelling, and some d*psh*t at the bar on a bullhorn screaming at everyone. Not the hotel’s fault at all, but not easy to sleep through. TLDR; needs updated and cleaning. Higher rooms for no crowd noise. Beds are hard.

No sleep hotel did nothing about loud people If you value your sleep do not stay here! The hotel did nothing to stop or help and accommodate other guests when people were fighting and partying in halls all night. I called at 2am 3am 4am 5:30 am they did nothing the people kept on while no other guests were able to sleep. I was here for work now my day is ruined for work as i got literally no sleep!

Basic accomodations downtown near the concert venue This hotel is downtown, literally across the street from the Excel Center concert venue. There are a few OK restaurants nearby that obviously serve the crowds going to this venue. There's no breakfast but there's a sports bar downstairs that supposedly had breakfast. Didn't try it. This is a basic Holiday Inn. Stayed in 2 different rooms over a week. One was cramped, the other spacious. Both had extreme A/C that was hard to regulate. The rooms are nothing special, but good. Two things are very inconvenient: 1.) The parking is at a "ramp" right next door, which is convenient, and included, but it's not managed but the hotel. You need to scan in and out every time. Which is not. It's kind of dark and creepy and there are occasional homeless people hanging around outside. 2.) This area of downtown St. Paul is kind of a no man's land. There is no grocery store or convenience store nearby if you need snacks or tylenols or something. The closest thing is a dirty "convenience store" in a gas station a few blocks away. I drove literally miles in three directions and that's all I could find. There are 3 other hotels in a one block radius and none of them has even a gift shop where you could get such things. Someone could make a killing opening a clean well-stocked store nearby. The last morning we were there all of the elevators failed. Of course we were in a hurry to get to the airport. The phone in the room didn't work, so I had to call the front desk on my cell and get someone to come up and then fix the elevators. Stressful and weird.

Mixed reviews My first visit to this specific hotel. It will be a mixed review, but I want to first focus on the interior of the hotel. We checked in around 4:30pm, so it was the evening shift for staff. The staff is OUTSTANDING. They were eager to do anything to make our visit pleasant and make us feel secure, even to the point of walking us to our car if we desired. Our room was ready and it was clean with both a microwave and refrig. There is a restaurant bar attached (they do not own) but was very inviting. We went in to look around but had already made other plans. When we arrived at the hotel, if was difficult to know where the primary entrance is to register. We pulled in to what is the front entrance (RIGHT OFF AN INTERSECTION-VERY BUSY STREET WITH BOTH CARS AND PEDESTRIANS) only to find they keep the doors locked 24/7. We turned into what I would call an alley and entered from behind. There were limited parking spaces available in that area but there was a secure parking ramp (they do not own) available for a charge and we chose to park there. I am going to sum this up by saying, the hotel is nice. The area where the hotel is located does not seem safe or desirable. I did not expect this considering where it is located in St. Paul.