I typically don’t write hotel review on my blog. If people want to read reviews, there are plenty of review websites like TripAdvisor or Hotels to read about.
However, I also know that as a parent who loves to travel, I love to hear about personal experience from other travelers on their stay – what to do, where to eat and where to stay. These are main things when we plan our trip.
So here is our own experience at Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites – Asheville Downtown during our stay in Asheville.
Price:
I got the hotel room from Priceline.com for a very good price for less than $70 per night. It’s a great discount while the listing price on their website is over $120 per night for the same period. If you haven’t tried priceline, give it a try.
Location:
The hotel is located a couple miles from downtown area. Even though, the hotel name is Asheville Downtown. You can’t really walk to downtown.. Ok.. You might but it will be a really really long walk.
With that being said, there are plenty of other convenient factors to make this hotel a great location for family.
First of all, it’s next to Fiddlin’ Pig restaurant. And there are other restaurants and fast food places right around the corner.
Second of all, Ingle grocery chain is right across the street. For family who travels with kids, we all know how important having access to grocery store is for parents. You never know what you might forget.
Room:
The hotel room is very NICE. I was very impressed with the room decoration and cleanliness. It’s nothing fancy like a 5 stars hotel but it’s simple and decorate in the transitional style. The hotel is in a really good shape. I think they just opened only a few years ago.
There are also other amenities that make it a great option for family. A small refridgerator will help keep drinks cool. A microwave will help heat up food in the morning or a quick meal when kids go hungry. Also free high speed internet helps keep mom & dad in touch with the world. Just make sure to bring your network cable.
There are plenty of storage space for our family of 4 to put our clothes in the dresser and hang it up. Another great plus is a curve shower curtain to give more room in the shower.
Hotel Service & Facilities
I normally don’t put too much weight into a hotel pool. Most of the time, when we travel we would be out all day with hardly any time to spend in the hotel. But this trip, I’m glad the hotel has the indoor pool to give the kids something to do after a long day.
An indoor pool is nothing fancy. It’s a small heated indoor/outdoor pool. Unfortunately, it was too cold to try the outdoor part. I don’t know if it was too cold that the heated water still seemed too cold or they didn’t heat it up. But my kids didn’t have a problem jumping back and forth between a jacuzzi and the pool to warm themselves up.
We didn’t have much contact with hotel staffs throughout our stay. They were very professional and courteous whenever we talked to them.
Overall
We were very happy during our stay there. I would go back there for another stay in the future.
Disclaimer:
In light of current FTC ruling, I want to make sure that I follow whatever blogger’s rule there is.
This post is based solely on my experience and my opinion without any outside influence. I have NOT given any discount from Holiday Inn. I paid for the hotel bill from my own pocket. They probably don’t even know that I wrote about this post.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
That is a nice looking Holiday Inn. We have some heated indoor/outdoor pools here in the Great White North, I don’t think that you would like them very much. I remember going to Collingwood to snowboard last year and there was a fabulous heated outdoor pool surrounded by snow. It was freezing, but the water was nice and the outdoor hot tub was incredible. You have inspired me to write a blog about to it say goodbye to Canada!
I booked a trip to Asheville because my family and I were planning a ski trip in Maggie Valley, not far from Asheville. The day before I was supposed to check into the Holiday Inn Downtown, Asheville, I saw a weather report that warned of an impending blizzard and it was recommended that no one travel if possible.
At that point, I contacted customer service at the Holiday Inn Downtown and let them know that regrettably I had to cancel my trip due to the severe weather conditions. I was told by the clerk that they couldn’t refund my money because I received a special advance purchase rate.
I tried to rationalize with the Holiday Inn customer service clerk letting him know that we were driving up from Fl and it was recommended that we don’t travel and I would think, due to the circumstances he could help me out, I’d be even willing to pay a cancellation fee. He only offered to move my reservation to a later date.
Unsatisfied, I called Holiday Inn’s corporate office and I was redirected back to the hotel. I was really surprised that they chose to resolve the situation in this manner, I’m not going to accept the open date in the future, because I refuse to stay at a hotel that has no compassion for its guests in situations that are unfortunate like this.
So, if you plan on staying at this hotel, be warned, they are only concerned with the reservations, not the quality of customer service or the safety of their traveling guests.