HotelChatter

We had to work while we were there, and it was the best hotel we’ve been in, workwise, for a long time. There was an ergonomic chair at the desk (hallelujah), of course free WiFi (double hallelujah) and, what made it even more amazing, oodles of power outlets in useful places. As well as a couple on the lamp on the desk, there was one on each bedside lampstand so we were, for once, able to work in bed while laughing at watching Fox News.

Another touch we liked – it was a double room, and the bedside lamps were composed of two lightbulbs – one on each side – with separate switches for each. That meant that if one of you had to work/read in bed, you could keep your half on and switch the other off so your colleague/companion could sleep relatively undisturbed. The public areas, looking as fly as they did were a joy to hang out in. And, being an airport hotel, we had the place mainly to ourselves, since we ended up staying there until 2pm.

Breakfast at the Sporting News Grill wasn’t the best we’ve ever had, but it was extremely cheap (we had a huge plate of fried stuff, plus French toast, plus coffee, for $12) so we approved.

And the staff were all extremely friendly – from the guy on the overnight shift who told us how to get online and then said “if you have any problems, just call me straight up and I’ll help you out” to the delightful Andrew on front desk in the morning, who let us check out nearly two hours late because we were behind with work, and dealt with all our questions about the area and how to catch the Amtrak to Salt Lake City with aplomb, despite having a bad back and a drunk customer on his tail (yes, in the morning).

The rack rate for our room (213, FYI) was $185 but we snared it on Hotwire (it was listed as a three star airport hotel) for just $59 ($73.39 including tax). And according to Hotwire it was listed on other travel sites as $84, which it would definitely be worth.

It’s about a 15-20 minute drive from the airport (so not as close as we were expecting) but there’s a free shuttle – it either comes along every half hour, or you call the hotel on arrival and let them know you’re coming. Our shuttle driver was so nice that he actually dropped us over at the car rental center, a few miles outside of the airport, on our way back. Then when you want to go into town, it’s about half an hour, or 40 minutes if you catch the shuttle back to the airport and strike out from there.

All in all, we absolutely loved this place, and it’s made us excited to try more Holiday Inns. Only the refurbished ones, of course.