Pros: You can see the Holiday Inn logo from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Cons: Too many to list here
The Bottom Line: Overpriced, with lousy housekeeping services - skip it and try to save your money for one of the nicer places in town.
Kidnykid's Full Review: Holiday Inn Select CLEVELAND-CTY CTR LAKESHORE, O
I chose to make reservations at the Holiday Inn Select City Centre Lakeshore due to its proximity to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's so close to that destination, in fact, that when you are sitting in the plaza in front of the Hall of Fame, you can see the Holiday Inn logo from there. We thought that we might be able to walk there if the weather was nice and we were up to it, but we ended up having to take the hotel shuttle there and back.
Frankly, the shuttle was the best feature of the hotel. The drivers assigned to shuttle guests around the Cleveland area are friendly and accommodating, and are not allowed to accept anything more than tips for their work. (In fact, guests are told - by way of signs in one of the vans - that if drivers ask for compensation, those drivers are to be reported to the front desk immediately.) They do not offer service solely to Cleveland's Hopkins Airport, but make themselves available for guests who do not wish to use their cars to go around Cleveland (or pay for parking at any venue other than the hotel).
When we got to our rooms, we discovered that one of the rooms was not properly made up. In previous stays at hotels in the Chicago area, I have learned to expect that a hotel room will be completely made up and ready for us upon check-in, but my daughter found that her room had one unmade bed, an error I consider serious for a downtown hotel.
This is, in fact, perhaps the most serious problem in the whole hotel. Housekeeping service was very poor throughout our entire stay; we would consistently come to our rooms to find that one had been taken care of by housekeeping and the other had not. Even when a room had been made up by housekeeping, there were times when things like garbage can liners would be missing. I feel that if I'm going to pay for prime downtown hotel service, I should expect that the rooms would be made up promptly and according to a minimum standard of housekeeping. I'm not expecting the finest linen or at a Holiday Inn; I'm just expecting what I didn't get at City Centre Lakeshore - prompt, efficient and consistent housekeeping services. (I leave the size of my housekeeping tip to the reader's imagination.)
My husband noted that the room we got looked very much like one we paid much less for at a Michigan hotel recently. The only thing missing was the sink. Because he'd stayed at the Michigan hotel several times before, he had sufficient experience to make such a comparison. In fact, the only thing missing was the sink in our room at the City Centre. Therefore, he thought we got rooked in terms of price; even though I got a fairly substantial discount, equivalent to what I could have gotten through Hotels.com, by calling Holiday Inn's worldwide reservation number, the price I paid for these two rooms was about fifty dollars per night higher than what I paid for a similar room in Michigan. Put another way, this place is overpriced; I'd expect to pay $134.99/night at a decent downtown hotel, not one I can book accommodations for at about half the price anywhere else. The only reason Holiday Inn feels it can charge this rate is the location of the City Centre Lakeshore, near the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The food at the hotel restaurant is the "we know there's nothing decent and reasonable within walking distance" type of food. Guests who do not have a breakfast package are implicitly expected to order the breakfast buffet - and are charged "we know we have you backed in a corner" prices to boot. If you order off the breakfast menu, instead of choosing the buffet, all you get for your trouble is what you would get if you ordered room service. Entrees come without anything else included; for example, if you order French toast, that's all you get - French toast, without the bacon or breakfast potatoes (customary inclusions in breakfast entrees at regular restaurants). This is just one example, however. I'm leaving out many more for brevity's sake.
I was wondering why the organizers of the U2 Fan Celebration didn't negotiate packages with City Centre Lakeshore due to its proximity to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Now I know why, and I also understand why business is way off, according to one of our waitresses at the hotel restaurant. People aren't going to book rooms at a place like this, when they can get someplace decent for the price I paid for these rooms. I've stayed at better Holiday Inns. I'd recommend you do the same.
PriceTool.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources,
so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
