I'm nearing the end of an 8-day stay. I'm an IHG Club Spire Elite & Inner Circle member, and I made my room reservation well in advance on the IHG website. I've stayed at many other Hotel Indigo properties, and also many other IHG properties, including Holiday Inn, Kimpton Hotel, Crowne Plaza, and the Palazzo in Vegas.
Here are some notes regarding my stay:
-- WiFi was excellent, and very fast.
-- My King suite (small suite) room on the 4th floor was excellent: very bright, airy, w/high ceilings, very clean, quite spacious, and well furnished.
-- The bathroom was spacious and extremely clean.
--All hallways and common spaces were wide, spotlessly clean and neat, spacious, and well-lighted.
-- My room was very quiet; I never heard any sounds from other rooms, the hallway, or the street.
-- Speaking of my quiet room, I must point out that the central HVAC system (heating, ventilation and air conditioning system) in my room was very quiet.
-- Lobby seating space, along with alternate seating spaces available in other areas, was very plush, comfortable and plentiful, much as the Hotel Indigo chain is famous for. Since I often have clients who schedule stays at the same hotel in order to meet w/me during my stay, and since I often meet w/them in lobby seating spaces, I discovered that the offerings in this hotel were more than sufficient in this regard.
-- All staffers that I encountered during my stay, including front desk staffers, managers, housekeepers, and restaurant staff, were quite helpful and attentive, and usually quite responsive.
-- There was a good-sized and spotlessly clean fridge in the room. and, best of all, it had all of its shelves.
-- There are two elevators for the 155 rooms in this 5-floor hotel. They are more than sufficient for a hotel of this size.
-- The lobby restaurant was a kinda trendy place called Pallette, and it was quite good. I ate many of my breakfasts and dinners there. Menu selection was good, food quality was very good and service was fine.
-- the only problems that I encountered during my stay emerged during my early check-in at ~12:45 PM. As an IHG Spire Elite member with the perk of a 10AM check-in, I often ask for early check-in (usually around noon to 1 PM) during my many stays at IHG hotels, and the vast majority of them are able to do this flawlessly.
In this case, I'd called 3 weeks earlier to ask for early check-in of about 12:30 PM. I'd been traveling for over 7 hours when I arrived in the lobby, and, once there, I saw, at the only open station, a long line. When I asked where I could find the dedicated check-in line for IHG Club Elite members could be found, a front desk manager explained to me that there was none; as a new hotel, they're allowed up to 12 months to set up a dedicated Elite check-in station with signage.
Thus, I was forced to wait in the seemingly long line at the sole open station. Luckily, over the next 3 minutes, most of the folks on the line left the lobby w/out approaching the desk. When I got to the desk, I was told by a male clerk that my Spire Elite upgrade room wouldn't be ready for at least 45 minutes. He asked me to take a seat in the lobby to wait 45 to 60 minutes until he could bring my room keys to me. At this point, I got annoyed, because I have, as a Spire Elite member, NEVER been asked at any IHG hotel to sit and wait for my room to be readied during an early check-in, and so I asked to speak with a manager.
In short order, the very friendly and competent Operations Manager, Zach, arrived. He offered me the use of a temporary room, aka a Complimentary Room, over the next hour till my upgrade room was ready; Complimentary Rooms for early-check-ins are offered by all Kimpton Hotels in case a room isn't yet ready, and also informally offered by a few Hotel Indigos.
I accepted his offer, and as he handed me the keys to the temporary room, an amazingly resourceful front desk clerk named Megan, who'd apparently overheard us and had decided to tackle the issue decisively, strode over, explained that she'd managed to get an upgrade room on an upper floor readied for me, and handed me my room key packet.
I was quite amazed by Megan's resourcefulness, and also by Zach's helpful attitude. BTW, since we had traded business cards, Zach stayed in touch with me via email throughout my stay to ensure that my stay was flawless.
-- In my reviews, I rarely mention staffers by name to compliment them, if only because I have a really poor memory for names, but I find that I must once again mention the front desk staffer named Megan, b/c in each of my subsequent interactions with her, she proved to be extremely helpful, alert, competent, resourceful and professional; I must admit that I am very impressed!
-- Overall, a great Hotel Indigo! I will definitely stay here again on any future visits to Madison!
[Review has been greatly cropped in length due to Yelp length limit.] read more