A let down
I am just going to be honest here; I just do not get all of the positive reviews. I think the only "five" I could give this hotel has to do with service. This is not a bad hotel, but there is nothing great about it. It is probably my least favorite hotel in the immediate downtown Indianapolis-area.
Yes, I understand that this hotel is a historic building. My issue is that “historic” is not an excuse to allow a hotel to look worn and shabby. Both the Omni Severin and Canterbury nearby are old, yet (even with actual small rooms) the places have been recently remodeled. With Indianapolis hosting the Super Bowl one would think all of the hotels would step it up a notch, not the Crowne Plaza!
The staff at this hotel is great. The valets, front desk staff, and the older man offering assistance from a podium by the front door could not have been friendlier or more helpful.
Location wise, while this hotel is a bit further south than some others, it is convenient coming from the south. Since the hotel is located as far south as it is, you do not really deal with the congestion and one-way street issues encountered at other hotels. (Just drive up Illinois and take a left immediately after you emerge from under the viaduct.) I liked the location because of the proximity to Circle Centre Mall, Pan Am Plaza, restaurants, and the highway. It was easy enough to walk to Monument Circle from this hotel for our group. Sure, there are hotels closer to everything, but there are worse “downtown” locations, too (by the canal, up by IUPUI, way east- all of these are considered downtown but are not as close to the action). We used the valet service to park our car, but self-parking at Pan Am Plaza was just north of the hotel. (I was not really fond of the hotel not having its own self-parking, but since the location is what/where it is, that is how it works. The cost at Pan Am plaza varies based on events happening downtown, which is not necessarily at issue at hotels with their own parking.)
We stayed in a “normal” room (#277), not a train car room. The room itself is the usual size and overlooks the pool. It has a normal-sized bathroom, two double beds (no way queens would fit unfortunately), a small table to hold a suitcase, dresser with a stone top & a flat screen TV, and a small table with two chairs. I would say that our room was on par with your typical Crowne Plaza/Holiday Inn room size, amenity, and set-up wise. You can tell this is not an older hotel, just an old building converted into a hotel (no tiny bathroom, tiny rooms, etc.; as you will find nearby). I thought the bed was comfortable. I also appreciated that it was double sheeted.
The reason I give this hotel poor marks is because of obvious issues:
First: This hotel needs to be remodeled. If the owners/management company is not prepared to do that, then it at least needs a good cleaning and sprucing up. Sorry but I find caving in tub surround tiles, rusty drips, peeling wallpaper, gunk around the bathroom door stop, dirty windows, stained dust ruffles, broken switch plate covers, etc. unacceptable. It just tells me that with some TLC this hotel could be great. Instead, it’s not. I would not put this on a level with hotels that are dirty, but it is not really that clean either.
Second: This hotel needs some soundproof windows. I needed to keep the fan to the climate control system running to drown out some of the sounds around the pool. I can not imagine what rooms on the first floor are like. On the second floor, we constantly heard people around the pool. There are things that can be done with windows to lessen the sound transmission. Unless you stay up late and wake up early, I guess try to avoid any of the rooms that overlook the pool.
Third: I could hear everything in the rooms above and next to ours (on the bed side of the room). All morning I heard the people upstairs talking, their kid running around, toys pushed across the floor, laughing, etc. At night and the next morning, I could hear the people next door. In the bed closest to the bathroom, I could hear our neighbor in the bathroom. Not cool. The problem is, I do not think that thin walls & floors/ceilings are fixable in a remodel.
Fourth: The bathroom is at the level of an old Holiday Inn. Peeling and ill-fitting wallpaper, plastic counter top, tile walls around the tub caving in, etc. Totally fixable. Actually, with some serious cleaning, tolerable. Instead, barely clean but not competitive with other hotels downtown.
IF this hotel is remodeled I MIGHT stay here again. Otherwise, I will probably avoid it. For $25/night more, we could/should have stayed at the Marriott. It is a bit further west, but it is a much nicer hotel. If I could get this hotel really cheap after a remodel, I might just bring earplugs and try to deal with it. Nevertheless, probably not. If this hotel was not priced similarly to other, nicer, more recently remodeled hotels, I might say the value is better. There is not enough that is redeeming about this hotel to make me want to stay there again. I would not recommend this hotel to friends staying downtown either; I would direct them just about anywhere else.