Good hotel - shame about the restaurant management
The Sheriff's Lady and I stayed here for one night. We had a bit of an epic finding the place because the directions off the freeway are not very clear and the San Antonio freeways are pretty scary - too easy to get in the wrong lane and miss the exit. I have not yet replaced the Lady with a satnav because she is much better at commonsense navigation but this overtaxed both of us. After a tour of some of the less salubrious neighbourhoods of San Antonio, we came in from the other end of Cesar Chavez and found a very warm welcome. The front desk were consistently helpful and friendly. The room was pretty typical of Holiday Inns in terms of size and comfort, with a rather noisy airconditioner that we mostly turned off - wouldn't like to try sleeping later in the summer. The desk also sorted out a wi-fi problem very quickly and efficiently. The free parking is a great asset, especially as there is a frequently trolley service into the Riverwalk and connecting to the main sights within San Antonio so you can leave the car and let someone else do the driving. The one real downside was that the restaurant was closed to regular guests on the morning we left. There isn't an alternative anywhere near, because of the location on the edge of the downtown. This suggested that, although other staff had a great attitude, management were quite happy to make a fast buck out of their day conference trade at the expense of ordinary guests. This was reinforced by a brusque encounter with the restaurant manager whose manner would best be captured by the sort of profanity that would get this review blocked. If we wanted breakfast before 8:30, that was our problem not his and our complaints could go somewhere that the sun does not shine. When I have encountered this issue before, hotels have set up continental buffets, often complimentary, in other areas, but this Holiday Inn had done nothing. The result was to encroach badly on our sightseeing time - we were delayed getting to the Alamo and ran into all the coach parties, for example. I am quite conflicted about how to rate this place. On most of my criteria, it would get four stars but this incident quite ruined the experience.