This post started off as just a Holiday Inn North Phoenix review. I always wonder how useful hotel reviews of random hotels across the country truly are, and after a bit of noodling, this post turned into some broader thoughts about Holiday Inns as a whole. The Holiday Inn North Phoenix was one of the hotels that I stayed at during my Nevada / California / Arizona County trip that I took with my son last month. I was participating in the IHG Accelerate promotion, which required 2 paid stays at Holiday Inns. I did my first one at the Holiday Inn Washington Dulles Intl Airport, when I was there to speak at the Family Travel for Real Life conference
(SEE ALSO: What you missed by not attending Family Travel for Real Life (#FT4RL) this weekend)
Holiday Inn North Phoenix
We arrived at the Holiday Inn North Phoenix after our visit to the Grand Canyon, arriving there about 9pm. The Holiday Inn North Phoenix is (wait for it…) north of Phoenix, which was nice as we were coming down I-17 from the Grand Canyon.
The room was a basic 2 queen bed room, and the beds were comfortable
Bathroom was basic but functional
We had a fine night’s sleep, which is most of what we were going for.
The Holiday Inn North Phoenix is a Category 2 hotel (15,000 points / night). Because I was trying to qualify for the IHG Accelerate promotion, I paid cash (well, credit card) – the out the door rate with taxes was $90.57.
(READ: My IHG Accelerate points have posted – have yours?)
Why I hate Holiday Inns
To explain why staying at the Holiday Inn North Phoenix reminded me why I hate Holiday Inns, let me back up to when we checked in. One of the things I value at a hotel is breakfast, which typically is not complimentary at most Holiday Inns. When we checked in, I asked
Are there any breakfast vouchers for Platinum members?
This worked at the Holiday Inn Washington Dulles Intl Airport, but at the Holiday Inn North Phoenix, the gentleman paused and said “No, it’s not included”. What I felt like saying was, “I know you CAN give out vouchers, but you just don’t WANT to”. I get that IHG Platinum isn’t even top-tier any more, and I just have it from the credit card, but sheesh.
I guess when it boils down to it, Holiday Inn has positioned itself (at least in mine and seemingly most others minds) as a “budget” hotel. I mean, this is a Category 2 hotel that cost $79 / night. It’s one thing when a “fancy” hotel doesn’t include breakfast, I understand it, but at seemingly “budget” hotels, breakfast is typically included. I mean there are hotels that give out free DINNER too!
I should clarify that this only refers to Holiday Inns. Holiday Inn EXPRESS hotels, on the other hand, serve a delicious breakfast, including my favorite hotel breakfast food – Holiday Inn Express cinnamon rolls!
What about you? Am I being too hard on Holiday Inns? What has your experience been? Leave a note in the comments
- Nevada / California / Arizona County trip
- How many 1 star hotels can I stay at?!
- 3 tricks to see the Hoover Dam for free
- Turns out the Grand Canyon is COLD!
- Super Awesome Anthem Veterans Memorial
- Holiday Inn North Phoenix review AKA Why I hate Holiday Inns
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Not sure that’s a reason to “hate” holiday inn. They gave you everything you paid for. Clean room with a comfy bed. No reason to waste money giving you a free breakfast from a business perspective
Sheeesh, you’re a bit snooty aren’t ya? This whole piece is “I stayed in a nice clean budget hotel, slept well but there was no breakfast, I HATE holiday Inn, waaaaaaaaa”
“WAAAAAAAAA”
For less than $5 you can run over to a McDonalds and have a much better breakfast than most of the included breakfasts I’ve had a budget hotel.
Yeah – that’s actually what we did, except we found a cool local donut chain in Phoenix and went there
I’m with you on this one, Dan, — and yes, I get it that nearby McDonalds will get you a $5 breakfast…. but just not the same. Recently was at the Radisson Melbourne, Fl — and Micky D’s across the street — complete with VERY long lines, obnoxious crude country music, and terrible pricing. (and to get seconds, wait in line again….)
The spouse agrees with you even more….. she really likes any hotel that includes the breakfast (HI Express, Hyatt Place, etc.) — and despises/resents even the higher end “luxury” hotel if they don’t include what the budget hotels include almost always…. (so this is a rant well aimed at the entire industry here in the US)
Back to HI, I’d add that in my experience with the brand over the past five years, I’ve often received just the vouchers for breakfast you mention…. (and great you got one from HI Dulles — I’d never been so lucky there before, will insist on it in the future — or go to the nearby Crowne Plaza — for their fab breakfast options for Plat. members.) HI Manassas Battlefield also has a fine breakfast buffet (which we’ve always received as IHG plat members too)…..
Last thought…. stayed at a nice econo lodge (really) in Cocoa Beach recently — ran into a manager there from India…. and he relayed that common practice across south asia is the exact opposite of the US…. that is, high end hotels there will almost always be either “all-inclusive” (as in full board, or all meals) or at least include breakfast & dinner….. There, it’s the lower end budget places where you might have to forage for your own grub.
So for a future post, just how did the US traditions emerge in reverse? (as in “full service” hotels don’t include breakfast, whereas most budget ones do?)
From my limited experience (4 different HIs and 5 different HIEs), Holiday Inns are a step up in basically every other way, so it doesn’t bug me that they don’t offer breakfast. The rooms are better in general, and my wife and I have gotten a couple with a great view as an free upgrade (I am Spire for this year…total fluke due to getting the 70k IHG Visa deal last year at the right time). Personally, I have found the I can pass on the Holiday Inn Express breakfast, and it doesn’t bug me that it isn’t included. Only one has been good, and the rest were barely passable. It’s rare that the non-carbohydrate options are any good, so I find myself having mainly coffee and yogurt. Three of my stays have been for work, where I could have easily gotten breakfast on their dime somewhere else, and I will likely take that option next time.
I’m glad you mentioned that you can ask for breakfast vouchers…I didn’t know that was an option for HI! Great info. I’ll try that next time. I had a great hotel breakfast at the Holiday Inn North Sydney (Canada, not Australia) last summer, but it cost ~$18, if I recall correctly.
I know this is an old post but…not for me 🙂
I agree. I stay at a ton of IHG properties every year on business. I end up mostly at HIX and avoid HI’s because of the breakfast. Not that I care if it’s free since my company would pay anyway but that it’s more of a pain than the carefree HIX experience. I’m also down on HIX when they start breakfast later than 6am because I need to be on the road by 6:30 or 7am usually and it’s just not great.
I have recently stayed at a few Holiday Inn properties though because they offered room service at night. Many nights I’m in my room trying to get work done and really don’t feel like going out to get food when I’ve been driving all day.
One thing you might try at HIX is to ask for a breakfast to go. When we took our Amtrak trip back in 2015, our train left Toledo at like 5 a.m. When we told the HIX desk staff about that, they offered us 8 breakfast to go bags that had cinnamon roll, apple, breakfast bars and lots of other breakfast-y goodness.
Really? So you essentially bully a front desk agent for not giving you a breakfast voucher? I work at a full service hotel and the accounting department audits the restaurant’s sales receipts and we actually could get written up for giving away a breakfast voucher to someone who didn’t pay for it with their rate. Maybe the agent wasn’t trying to be mean. He probably wasn’t allowed to give you a voucher for being platinum status. Platinum is a status which denotes to a hotel how many times you have stayed in a hotel per year. The special privileges include an option of late check-out, accelerated point earnings, and room upgrades when available. The system isn’t designed to give away a free breakfast. The breakfast at a full service holiday inn is served in their full service restaurant which has servers on staff and a full menu. It’s different than a continental, that’s why it’s not free. Maybe next time you could pay $5 extra for the rate that includes breakfast instead of demanding it for free.
The newly-constructed Holiday Inns are relatively upscale actually – good enough to warrant some snootiness.
The old Holiday Inns (from the pre-Express days) would have ideally been downgrade to Expresses, but that’s not possible because they already invested in a bar/restaurant, and Holiday Inn Express “prides” itself on never having a restaurant and a bar onsite. There’s also contractual hurdles about forcing existing properties to start offering free, crappy breakfasts instead of their profitable, quality ones.
Holiday Inn is a recognizable/valuable brand name. I can understand why they thought the “Holiday Inn Express” brand was a good idea, but it created a quagmire . I guess the problem will fix itself in a few decades after the old properties close, rebrand, or renovate.
I agree with your point about breakfast for Hilton’s and hyatts where it’s $20. Obviously for a traveling family it’s totally insane to spend $60 on a mediocre breakfast which is why we don’t stay there.
However, Holiday Inn (and I believe Crowne Plaza) let you add breakfast for 2 adults (and kids eat free at HI) when you book for around $10. So that works out to be a good deal considering it’s a “real” breakfast and not a carb-fest continental one.
Dredging up an old topic, but here goes…
My issue with Holiday Inns over the last few years has nothing to do with the lack of a free breakfast. Rather, it’s the hit-and-miss physical nature of their properties compared to HIX. I’ve stayed in some very nice, relatively new HI’s recently, but I’ve also stayed recently at some sub-par HI’s that should be kicked out of the chain (with old, worn out carpet and furnishings that literally look like they haven’t seen a remodel in 30+ years). My HIX experience has been much more consistent, property-wise.
Yeah – I feel the same way.