When searching for a hotel to stay at while in St. Louis, getting one with an indoor pool was a must so the kids could enjoy swimming in the evening. When I phoned the Holiday Inn and asked if they had an indoor pool, they informed me they did. You would think inquiring about that amenity would lead them to believe that was important for my stay and that if this amenity in question was not available that maybe it would be imortant for them to mention this fact to us. Apparently not! When we arrived a week later, we found the pool had been closed for a few weeks and not due to re-open for a few more weeks. Then we were told we had to pay to use the hotel parking lot ($10/day). I was not a happy camper! While this was probably a fluke about the pool, I must say these events and lack of customer service turned me off to this hotel from the beginning.
While the hotel is downtown and connected to the convention center, it does not sit down on the river. The arch and riverboat casinos are around 1/2 to 1 mile away. You can walk but you may want to drive. However, the hotel does offer a shuttle to the casinos if you don't want to take your own car.
The hotel rooms are very basic, nothing special, just a typical Holiday Inn room. The hotel does offer one restaurant on site that serves meals daily.
When returning to St. Louis for an overnight instead of just a day trip and needing a hotel, the next time we will stay on the river. We walked through the Embassy Suites and it looked very nice. There are a few other hotels in the general area and they all usually offer weekend or weekly packages. Get your visitors guide to check out specials.