Holiday Inn Downtown Providence

Let me begin by admitting that I purchased this room last minute on Priceline for the ridiculously low price of $60. The same room on the hotel website was $119. Figuring that I could easily spend the $59 I was saving at Providence Place, I gladly bought into the whole discount booking agenda.

The Holiday Inn is located off of I95 and very close to Providence Place Mall and the Convention Center. We found it quite easily since it was visible as we were getting ready to exit I95. They have their own parking lot under the hotel which will cost you $12 a night. Given its excellent proximity to everything we wanted to visit I found this a reasonable rate.

Check in was quick and efficient and the fact that I had purchased the room from a discount site was never mentioned nor was I ever made to feel like anything but a very welcome guest. The hotel has an indoor pool, you will never doubt this because the chlorine smell is very evident in both the lobby and the elevator. It was not evident in our room but the fact that this room was a recent conversion to nonsmoking was. The smell was stale smoke seemed to linger in the bedding and pillows. Thankfully after a while I could not longer notice it.

There was nothing extraordinary about our two double-bedded room. It was a very typical Holiday Inn, a desk, two chairs, a TV, coffee maker, three lamps. All very practical and unexciting. The bathroom was so small that your knees almost banged into the door when you used the toilet. That having been said, it had plenty of good hot water and lots of clean towels. There was the usual basket of amenities. It was a very acceptable room.

What was outstanding of course was the location. We were a five minute walk away from Providence Place. Yes if you want to spend more than $200 a night you can be connected to the Mall by the skybridge from the Westin. But if like us, you prefer to spend that other $140 in the shops then the Holiday Inn is a perfect location.

The Dunkin Donuts Center is literally out the rear door of the hotel and the Trinity Repertory Theater is a very short walk. If you have come to see fire on the water that is also within a five minute walk. The hotel itself has a restaurant and the Black Swan Bar where you can enjoy a drink while watching one of their large screen TVs. If you prefer to eat elsewhere, there are several really good choices close by including Fire and Ice.