Holiday Inn Binghamton Downtown by IHG — Hotel in City of Binghamton

I stayed one night at the Holiday Inn Binghamton.||||The hotel is an older, full-service property in the heart of downtown within walking distance of the arena and nearby offices. It has long served as the go-to convention and events hotel. If I had to guess, it was probably built in the late 1960s or early 1970s.||||Despite a renovation a few years back, the public spaces feel tired — the result of decades of lipstick-on-a-pig updates.||||The front-desk staff were polite and professional. Recognition of IHG elite status was mixed. I received bonus points, a breakfast voucher and a room on the top floor, but no upgrade — even though larger rooms and suites were available.||||A quirky touch: the registration form noted a mandatory weekday charge for a USA Today print newspaper unless guests opt out at check-in. I never saw a single newspaper in the hotel — not USA Today or even a local paper.||||Parking is complimentary, which is appreciated since many downtown hotels charge $20 or more. However, it’s in an open-air lot with no garage, a drawback during winter with snow.||||Rooms have the newer Holiday Inn decor but are extremely small. Especially the bathrooms. Drop-down ceilings give them more of a roadside-motel vibe than a downtown full-service hotel. Surprisingly, there is no in-room safe. The bathroom amenities are limited to bulk dispensers for soap, shampoo, conditioner, body wash and lotion. No bar soap is provided. When I asked at the front desk, I was told the hotel didn’t stock any. A bar of soap is a basic expectation for a full-service property.||||While the room itself was clean, the bathroom wasn’t: the walk-in shower had extensive mold and mildew. Clearly, the owner or management isn't doing the required maintenance because mold and mildew doesn't appear overnight. ||||Breakfast was a major let-down. Guests without IHG elite status must pay $18 per person for a buffet that was both poor in quality and limited in selection — far worse than a free-for-all-guests Holiday Inn Express breakfast. The oatmeal was cheap, sugary instant packets. The scrambled eggs were liquid or powdered. The blackberries had strands of hair in them. Pastries looked stale and worse than gas-station pastries. There were no cooked-to-order eggs, no fresh oatmeal — nothing to justify the price. A breakfast at Starbucks or McDonald’s would be better.||||Dinner in the hotel restaurant and bar was much better. Drinks were fine. The Kendall-Jackson unoaked chardonnay was perfectly acceptable, though I had hoped for a regional New York wine. The caesar salad with salmon was very good. Service was attentive and friendly. Unfortunately, the attractive riverside patio was closed for lack of wait staff. The two bartenders on duty were overwhelmed handling about 40 customers.||||The Holiday Inn Binghamton is an old hotel that desperately needs a comprehensive, floor-to-ceiling renovation that goes beyond swapping out furniture and wall coverings. Rooms are too small for today’s travelers. Worst of all, the breakfast is unacceptable for a full-service hotel. Guests expect and deserve better. Until the hotel addresses these issues, it remains an underwhelming place to stay despite its prime...

This was the WORST Holiday Inn we have ever stayed in. We travel for work and vacations so we regularly choose Holiday Inns and sometimes other IHG hotels due to consistent service and knowing what to expect with breakfasts and pools. This location did not fit the bill. They have a "resturant" so NO continental breakfast. I figured that was great because the food was going to be really good then. I could not have been more WRONG. They made me pay $40 for a breakfast "buffet" for 2 adults, kids eat free. They served the same things you get at other IHG locations with the free continental breakfast except LESS and WAY worse quality. $40 got you prepackaged cereal, prepackaged muffins, the ability to make your own waffles using the batter despenser and auto iron again found for free at other IHG locations. The "hot" food that should have set it a part... ice cold watery scrambled eggs, grey ice cold sausage links, icecold hard potato squares with old left over potato wedges mixed in, or a breakfast sandwich which was those ice cold items on an english muffin. There was no sausge gravy and busicuts or bacon that is served at other locations for free as a part of the continental breakfast. You served yourself and the tables all had glass on them. The woman who sat us down didn't even bother to move the glasses when she saw I had a 3 and 7 year old so I spent much of breakfast trying to keep the little one from accidentally breaking a glass. Then they want you to leave a TIP! The woman was angry I only left her a $2 tip but she did NOTHING. She didn't move the glasses, you serve yourself, and the food was so gross none of us ate. A HUGE waste of money. The next day we decided to go to a local diner instead. A fraction of the cost with way better quality food and actual choices. All employees looked miserable to be there except 1 cleaning lady. The pool was disgusting, so filthy with wads of hair around it. No towels at the pool not even in the morning. The whole thing is 4 ft and 4.5 ft deep so no real deep end for my husband and I and no swallow end for the kids to play. We stayed in the water holding the kids for 20 minutes before everyone was miserable and wanted to go. I will NEVER stay at this hotel again and will make sure NO family or friends ever do. Stay literally anywhere else! The ONLY positive was the location but with how bad the place is, it's better to just stay somewhere else and then drive to downtown, there is plenty of parking downtown. I wish I could get a refund for that nasty breakfast and that...

This was our second stay in this hotel. Our first time in August the room was small and there was no way for two people to sleep in each bed without the person sleeping near the wall having to climb over the other person to get in or out. There were less then 6 inches between the bed and the wall. Our most recent stay was worse. The room was smaller. This time we had issues walking between the ends of the beds and the desk and tv counter. It was an extremely narrow space and we kept kicking the wheels on the desk chair. We tried moving it to a different space but there was no where else to put it. We also had the same issue with attempting to share beds. There was a small puddle on the floor of the bathroom when we arrived. The tub did not drain properly so when I was showering I had water building up that was over my ankles. There was also less then 1/2 a roll of toilet paper in the room and I had to go down to the desk to get more. The microwave was super high in the little cubby that food was spilling off the plate as we tried to get it in and out. I’m 5’3 and could have seriously been burned. The front desk staff was telling guests to park wherever they could when they said the parking lot was full. This caused people to park in handicapped spaces and in the ramp spaces for handicapped people making it almost impossible for me to get in and out of my car. They also parked on both sides of the “driveway” in front of the building which was also the entrance and exit. We were almost hit by another car as we came back to the hotel. One thing that the hotel probably couldn’t fix was the extremely loud music that started after 11 pm and went on until after 1 am. Then the 3 am brawl, after that restaurant and bar closed, that only ended when the police showed up. I told all of this to the front desk on two occasions, once to a man and the other as we were checking out to two women. They said oh I’m sorry about that and suggested they might be able to upgrade us on our next visit. I said it was doubtful we would ever stay there again and one if the women said she’d try to give us some extra points then said she wasn’t allowed to but she’d ask her manager...