Columbia Club — Hotel in Indianapolis

I was very disappointed in my experience in this establishment. I was in town for a convention and had booked our room through the event we were attending. The event rated the Columbia Club highly as a local elegant hotel. Once we arrived the lobby and front desk were elegant to match the description we were expecting. The building holds a lot of local history and is like walking back in time once you walk through the doors. unfortunately, the rest of the hotel is the same, but not in a good way. ||||The elevators move, rattle, and slam every time you take them up or down. We never had any trouble with them, just gave you an uneasy feeling. Other guest we rode in the elevator with had similar concerns. Once off the elevator we stepped off on the 6th floor to find again a dated hallway. As we walked, we begin to notice in several spots the wallpaper was peeling off the walls. The baseboards and crown molding were misaligned and covered in wall putty. we arrived at our room, walked in and found the room in about the same condition as the hallway. The ceiling had several cracks and had been filled and repaired several times. There were spots where it looked as if plaster was missing. The carpet was red, very old and dirty. You could see in the dresser at one time there was a minifridge, but it was since removed. ||||The bathroom also left us less than satisfied. Other than it being very dated, the condition was poor. There were several holes that were just covered with silicone where the old shower curtain rod was and other random spots throughout. The hair dryer that is mounted on the wall is almost even with the shower curtain, so it has water dripping off of it after a shower. There was an extra drain fitting that attaches to the bathtub drain sitting on the side of the bathtub. Not just the plug part but a spare entire drain assembly. When you turn the water on, you literally pull half the water valve/knob out of the wall. Whatever the knob is attached to behind the wall is not attached any longer. Once you manage to get the water on, the water temperature is ridiculous. The first night the I set the water temperature and after a few minutes in the shower it went to straight cold and stayed that way for a few minutes then went straight to hot. Like scorching, burn your skin hot. The second night was the same as the night before. The third night the water never warmed up. It was lukewarm at best with the random spurts of freezing cold water. ||||While walking by the bed I brushed the curtain in front of the window, and it fell out of the ceiling. The curtain, which had nails sticking out of it where someone had tried to nail it directly to the ceiling, the aluminum curtain bracket, and all the mounting hardware literally fell out of the sealing and landed on top of me. I looked up at where the curtain was attached to the ceiling and there were huge holes in the ceiling where it appeared the curtain and bracket had fallen and been halfway put back several times. ||||Upon check-in, the front desk attendant advised they would have breakfast for us on the third floor in the morning. We went down for breakfast the next morning to find a limited breakfast buffet. We sat down and had to wait 20 minutes for someone to come to the table to take a drink order. Once we requested the drinks, we were asked our room number, then brought water. There was a gentleman in a suit who then walked over and asked the waitress if we were staying at the hotel to ensure we were supposed to be in the dining hall. We finished our breakfast, sat around another 15-20 minutes and never saw our waitress again. We were then advised that evening that the breakfast was not complimentary, and our bill was charged to our room since we had left without paying. This is fine, and I would have had no problem paying for the meal, though I was not advised the meal was not complimentary and the food and service was terrible. The charge was over $30 for two people to have breakfast and water to drink. ||||All in all, I would compare the quality of this hotel (food, service, and hotel quality) to that of a Super 8 or old Motel 6 that has not been updated since the 90s and would charge around $50 a night. The location and history of the facility is great, and I believe with some renovation and operation changes, it would be a very unique place to stay. I for one, will never stay at or...

My husband & I had our wedding here this past month and I was nothing but disappointed from the planning process through my wedding day. The only thing the Columbia Club has going for them is a beautiful venue and location, which we fell in love with - we booked the venue the same day we looked at it & did not want to look anywhere else.

Everything seemed to be going great until the old event coordinator, AJ Plough, left - the staff who took over for him obviously does not know what they are doing or how to reply to a simple phone call or email.

I have emailed the assistant manager, Stephanie, and apparently the problems we had are of no concern to her since we have paid our final bill. I have waited a week for some kind of apology or response and have received nothing. It is pointless to call the manager, Brandon, because he has never once returned a phone call and is very unprofessional as well.

Our room block that was supposed to be set up in February/March was never set up, and more than half of our guests who wanted to stay the evening before or after our wedding could not due to lack of rooms available. I honestly can't tell you how many times I tried to get a hold of Brandon, the manager, to get the problems resolved with my room block, but due to his un-professionalism, he never returned any of my calls.

The day of our wedding my guests were served cold, uncooked pasta and raw chicken - myself included. Some of my guests did not get their food for over an hour and a half after other guests were served and were still eating their dinner at 3:00 in the afternoon - we had a Sunday morning wedding. I was mortified, and nothing was done about the problem - not so much as an apology to myself or my husband, let alone a credit to our final bill for the horrible food we were served. Menu changes were made with plenty of notice before our wedding day, but they were ignored for the day of.

The morning of my wedding, rooms were supposed to be available at 7:00am for myself and my husband to get ready in. I was assured they would have nice seating and mirrors. Finally at 7:45am, after my hair and makeup artist had been there for almost an hour, someone came to unlock a door to a room that was still set up from our rehearsal the night before with no mirrors or tables. We finally got someone to unlock a different room that at least had a conference table it in with some natural lighting, but again, no mirrors and nothing was set up.

If you're wanting to get married in Downtown Indianapolis and want an unorganized & unprofessional venue, the Columbia Club is for you. If not, ...

A few things that aren’t advertised: you aren’t allowed to bring in ANY food or drink from outside, including having food delivered, bringing back leftovers, etc. The restaurant that serves breakfast was closed but you are not able to bring food in for breakfast. The rooms don’t have air conditioning that you can actually control the temperature. You can choose warm or cool and then the fan speed. There’s no discernible reason why the fan kicks or off but it does so at random. Valet parking is $40 with in and out privileges. Valet parking was the best pet of our stay because it was convenient and they didn’t have many guests so our car was just parked directly in front of the hotel.

You can eat in their restaurant on site. We went in the bar and had one glass of house wine and a mixed drink and the total before tax/fees was $22. We were charged various fees including on they called an “a la carte service fee” that was 21% plus tax then charged on the service fee. It was over $30 after fees. There were two other parties sitting at the bar that were Club members and the bartender was quite friendly with. He was dismissive of us and wore his mask under his chin. We didn’t return to the bar because we felt very unwelcome.

24 hour front desk service is advertised but is untrue. The ice machine is closed because of Covid restrictions so you need to go to the front desk for ice. We went to get ice and toilet paper and the person manning the door said there is not a front desk person overnight and he couldn’t help us. We were unable to get ice or toilet paper.

We needed toilet paper because our room wasn’t serviced at all during the multiple night stay. No fresh towels, supplies, sanitation, etc. We weren’t advised that there would be no service or given the hours of the front desk staff.

The room itself was dirty. There were rings on the counter, dirty floors, cracked ceilings. The room faced directly into the office next door, about twelve feet apart. We had to open the window because it was so hot in the room (because no AC)and woke up to occupied offices that we could clearly see, and they could see us.

Front desk staff was so rude when we checked out. She appeared to be yelling at housekeeping, stopped to take our keys, and then continued to scold staff. She didn’t ask how the stay was or allow us to share any feedback.

Overall, this hotel is what you’d expect from a Best Western or less. The Hilton Garden Inn is next door for cheaper with the same level of room (or nicer) and you’ll get 24 hour front desk staff, actual AC, housekeeping service, and can bring in...