Holiday House Palm Springs — Hotel in Palm Springs

Stayed here for 2 nights in March with my sister. It was my first time to Palm Springs and the Holiday House was recommended by a local and overall we were happy with our stay. It’s a boutique hotel on the smaller side but that gives us a great local and personal feel. I debated between 4 and 5 stars but I always have to look at the price versus what you get. And our room was ~$850/night so for that price you have to look at what you are getting versus other full service hotels in the area. Yes, it was high season but it’s still on the pricier side. ||Staff: A+|The team here is overly friendly (in a good way). I don’t think we passed through the lobby without a “good morning” or “hello”. Chris, the GM, gets a shout out as well as the waitstaff at the restaurant. Everyone was super helpful. ||Location: A+|One block off the main strip so was quieter but easy to walk everywhere. There are dozens of restaurants and shopping within a 5 minute walk.||Grounds: A|Well laid out and clean grounds. They have parking right on sight and we never had an issue getting a spot. There is also shuffle board, a fire pit, and cabana’s for more general outdoor relaxation. ||Pool: B+|It was a bit cold when we were there so didn’t go in the pool. More than enough comfy chairs for the # of guest through. However, they were lacking clean towels and we had 30 mins for them to bring more. And there wasn’t consistent wait staff. But again, it wasn’t exactly prime pool weather so many in a different season this is adjusted. ||Room: A-|We had a “Big Room” on the second floor which definitely lived up to its name. Huge bar, seating area, bathroom with 2 sinks, a soaking tub and shower. Bed was super comfy. A/C not easy to use and our room lacked a balcony which was a bummer. Seemed smaller rooms had balconies. For the large rooms like ours this was a disappointment. Also note there is no elevator so if you have trouble with stairs you should request a room on the first floor.||Lobby: B|The lobby is cute, cozy and picturesque and ideal for Insta-worthy moments. However there is no real check-in desk. You end up going up to the bar where they have the computer. And there is no place to store luggage if you arrive early or leave late. They stack them up in the living room area which is a bit awkward. ||Restaurant: A|We split a lunch here (which the GM nicely comped us due to some A/C woes) which was good. It’s all outdoors, nicely decorated and covered and gives a feel-good vibe. In hindsight we should have tried dinner here too. ||Housekeeping: B|They seem to lack enough housekeeping staff as past 2:30 no one had come to clean as they were prioritizing check out rooms to turn them over. When they did come they did a good job. Note you will only get 2 towels in the bathroom, apparently to conserve water due to Cali droughts. And you have to ask to get more and get them replaced. ||In hindsight we said we wished we had forgone the bigger room and gotten a smaller room with a balcony. There wasn’t a big difference in price but the balcony would have been great. ||I’m not giving 5 stars just due to the high price versus the overall friendly but not overly luxurious experience I expect with it. But don’t let that deter you. It’s a great option in PS that I...

Holiday House has everything you need for a relaxing vacation. After a long travel day followed by a drive in LA traffic, we were greeted with a welcoming smile and an easy check in. We were given a map of the hotel and the surrounding area which included a little history about the hotel. We immediately dropped our bags in our beautifully designed room (number 8) and went straight to the pantry for dinner. The service was great, as was the food. ||The Holiday House is in a great location. Walking distance to restaurants, shopping and bars. The next day, still on east coast time, my husband and I were up early and enjoyed a cup of coffee in our room, before heading to their continental breakfast. The food options were great. There was yogurt, fresh fruit, banana bread, overnight oats, boiled eggs and juice to name a few. We ate our breakfast outside and read the paper that the Holiday House provided before moving on to the pool area for the morning. ||The pool area is great with amenities such as sunscreen, towels, magazines, lunch menu for the Pantry and plenty of comfortable lounge chairs with umbrellas. The pool was pumped with cold water, which was great as the day temperatures reached 108 degrees or more. The view of the mountains from the pool was spectacular. Water and ice were readily available to fill our water bottles. The staff made sure that we had everything we needed. The lunch and drink offerings, available to eat around the pool, were delicious. They even have an ice cream cooler by the pool. ||We had room number 8, which we loved. Our son was in room number 9. Both were in the Best Category and located on the first floor close to the pool gate. The decor just between those two rooms varied greatly, ours was blue and our son's room was more earthly tones, but the basic layout was the same. The bed was comfortable. The room had a kitchen with a refrigerator, nepresso maker, coffee cups, fairly complete bar and an honor basket with some snacks. There was a seating area in front of the window, which had blackout shades. The bathroom comes with cowshed products from England, robes and plenty of towels. My favorite touch was the china monkey to hold my jewelry. There was a private outdoor seating area with an outdoor shower in both rooms. The closets had weights, yoga mat and umbrella. ||Chris and his staff were excellent. The Holiday House has thought of everything making our stay relaxing to the point when checkout time came, which also was a breeze, we were not ready to leave. Since we felt we did not get enough time at the Holiday House, we have already booked...

Disappointed. I'm not one to write reviews, as my wife and I are pretty easy-going people. We stay in Palm Springs at least once a year and decided to try Holiday House for the first time after reading the many glowing reviews.

The property itself is adorable, especially from a distance. Our room was a little worn and not as well maintained as one would hope for, but that would be easy to overlook if not for the other issues we experienced.

The week we stayed at the property the temperatures were north of 115 degrees. We checked in and quickly went to the pool to cool off. There were a number of people sitting around the pool, sweating under misters, but no one was in the water. One step into the water explained the situation -- the pool was literally the temperature of a hot tub and provided no relief from the heat of the day. The other guests explained to us that the staff had accidentally turned a heater on, raising the temperature of the pool to an unbearable level. And, given the heat wave, it would take many days for the pool to cool down.

When you come to Palm Springs during a heat wave, a cool pool is the only reason to be there -- without a means to cool off, it's miserable. Why hadn't the management communicated with us about this issue at check in? Instead, they left people to discover it themselves and be disappointed. Guests were frustrated, angry and talking with each other about the issue and the lack of communication from the manager and their disappointment in general. Several people canceled their stays and booked rooms at other hotels as fast as they could. The whole situation created an environment that was negative, stressful and not what you go on vacation to experience.

Mistakes happen, but the hotel management should have been upfront with guests about the problem, what they were doing to address it and offer up potential solutions or alternatives. We experienced a number of other smaller issues, all of which came down to management seeming to be overwhelmed, unorganized and uncoordinated. I talked with one regular guest of the hotel who said there had been a lot of turnover during the pandemic and the place wasn't what it used to be.

Like many other guests, we chose to relocate to a different property midway through our stay. Unfortunately our experience left a bad taste in our mouths and we won't be back to the...