Holiday Inn & Suites Pittsfield-Berkshires by IHG — Hotel in Pittsfield

Glad this hotel is there. Been traveling to Berkshire area for 12 years to visit family (stay in area 2-4 times a year), and there aren’t many options from Pittsfield to Williamstown. Saw a lot of complaints about this place in reviews. People must not know the history. We use to stay at the Crowne Plaza, and towards the end it was an absolute dump. I’ve read the company that owns this Holiday Inn has invested over $5 million into the property. For the most part they’ve done a great job. Rooms are pretty nice as is lobby, restaurant, and bar. Also, when they first opened they only had one working elevator, and now all three are working (must have cost a pretty penny). We stayed 3 nights this weekend and paid a little over $100 a night. That was half of our other go to (Fairfield Inn in Williamstown). Thus, thank you for making this hotel exist!

As I stated earlier, restaurant and bar area are really nice. We only visited for the breakfast buffet. It was amazing! Tons of options, and they do a great job keeping it up. The guy in the NY hat deserves the employee of the year award. He was on top of seating people, cleaning tables, and filling food. Also, every day he was friendly and smiling. Buffet costs $13 At the door, which is well worth it. We are diamond elite members and we’re going to have it as our gift, but at check in we were given a room that was already occupied, so she gave us the buffet and points.

They do a good job thanking the diamond elite members. Front desk staff was really nice, and upgraded us to a bedroom suite. Room was amazing. Huge living room with kitchen. Full fridge in kitchen (sadly there was take out food left in it). Couldn’t believe we had the room for $100 a night. Only complaint was bathroom was tiny when there was tons of open space in the room. Also, water pressure in the sinks were tough to regulate, pretty much you turn it on and it explodes out all over. Shower water pressure was really low, so it was funny how one was one extreme and the other another. This is probably more on the contractors. These days it’s tough to find a good contractor.

In regards to parking I don’t get everyone’s complaints. They have free valet, and honestly it’s not a far walk. Most city hotels you’re parking at similar or further walk away. Also, other hotels charge $20-$100 for parking/valet. Here it’s free. They do a good job clearing a path to the hotel. I know Pittsfield is known for addiction and crime that comes with it. We never had an issue staying here. Like anywheres just don’t leave things in your car. I can’t imagine what it’s going to cost them to fix or remove that parking garage. They just dropped millions into this place 5 years ago, so to someone like me their parking isn’t a big issue. One thing that would be nice though is if they made the handful of spots next to the hotel for Diamond Elite members like other hotels do. Also, people try to make spots in no parking fire and loading zones. Should be towing those people for safety and an easier check in process for the people...

I wouldn’t stay here for free. Our experience was so bad that we left the hotel after two nights on a three night reservation. Terrible all around. We were “upgraded” to a Pool View Junior Suite from a standard King. The dead bolt on our door would not lock unless I lifted up on the door (at which point it was difficult to unlock). It was so out of alignment that it barely latched and I hardly considered it closed (photo attached of the fully closed door). At the bottom, the gap was at least 1.5” out into the walkway around the pool area, so we heard EVERYTHING that happened in the pool area in great detail. Our first morning included a child playing with the echo under the roof over the pool before it opened at 7AM. At check in, the manager said she has slept in one of these rooms and that she was able to sleep through kids at the pool - we were not able. The pool is open from 7AM to 9PM, and we heard kids before 7AM and we heard young adults until close to 10PM, loud and clear in our room, not to mention throughout the day. The room itself has a small, cold bathroom with a narrow shower. The ’suite’ element is a nook with a microwave and a mini fridge in what used to be the other half of the bathroom. In an era of smart TVs, they still have a secondary box for the cable channels. The internet would not support streaming - when we tried, we had persistent buffering delays. As for the view, the only window looks out onto the roof above the defunct parking garage (photo attached). One of the three elevators was not in operation, while the two that were made noises that made me question how long they would remain in operation. We took the stairs out of concern. While they do offer a valet service, they use staff and I would be surprised if they had adequate insurance - the service struck me as ad hoc and we declined to use it. The valet is tempting because parking is currently “two lefts and two rights” from the lobby, in a surface lot across the street in a poorly lit bank parking lot. The walk to the hotel is along a poorly lit sidewalk around their defunct/abandoned parking garage. The manager also didn’t want to add my IHG status to our reservation, made through IHG Club Vacations. She said “It won’t matter” even though that would have given us free breakfast. This is how they treat IHG Diamond Elite members. We will not be returning.

1/29 Update: I'd just like to note, we stayed at another IHG Hotel and were offered all of our benefits. That, and even though the GM responded to this message, no other attempt was made to contact us - no email, no phone call. I'm not going to go out of my way to create the opportunity for him to correct...

Recent trip to the Berkshires lead me to stay at the Holiday Inn in Pittsfield, MA. [Note I just stayed here in December 2021 for one night as well.]. So let’s talk about parking, there is none on-site. You have to walk a block away, using a bank parking lot and there were a few instances where I didn’t feel safe (a group of men lingering in the parking lot.). Also, if you’re not in shape, it’s an incline to walk up West street to the hotel entrance. I was offered Valet for this trip (not my December one) but couldn’t take advantage as I wasn’t sure if my vehicle would be available timely due to the nature of my visit.

As for the hotel room, I loved it! The beds were comfortable, the furniture was functional, comfortable and stylish. Loved the view of Pittsfield - I faced the East side with view of Pittsfield High school dome lit up at night. The room had a Kureg Coffee maker and refrigerator.

Here’s my ‘but’ in the Review title:

The toilet paper was awful and literally “dissolves upon use” (use imagination on that one).

The room was on the 11th floor and was non-smoking however all you could smell was smoke in the hallway and mildly in the room on the first night.

And the breakfast buffet was not good as in the food was cold when me/my guest went to eat at 7:15 am (it opened at 6:30 am). None of the serving trays were on (heating) the eggs, bacon, home fries or French toast. We told the server and they did use a microwave in the back to reheat (note now our plates were scalding - and food was microwaved hot). The server did turn on the heating source to the trays at that point then left the area. When I decided to refill my coffee at 7:30 am (after about 3 people had come/gone with their coffees), the 60 cup coffee caraf was empty as well as the creamers. I went to look for server (again) and they were gone. I waited for about another 5 minutes and still no server. My guest and I left the breakfast area to go to the front desk to request my breakfast vouchers for the next day be returned and credited. When we exited the breakfast area, we say the server mopping the bar-room area so that’s why they didn’t return to check back with us or attend to coffee. The front desk worker apologized for my disappointment in the food.

So If you want a good bed to rest on with a great view, this is your place. Wear good walking attire, bring your own TP and plan...