Holiday Inn Sacramento Rancho Cordova by IHG — Hotel in Rancho Cordova

I've never stayed here at this Rancho Cordova location before. My reservation was in the system and when I arrived, my room was ready.

The staff here were all super nice and accommodating. I even got a free breakfast voucher for breakfast in the on site restaurant. The grounds are all very clean and the pool area was nice, although I didn't have time to use the pool or hot tub this time around.

Opening the door to my room, I notice right away the room size is a little smaller than most Holiday Inns I've stayed. I was told all the rooms here at this location are all about the same size, so I couldn't upgrade to a larger room like at some of the hotels. The AC was a wall unit with no thermostat to set a numbered temp. It just had high low speeds and a dial for hot or cold (red and blue). So you just set it and hope for the best. For some reason, even though it's like in the middle of winter, I had to run the AC all the time as the room got stuffy and too hot, even through the night. With the AC running the room was fine. It had a working flat screen TV and fridge and microwave. Also included was the usual little single serving coffee maker ...... not the greatest coffee unless you're desperate. The beds were a bit soft, but not bad and no weird creepy crawly things running amok either.

The WiFi in the room worked super fast and they also offered a wired ethernet connection. That was running at 40+ Mbps and the wireless in the room was full strength at 28 Mbps! I was able to hook my laptop to the TV and stream Netflix in HD ..... that was way better than watching TV!

The bathroom on the other had could use some improvements. Everything worked fine actually, but the vanity is really small and doesn't leave much room for a girl to put all her make up and other bathroom stuff we need. The Kleenex in the wall holder was some pretty rough stuff, really, it was pretty bad. The toilet didn't seem like any kinda water saver at all, tons of water swirling before it goes down. The lighting in the toilet shower room was pretty dim and was only one light, controlled from the vanity area. The fan does suck well in there though. With the shower curtain drawn, there's not much light in the shower bathtub area. The water pressure is good and the hot water never ending, so that's a big plus if you like long showers.

One thing that bugged me a bit was the lack of available free coffee, like most other Holiday Inns have out most of the morning. This place has a separate coffee stand serving Starbucks along with pastries. So, I guess having free coffee would be counter productive to the profits of the coffee stand. The on site restaurant serves normal breakfast and dinners, no lunches. Breakfast is sit down style, no buffet like some other hotels. The food and service was fine at the restaurant, although I do wish they had hash browns with breakfast, instead of the country potatoes. I love hash browns!

Over all, this is a decent property, well maintained and friendly staff. Some of the short comings are architecturally founded and not too much you can do about that. Coffee out for the guests would be a big plus, and better lighting in the bath area. One other thing that needs help is the WiFi capacity or the speed in the lobby and restaurant area. I was up early one morning and went to the restaurant and tried to use the WiFi, and no response! Good signal strength, but no response or super slow response. Then I go up to the business center on the 3rd floor and BAM, back to fast speed and response and I return to my room and back to super fast. So something with the common front area WiFi is bad. The rates here are reasonable most times and the clientele looks to be all business travelers. I'd stay again if I had to, but maybe not my...

We stayed very last minute due to the recent storms impacting the passes to Tahoe. We booked two rooms via the IHG app around 4:00PM and arrived an hour later.

The location is easy right off 50, plenty of parking.

Unfortunately, i didn't look closely. I thought I had booked a newer HI express, but this is an older full service Holiday Inn hotels. Breakfast was not included, but there is a bar and restaurant onsite.

Overall, the hotel simply seems dated. The lobby is more of a hallway and the restaurant appears to be a large meeting room that was converted. There is a coffee stand that serves very good baked items, juices etc in the morning and evening. We also received a coupon with our room key for 2 free drinks at the bar. This was a nice perk I believe for IHG reward members. The evening the bar/restaurant area was really busy. It is a open area with basic tables. The food was served quickly. The menu is limited, but worked for us. The best thing we ordered as the caesar salad with grill chicken.

The staff was very friendly throughout. Very professional and attentive. In the restaurant, it was clear they were understaffed. I only saw one person at the check-in deck the whole time we were there. We did have to wait in line to check in (about 5 minutes -with two people in front of me when we checked in).

I have high status on IHG but was unable to upgrade or get a King room, likely due to my very late reservation. They did acknowledge my status and I received the welcome points at checkin. We were able to get rooms next to each other on the top floor (3rd).

All of the above would have been fine if the rooms were more modern. They are simply very dated. It reminded me of the older casinos in Tahoe. The carpeting is a dull red that looks very old. The hairdryer on the wall has to be 20 years old. Old lamps, tables. Old air conditioner/heater in corner with just a couple setting that was really rattling (we turned it off overnight). TV is flat screen and bedding are modern and fresh, but overall, the room was just sad. Even my kids commented on the old elevator ("Look mom, the display isn't digital, it just lights up the number underneath").

Finally, both at checkin and at 6:30 the next morning, I confirmed late checkout with the front deck for one of my rooms to be 1:30PM. We checked out of the 2nd room around 9:00AM. I was working from the late room while the kids/hubby did some sight seeing. 3 different times in the morning, housekeeping knocked on my door to ask about when I was leaving. the first two times I was on the phone, and after I found the housekeeper a few doors down and told her I had a late checkout. About 20 minutes later, the housekeeping manager knocked on my door to remind me it was past checkout time. I asked the manager to confirm with the front desk. I also again called the front desk to ask not to be disturbed again. (all this with my "shhh" sign on the door").

Overall, glad to have found a port in the storm, but I'll select one of the newer, more updated hotels in the area when I come...

I knew this was going to be a bad experience by the way it started. I went to the front desk to check in, the guy was friendly and greeted me. As he was checking me in, the phone rang and he stopped checking me in and help the person on the phone. There were 3 additional calls and each time the phone rang, he would interrupt my checking in. Not once did he ask the person on the phone if they can hold because he was helping a customer in front of him. After the 20 minute check in experience, I was finally on my way to my room. In the room, the shower faucet had strands of hair and all of the counter tops were dusty as if they were never dusted. In the evening, I went down to the bar to get a drink and something to eat. The 2 bartenders were very friendly and attentive. The food was pretty good. In the morning before checking out, I decided to have some breakfast. In the café, before I can place an order, the waiter asked me if I had a breakfast voucher and told him that my breakfast was included in my reservation. He told me I needed to go to the front desk and ask for a voucher. At the front desk, the gal looked up my reservation and gave me my voucher. I went back to the café to order, but the waiter said that the voucher only covered the “free” breakfast menu. So I ordered from that menu. The food came out fairly quick and was decent. The waiter later told me that the front desk people are always forgetting to give customers their breakfast voucher. After breakfast, I went to the front desk to return my keys and check out. Since I already got my bill, check out was easy. I asked about my welcome points and she said that it would be deposited into my account in a couple days. I checked out on Sunday and called the hotel on Wednesday inquiring about the bonus points again, this time they told me it takes 3-5 “business” days before I receive them. It is now 7 business days and still no welcome points. I stayed at another IHG hotel prior to staying here and I got their welcome points within 24 hours after checking out. I even stayed at 2 additional IHG hotels AFTER staying at the Sacramento Rancho Cordova Holiday Inn and I got those welcome points. As stated on my title, this is the worst experience I ever had with an IHG hotel. I’m so glad there are so many better choices than this location. BTW, this is the only hotel that didn’t request for me to fill out a survey, so I had to go to IHG’s website to complete this review. Also, left a voicemail with the assistant general manager regarding my issues, but STILL no...