Holiday Inn Express & Suites Winona by IHG — Hotel in Winona

We have stayed multiple times here, and would recommend it to anyone. It's located close to everything: multiple restaurants, Wal-Mart, gas stations, and a Fleet Farm. Most everything we need is in walking distance of this hotel. Absolute worst breakfast I have ever had, so be prepared to find something/somewhere else to eat in the morning. It's a short drive to boat launches for pools 4-6, and close to Merrick State Park as well. Winona is a cool town, with LOTS to do and see, and it has the feel of a small historic town despite being a college town with a population of almost 30,000 people.

As for the hotel itself, it's a standard Holiday Inn, clean and nice, with a small variety of amenities. The pool is lovely after a long day on the water (some fantastic employees have even let us swim after hours). There's a nice hot tub, sauna, fitness centre.

We always get a king suite, and it provides us plenty of space and includes a mini-fridge with freezer, microwave, and coffee maker, plus a TV in both the bedroom and living room. Pretty standard, but always very clean with the feel of a new hotel (doesn't appear to be old or run-down at all.)

What has made this place outstanding has been the customer service. They've gone above and beyond almost every time we have stayed there. Sometimes just little things, like a handwritten note & drawing from the maid who prepared our room, directions and suggestions about local areas to explore, or just remembering that we like extra pillows. Occasionally they've done huge things for us as well, like opening the pool up in the middle of the night so we can soak our sunburn or helping us figure out how to charge the batteries in our boat overnight. These are things that they have done not because their job requires it, but out of genuine kindness- for example, the young lady at the front desk saw our horribly sunburned skin and offered to open up the pool for us because she thought the cold water might offer us a bit of relief. That act in itself deserves more than 5 stars!

Be warned that this is a pretty busy hotel, especially on weekends, and there have been some rowdy nights. Last weekend there was a high school state Basketball tournament, and the hotel was full up with rambunctious teenage boys and their exhausted parents. The boys ended up with full run of the hotel and we had to stay up until the parents shut them down around midnight. Not the fault of the hotel, but I would have sworn there was a herd of T-Rexes thundering through the halls! More often than not, the pool area has been busy, so plan your time in there accordingly. There is a kiddie pool complete with tiny waterslide and fountains, so I understand the draw.. If you have kids, don't let them get even a glimpse of that thing if you don't want to spend a good part of your day in there! 😉

The only bad experience we have had there was this: we prefer a room on the first floor as it has a sliding door which makes it easier to check on our boat. We always call and specifically request to be put on the first floor. It's never been an issue until our last visit, when we were put on the fourth floor. Instead of making it right or offering a solution, the woman told us we never called as there was no note in the system specifying our preference. We absolutely did call. She refused to move us, and refused to put a message in the system to move us the next day, instead telling us to come down and remind her in the morning so she could look into moving us then. Which we did, and she did not. That went on for a couple days before we gave up. Not really a big deal.

Overall, fantastic hotel, great location, and exceptional service! Just about everything you could ask for in a hotel (without going overboard.) We always enjoy our time here and will continue to stay at this location as well as recommend it to others! (Sorry I wrote a novel, but we really do enjoy...

Different size pillows although the beds aren't the greatest. Linens too heavy and you can't just remove a blanket or 2. It's a comforter so you may want to crank the air. Pleasantly surprised by view of sugar loaf. However, traffic noise is 24/7, so it's a tradeoff. The front desk check in girl was kind of surly and didn't explain the $39 charge except to say "Incidentals." They better hope it falls of sooner rather than later. There are no incidentals at this hotel. No room service, no calls, etc, etc. The pool could be warmer and the hot tub could be cooler. Kids everywhere, even in hot tub. Not following the "no ball throwing" rule in pool at all, and no one there to enforce it. Should have an adults only time after 8pm. Ran out of towels (or seemed to) but they were hung over chairs instead. People might think those are spoken for, though. They have a spa, dry sauna, kiddie pool & hot tub. 24/7 coffee, water & tea service. 1 of our room keys w/ envelope was missing after room cleaned and never recovered. Threw the deadbolt after that not wanting to endure a break in on our time away. Shower was weak but plenty of hot water. TV in bathroom. Liked the floor area in bath/entry way. Microwave & fridge worked well. Keurig coffee pot. We were given more upon request. Plenty of towels & TP in room. USB plugs don't work in room 428 nor does toilet flush properly.| There's a lot of restaurants & shopping around this hotel, which increases the convenience. The black out curtain worked well as did AC. Toilet didn't flush right. No one at desk to check us out so we had to stuff our card in a box at desk. Never asked how things were except on the TV. Sheets were itchy & wouldn't stay tucked in. Don't like Dove products as they have harmful chemicals. Go back to watkins or anything else. Nice makeup mirror in bathroom that doubles as a night light. Remove built in fan from bathroom, it's annoying and unnecessary. Hotel was quiet except for road noise, which they aren't responsible for. Nice area in general. GPS will take you to sugar loaf. Make sure you turn by Kwik trip and turn right away into hotel lot. Breakfast was bland and nothing gluten free. Most of this food is not diabetic / carb friendly. Wouldn't recommend eating any of it long term. The fruit was past expiration and bruised. Hard boiled eggs rubbery. Breakfast & housekeeping staff could be seen working hard replenishing items and cleaning. The room was very clean, even though we didn't request housekeeping since only staying 2 nights. Nice benches outdoors. Plenty of free parking. Felt this hotel was overpriced for...

We stayed at the Holiday Inn express this past weekend. At first glance the hotel appeared decent but the check in process took quite awhile as one person was working the desk. The lobby appeared clean. Our room was quite musty smelling and even with turing up the air the smell did not resolve. The mattress padding was ripped up quite a bit. The shower did not drain so the water was up to my ankles as well as my teenagers. The surface of the bathroom looked OK but when you really looked at the floor it was quite dirty. No one really pays attention to detail and the edges had a thick coat of dirt that needed attention. This was also the case with the carpet looking like someone just ran a vacuum through quickly vs paying attention to detail. I reported these concerns and was told the showers need to be repaired-OK so i just need to deal with it? No real response/or solution for the problem. The dirt was not addressed. The musty smell we were informed the toilet in a neighboring room had overflowed and the smell most likely was from that. The amount of money we were charged for this room and the issues we had we will not be going back at all and will not recommend this place to anyone in the group we were traveling with. The young man we talked with gave me a very small amount off the room rate but it was almost insulting more than helpful. Also during breakfast-which really was subpar, there was a lady working who was taking out the trash with gloves on and then a customer came up to her and asked for coffee cups which she then grabbed the cups with her dirty gloved hand from the garbage. I watched her throughout the morning-she was even eating in the back were the food was-this is unacceptable. She moved very slow and did not ever pick up a rag to clean something off. Then check out topped it off. Literally no one at desk for 5 minutes and a line of people were standing there waiting-even yelled in back to have a young girl emerge saying she was on the phone, really? She charged my credit card to hold the room-which I had asked she not do and then she credited it but then took my check card and charged that-now to find out they double charged me, so I called yesterday and a snotty young girl answered the phone and said it would take some days to have the double charge fixed-like its no big deal. I am shocked this organization is even still running! I can not believe the complete lack of good service and poor...