Holiday Inn Columbia East-Jessup

Incredible staff. We were traveling with our 91 year old mother (wheelchair and dementia). She got disoriented and ended up in the lobby without us. While we frantically searched for her, she was treated like a queen by the lobby staff. Kind compassionate people — especially Carmen Monda and Denise Dilonardo. Both of them were unexpected angels.
We whole-​heartedly thank you!

Great staff, beautiful renovation! The young lady tending bar was especially nice. The whole experience really improved what up till then was a ho-​hum sort of day. If you’re lucky enough to get the bartender with the pink hair she’s a genius!

Can I rate below 1 Star. What a horrible experience at this hotel. Rude management and horrendous customer service. Allen one of the Assistant Managers completely incompetent and without a clue. Allen needs to look for other work, because Intercontinental needs to fire him and Jerome. I have highest rewards level you can attain at IHG and this service is ridiculous. Stay anywhere else, even your car.

Ehh. This was OK, I guess, but I can’t really justify a third star. As others have indicated, there is an abundance of parking and the location is right near I-​95 which is very convenient, but the hotel itself leaves a bit to be desired. The interior has been wholly renovated, but as you can tell by the exterior, the hotel has been here for quite a while so certain things haven’t changed.
The elevator is very slow, and I guess what really bothered me was that it had two buttons «Banquet Level» and «Guest Rooms.» Even if you hit Guest Rooms, the elevator you call may still go to the Banquet Level if someone has called it — even though it’s in the opposite direction. So either there’s a glitch, or the hotel has intentionally programmed the elevator to give conference visitors priority so that they don’t have to wait for us measly peasants to go up to our rooms before they get an elevator.
The age of the hotel also shows in the HVAC (which smells and doesn’t really work) and the water pressure in the shower which came and went sporadically.
The rest of the hotel was decorated very recently and has a modern interior and the staff is all very kind and welcoming, but for $ 106/​night I would expect a little more from the other items listed. This is more of a $ 60/​night hotel.

This was my second time staying at this holiday inn, and I stayed here for a week. Overall it was nice, but here are the pros and cons:
PROS
— Plenty of Parking
— Great location by 95, and not far from 295, Rt 1, Rt 100, etc
— Hotel has been renovated and is pretty well done. Rooms are a nice size and have good updated features. Lobby is nice and the hotel is pretty large.
— Staff is nice.
— Complimentary breakfast was much better than I thought. Included hot items such as eggs, bacon, sausage, French toast. However, it’s a sit down breakfast so you’ll need to pay gratuity to your server.
— Loved having the mini fridge in my room.
— Decent price for this area.
— I liked the neat little feature where you can hit the «do not disturb» button or request service right by your door and it lights up accordingly outside of your door.
CONS
— It really bothered me that the toilet was inches away from the tub. Placement definitely could have been better to avoid feeling so cramped up in the bathroom.
— Bed linens were very light, and in mid September it started to get pretty cold. I guess maybe they still had summer linens, but I would think they would change this.
— I hated that you can only enter or exit the hotel going south on Rt 1. You have to make a u-​turn and it’s so ridiculous!
— Usually when I check into holiday inns, I get a little welcome package as a reward member. But here they don’t give you anything.
— Sleep quality was only okay. I managed to get a good nights rest, but wasn’t very comfortable with the super soft pillow and semi hard bed.
— Poorly placed doors allow a lot of outside air and LOTS of noise into your room. Woken up by very loud cleaning crew outside, could hear guests running down the hall and slamming their doors.
— wifi did not work!!!

Great room and cleaning service! Amazing in-​house restaurant with awesome staff. The only thing that rubbed me wrong way was the front counter staff. There was one staff member in-​particular that was very rude. She was very unhelpful and seemed like she didn’t want to be bothered.

I’ve stayed here a few times in the last year. Good location for doing business in DC and Baltimore during the same trip. Upgraded to a nice suite, great breakfast buffet for a good price… and the gym is awesome. They have actually added equipment in the last year. There’s a thermostat, the machines work, the TVs work, it’s bright… a big deal for me.

I was here 2 weeks on a business trip. Staff was very friendly. They provided shuttle to and sometimes from restaurants in the area if they had a night driver. Everyone on the staff went above and beyond helping out. Greg and James were excellent people to talk to about the area and what to do. The breakfast buffet had some really excellent food. A top choice to stay in the Columbia/​Jessup area.

I was so surprised at how nice this hotel is! The food is fantastic, and the staff (particularly RJ) were attentive, accommodating and genuinely pleasant.

This is no Westin or Waldorf-​Astoria but it is a perfect holiday Inn! Rooms were moderate but surprisingly food was above the 2 star hotel level. In fact the salmon BLT i devoured made for a pretty good contender to similar items served at a 5 star restaurant in DC. How we ended up here: We were stranded on 95 with the snow and came here after getting stuck on an epic journey to comfort suites which appeared to be right off 95 but was not. The staff was extremely professional and accommodating. Our rooms were moderately furnished (it’s holiday Inn). At 4 pm the bar opened and the crowd lined up. The bar tender (an elderly women) busted her butt with a smile no less to get everyone drinks and food. She was aided by a young manager who bar tended, ran food, bar backed, and greeted guests. Maybe this is an exception rather than the rule but if ever I need to stop in Columbia, I’m heading here for sure. Thank you manager R.J. and staff!

If you want to sleep don’t come here… party went on until well after 2:00AM whole room shook from the bass. Called the front desk and all I got was «well it’s over at 2:00.» Sleeping in my car would have been better than being forced to stay awake… please don’t stay here, I beg you.

I booked this hotel on behalf of my parents who were visiting from out of town for the Labor Day weekend. On one of the nights I entered their room and found a cockroach crawling around the TV stand. This should never happen. When my father told the front desk personnel, he seemed as if he really wasn’t concerned. I will never recommend this place for friends and family in the area.

This Holiday Inn is clearly an older hotel that has recently been renovated. The renovations are pretty nicely done, however, during my two day stay in this hotel, I experienced some not-​so-​nice features of the hotel.
The room itself was not bad, and I will say that the internet connection at this hotel was superb. However, the television was extremely fuzzy and had a limited number of channels. The air conditioning in the room seemed to have a mind of its own. This was not favorable considering the fact that there was not a comforter on the bed. Instead, there was basically three sheets. layered on top of each other. I also noticed some brown stains on the sheets during my stay, which was highly discomforting.
The shower in the room had great water pressure and tons of room to move around. However, when I began blow drying my hair with the hair dryer provided in the room, not more than 2 minutes into drying my hair all of the power cut out in my room. I take it that happened because the hotel is older and does not have the best electrical wiring. I called down to the front desk and got an extremely rude response from whoever was working the desk that evening. The individual told me that there was no maintenance technician there and that he would «try» to work things out, but had a lot of people to check in. I thought this was extremely rude of the individual, considering how much I paid for the accommodations. I also don’t think it was exactly truthful since it was 2:30am when I called down. Luckily, he did manage to get the electricity working in my room again, but when he did he called the room to make sure it had worked and rudely said to me, «Is it working?». When I responded «yes, thank you», he simply hung up.
I reserved my room on Expedia and had gotten free breakfast for an additional $ 5 on top of my room since Holiday Inns do not custimarily have a continental breakfast. The attendent did not give me any sort of voucher when I checked-​in in the evening and so the next morning, I asked the person at the front desk if I needed anything for the free breakfast. Without even checking to see if I had this included with my stay, the attendant said they didn’t usually offer anything like that. It wasn’t until I told him that I had read it on my Expedia confirmation that he double checked and gave me my voucher. The breakfast itself was just okay. It felt like a continental breakfast quite frankly. I can’t believe people typically pay $ 9 for their breakfast buffet. You could get a better breakfast at McDonalds for that much.
Overall, the renovations at this hotel are nice, but the service and the details within the actual room were just so-​so. If the service had been better, I would’ve bumped it up to a 3 star.

Nice staff, but wifi doesn’t work, tv so outdated i could not plug in a dvd player, so much dust on floors around edges of room, and i found ½ a blunt. im glad my 7 year old nephew didn’t find it before we did… these are all observations i made within our first 15 minutes here. very disappointed.i understand not having extra amenities but sanitary would be nice!;

Will never stay again
Over priced breakfast buffet
Restaurant food not worth price
House keeping half cleaned room

Mike was very helpful. We stayed the night here to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Overall a very clean environment with friendly staff. My one complaint was the 4 very small pillows on our king size bed. In response to our complaint we were provided with two king size pillows. We were asked to give up the 4 small pillows but refused. Enjoyed a very nice breakfast.
The shopping center across the street has a Mom’s Organic Market. I just wouldn’t recommend walking there due to the industrial traffic.

So you pull this place up on Unilocal and see a solid four stars. You go for it and make a reservation. You pull into the nice big parking lot and note a Starbucks across the street. Excellent! There is a nice big pool outside and that’s a good thing. The outside of the building looks dated liked maybe it was built in the fifties. That’s a little scary. Let’s go inside and see what there is to see.
The lobby/​restaurant/​bar area has just undergone a remodel and it is open and bright and spacious and very modern. Some of the booths in the restaurant have individual TVs so you can watch your own stuff while chowing down. That’s very cool. You grab a surprisingly cheap drink at the bar and the bartender tells you that breakfast is either buffet or served. You can choose and that’s nice. While sipping your drink you experience that the bar area is very brightly lit. It’s not the typical dim bar lighting. The friendly bartender tells you that some folks really like that but some find it inappropriate. Hmmmm.
The front staff is very friendly and if you are a Rewards Club member you get a nice goodie bag and a room upgrade. It’s time to go up to your room and check it out.
What a nice surprise. The rooms have been recently remodeled and everything is clean and comfortable. There is a digital thermostat on the wall and it’s super easy to adjust the temperature. You smile with delight as you spot the Keurig coffee machine and plenty of k-​cups on the table. You don’t see that every day in a budget hotel.
It turns out that your room is very quiet and you get an excellent night’s sleep. As you walk out the door the next morning you make a mental note to write a nice four star review about this property!

Stayed here a couple of times recently & I’m liking it more & more.
The lobby is BEAUTIFUL. Recently renovated, with an open concept. Small touches really make it über modern: pop-​out outlets in the lounge chairs, tvs in the dining room booths, etc.
I’ve been on the 4^th floor each time — rooms seem to be updated. Love the lighting in the rooms, cozy & easy modern. Outlets EVERYWHERE! My room during my last stay had a Keurig! Yes! Every hotel should use Keurigs.
OH! And this is the first hotel I’ve been to (& I’ve been to ALOT) that doesn’t use those stupid door-​hangers to alert housekeeping to either service the room or do-​not-​disturb. Instead, it’s a light system. One button makes it light up red indicating «do not disturb» & the other is green for housekeeping needed (see pictures!). Just. funky. & unique. I’m easily amused.
Cons:
— Beds could be made cozier with a simple mattress pad
— Not all rooms have keurigs
— The last time I stayed there was no microwave, but there was a mini-​fridge
Plenty nearby, tons of shopping within 5 miles, Starbucks across the street, though it’s sort of a pain to get to.
Every time I’ve stayed I’ve been given a $ 10 voucher to use in the restaurant for food or drinks for being a Platinum Member. Also got a goodie-​bag & a room upgrade. Definitely make sure you feel appreciated for being platinum-​elite.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the hotel but I was pleasantly surprised to find an amazing breakfast options and hospitality! #moosh

Excellent accommodations and facility. My only complaint is the exit out if the parking lot. Good exercise room and great breakfast. Sunday’s they have an omelette bar.