Holiday Inn Portland-By The Bay

Check in was a breeze. Large hotel lobby. Complimentary upgrade without asking (hgi member), large room with a great view of the bay. Large windows. Furniture is old and the rooms definitely need a remodel. Nice bathroom. I like the mirror in front of the desk reflecting the bay. Freight elevator and stairs need bigger signs. Great parking for only ten bucks, so much faster then valet. Shuttle available. Close to congress street, the children’s museum, and the pier (walking distance). Quiet. Every staff member we encountered was hospitable. The breakfast was awesome and opens at 6am— there’s lots of local breakfast spots, but if you want to eat it at the hotel it’s a good spot. I got gluten free bread and I normally don’t, but it was so good. Eggs were good. Fresh fruit was actually fresh. Oatmeal portion is ridiculous in a good way and is served with brown sugar and milk. We also got 50% off coupons for an alcoholic beverage at the bar, but didn’t get a chance to use them. The pool is large, clean, and a good temp. Nice patio furniture in pool area. I didn’t use the fitness center but it looked clean. Check in is 2 and check out is noon which is super convenient AND you can leave your car parked until 4 even if you checked out at noon.

I stayed at this hotel for two nights to attend a conference. The best part is the location. It is conveniently located near countless restaurants and shops. The room was alright, nothing special – it was on the 2^nd floor, so the view was that of a couple of brick buildings. Housekeeping was doing a subpar job at maintaining the rooms. I found a Guess store shopping bag behind an armchair with a receipt still in it from two weeks before my stay. I also had breakfast twice at the dining area near the lobby. The food was pretty standard. The waiter the first time was much more attentive than the one the second time. For the price they are charge for the rooms, I was expecting more (at least free parking).

Great room, super friendly staff and big, well-​kept indoor pool. Best hotel of the trip so far…

Pretty delightful all around! I actually booked the Hyatt in Old Port first but cancelled due to the many bad reviews about loudness and ho-​hum staff. (Check out my review… things got shady when I cancelled my reservation)
The Holiday Inn is on Spring Street in a quiet and easy location. It’s $ 10 a day to park in the garage and the area is perfect for walking, we didn’t drive all weekend… a straight shot down the Street brings you right to Eventide Oyster and Duckfat, two incredibly well recommended places.
When we checked in the woman at the front desk (Kacie, I think) was delightful and totally hooked us up! She gave us a bay view executive room and undercharged us for our second night as a gift for spending our 20^th anniversary with them, a $ 70 savings. It really made our day.
Our room was on the 10^th floor and large! We had a sofa, desk, fridge and a super sweet, expansive view of the bay. (Great sunrises too)
My only complaints are as follows: the toilet paper sucked. Really, worse than any others I’ve encountered. If I stay again… I’m bringing my own.
The elevators were snappy but the doors closed so fast you almost had to run or dive to get in.
We spent most of our time downtown hitting up bars and shops. On our last night we walked in the other direction for dinner at Hot Suppa and that stroll was delightful with a bunch of other cool restaurants to check out.

I stayed at the Holiday Inn in Portland this September with one of my dearest girlfriends and found the hotel to be pretty average. However, I felt inclined to regale Unilocal with my experience because of our interactions with the hotel staff — they were simply splendid! When we checked in, we spoke with Amber at the front desk. She informed us that we had accidentally booked a smoking room (boy was my face red!). But when I revealed this to be a mistake, Amber so kindly offered to try to neutralize the foul tobacco odor while we stepped out to explore the town. Upon returning to our temporary dwelling, it was filled with scents of citrus — what an improvement! We also had very pleasant banter with the housekeeping staff on our floor. Such guest hospitality is few and far between this day and age! Our only qualms with the hotel were the parking fee and spotty wifi, but the location was so idyllic that these things hardly seemed to matter by the end of the trip. Overall we thoroughly enjoyed «chillin’ at the Holiday Inn»!

Within walking distance to stores, food, the water. Clean room with fridge and microwave. Bed and pillows so comfy! Little lounge with a nice bartender. Limited parking in garage was only down fall.

I was put into a room that overall looked fine, but while in the room found it not very sanitary! I found used k-​cups in the coffee machine, the coffee pot seemed neglected, and overall I felt the room was unkept to Holiday Inn standards! I was willing to overlook this (it happens), but when I went to speak with management instead of being sympathetic to my complaints, was rude and condescending. I am a priority club member, and when I do travel like to use them, via App, to find available rooms. While I was in my «Holiday Inn EXPRESS app» it took me to a regular Holiday Inn. I didn’t realize this (well because I was in appropriate app) that it could do that. When I spoke with customer service there response was that it is just an IHG app and it’s for all of there hotels! Well if that’s the case, why do they have 2 apps, one specifically for HIE and another for HI? Overall my experiences with Holiday Inn have always been pleasant, but I do not recommend the Portland Maine location!

One of the best parts about this hotel is its location. It’s got the best of both worlds. It’s located right outside the busy parts of the city (so it’s nice and quiet), yet its about a 10 – 12 minute walk to the heart of Portland. And it’s right across the street from the Portland Museum of Art.
We checked in and immediately some flags were raised. We thought we were initially told that our rooms were going to be available for check in earlier but 4pm is apparently the normal check-​in time. Kinda late IMO but not a problem… we explored the city a bit in the meantime. The manager also came to tell us that since they were shampooing their rugs that we had to locate to another room which was fine. But then they charged us a different price than was quoted on through the website we used, but luckily the manager was good and fixed everything for us.
The room itself was nice. We had a view overlooking the bay which was a pretty touch. Inside was very clean and presentable, no complaints there. I don’t like the $ 10 parking per night situation, but I think that almost every hotel charged some sort of fee. Another thing I definitely want to mention which I see other people had complaints about is with the wifi. The wifi was horrible. It never stayed connected and I thought okay, maybe it’s my phone so I tried my tablet. Same problem. The wifi always cut out which then led to me having to consistently use my data. I called the front desk and they gave me the number to IT… who never picked up. So I gave up on that one.
To end on a positive note, the breakfast in the morning was surprisingly good. I had oatmeal and fruit every morning which was a nice start to the day. And reasonable too. It had its good points, but it also had some significant bad ones. Duly noted for next time.

Overall I would say our experience here has been a good one, we just had some weird encounters that kept this from being a five star review.
We had a king smoking room, the smoking rooms were the only available while booking. I was a little surprised that in this day and age that was still an option. When we arrived to our room I was really impressed that it didn’t smell of stale cigarettes, being a smoking room and all. The room is large with a desk and couch area, our room isn’t a bay room so it overlooks a parking lot but being that it is winter that is okay.
Before we arrived, we called ahead to tell the hotel that we would be checking in late. They were very accommodating and nice. Upon arrival the parking garage was full and the hotel was nice enough to vallet our car to a different lot.
Although Portland is a city, I do find it kind of outrageous that hotel guests are charged $ 10/​day to park in the garage. I will say that until I read the Unilocal reviews before posting I wasn’t informed of a hotel shuttle. It would have been nice if the front desk had mentioned that when we arrived.
We had a maintenance man wake us up at 8AM one morning when we had the do not disturb sign on the door. He banged on the door once and then walked in. He seemed to have awoken and walked into all of the rooms on our side of the floor and I’m still not sure what he was looking for. We continued to have the do not disturb sign on the door and a housekeeper barged in, she stayed in our room for a minute or two explaining that she thought the maintenance man was in our room, that they were told to clean our room and made sure we were checking out today. She was very apologetic, but she stayed in our room far too long trying to explain why she had barged in. We then heard the maintenence men and house keepers bang loudly on doors down the hall. I just don’t know why there was so much commotion and confusion before 10am especially when check out is at noon. We did mention all of this at check out and I was impressed that they took it very seriously and even took our parking charge off of our bill for the inconvenience.
The hotel has a restaurant (which in my opinion should be avoided, see reviews under Port of Call), a small gift shop and a lounge. It also has a large pool, a small fitness center and a business center. We had no problem connecting to the WiFi and the TV selection was pretty good. It is very close to Old Port and within walking distance of everything and anything you would need on a trip to Portland.

I did not stay here … I almost did. But as I was getting ready to go, I twisted and dislocated my knee. I have a manual car, so it was pretty much out of the question to drive 2+ hours with a throbbing knee.
They were so helpful in canceling my reservation, I had to give them Unilocal props. I’m bummed I couldn’t make it up there for Kennebunkport’s Christmas Prelude but after experiencing how friendly the staff were, I’d definitely like to return.
Especially given that they are only 15 minutes from Kennebunkport and 20+ minutes from Wells Beach/​Ogunquit.

Fee for parking in a private lot is lame. Not much else bothered me but that gets to me a lot. In the city I get it, or charging after the first vehicle if parking really is a commodity. I expect that in Boston and LA but not Maine and not for a nearly empty lot. Resorts are really starting to nickel and dime us. If we didn’t drive here, you wouldn’t have gotten the $ 300+ room rate, I should have a place for my car included in that amount because without my car, I’m not here, you get NO room rate, never mind a parking fee. That being said everything else was great. Parking fee is just a pet peeve when it appears completely unnecessary.

Just as average and outdated as you would expect for a Holiday Inn. The rooms were fine but given the premium you pay over the summer months it seems pretty outrageous given the quality of the hotel. Don’t get me wrong, it just looks like the hotel was last refreshed about 15 years ago and it is starting to look dated. Also the showers were poorly designed, I’m about 6 feet tall and I found the shower head to be pretty low. I paid $ 350 on a Saturday night in July.

I’ll be honest, this hotel had its perks, as well as its problems.
I stayed here for two nights with my cousin. The woman who checked us in was very nice and helpful and took the time to go over a map of Portland with us, as well as explain how the hotel shuttle works and gave us the wifi password before we went up to the room.
The room was clean and nice. I’m assuming you have to pay extra for a bay view, because we had a view of the parking lot. The mini fridge in the room was bigger than I expected, though it did freeze most of the things we put in there. The bathroom was well equipped with towels and the shower was great.
Shortly after we got to the room, we tried to go on our laptops to check some emails and immediately had issues with the internet connection. I called the front desk and they connected me to IT, which proved to be useless. On our way out we said something to the front desk, and they gave us the direct line to IT and told us to ask them to boost the signal in our room. We did this when we got back later, and IT told us that they can’t boost the signal. After several complaints to the front desk, this ended with us getting two free drink tickets and a comp breakfast. I guess this is one of those win-​some-​lose-​some situations.
I went to the fitness center on our first morning at the hotel. It’s small and unassuming — a couple of weight machines, exercise bikes, treadmills, and elliptical machines. All of the machines were in working order and there was a tv in the room, but there are no cup holders on the machines for water bottles, so you have to prepare accordingly. I didn’t go in the pool, but I saw it on my way out and it looked well maintained.
We had breakfast both mornings at the port-​of-​call restaurant. The servers were nice and the food was good. I had eggs both mornings, and my cousin had eggs one morning and the blueberry pancakes the next day, which were also good. They get busy later in the morning so you have to be prepared to either go early or wait.
the port-​of-​call lounge was nice, too. We went there on our last night to use our drink tickets. the bartender was very nice and made sure to tell us that there was food available for us there. We had some wine and popcorn and relaxed in some of the chairs around there. There were fruit flies all over the place, though, which was kind of annoying.
All in all, it was a nice, clean hotel, but not worth the rate of roughly $ 200/​night.

Clean and friendly. Walking distance to all if you like to walk.
Ask for high floor harbor view.
Meets expectations.
I gave it 3 stars cause it’s not a ⁴⁄₅ star hotel.
No issues would stay again

Great hotel with one very important quirk and perk that separates it from any other hotel I’ve been to– the free shuttle service. Now you think: «wtf. this dude is impressed by free shuttle service?»
But it was so much more than that– it was a little Wes Anderson-​esque, the way the shuttle driver whisked to and from locations at a moment’s notice. I called and LITERALLY seconds later he appeared. It was almost like getting a personal chauffeur around Portland (which, admittedly, is quite small). Shout out to the driver, Greg, for being awesome and recommending all of the best breakfast spots in the city when we were frantically scrambling to find a good breakfast spot after finding out that Hot Suppa decided to smugly close on July 4^th of all days.
The only negative I can say is that our internet wasn’t working. The lady at the front told me to call a number to sort it out… and I thought to myself: ‘why do I have to do this on vacation? Isn’t this YOUR job?’ Meh. Thankfully I didn’t have a pressing need to use the wifi, though it would’ve been useful for sure.
The hotel is kept very very clean, and the concierge, front desk, and other accommodations were spot on (wifi incident aside). If you want a downtown hotel that has convenient access to the heart of Portland, I’d suggest staying here – especially since free shuttle service is a call away.

Received great service here at Holiday Inn by the Bay. Front desk service, Nate and Mercedes, did a great job helping me plan my short vacation in Portland. The location of this hotel is great as well, for it is walking distance to the Old Port. I also loved the shuttle service, which picked me up late at night when I did not want to walk in the rain for free! I only wish that parking in the garage was free and not $ 10 a day. Overall, great experience.

I must express my dissatisfaction with the staff and service at this hotel. Every single person that I interacted with at this hotel was disagreeable, uncooperative, rude, unwilling to attempt to do their job correctly, or just plain incompetent.
When I went to check into the hotel, the person behind the desk asked me what name the room was under. I gave her my last name (which is a word in the english language, and easy to spell). She said she had no room under that name. I gave her my husband-to-be’s last name (6 letters, but could be misheard). She again, said she had no room under that name. In desperation, I gave her my mom’s last name (5 letters, actual word) as she was the one that blocked the room for us and was told that there were no rooms booked under that name and, «We do not have a room for you.» No apology, no trying to look anything up, no double checking, no asking me how to spell the names. When I told her I was the bride for a book of rooms that was reserved she again said, «Sorry, but you are not in here.»
At this point I called my mom from my cell phone, since the front desk person I was working with would not call her for me because I didn’t know her room number (my mother was in her room and had already checked in earlier in the day). My mom returned to the front desk, with confirmation number (s) in hand for the block of rooms reserved and for my room in particular. The room was, in fact, listed under both my own and my fiancée’s name, but since the woman never bothered to ask me how to spell it, she couldn’t find it.
The woman at the desk then asked for a credit card for the room — to which my mom had to point out that the room had already been secured with HER card, and that the documentation was there. The woman then addressed me by the wrong first name — indicating that she was in the process of checking me into my fiancée’s sister’s room (same last name) by mistake. Again, my mom pointed at the list in font of the woman that included confirmation numbers and requested that she please look up the room by the number itself, since the three previous attempts by name had been completely unsuccessful. I was then, after this unnecessary interaction, given my room keys and was able to check in.
After going to breakfast next morning, I returned to my room, and got a call from the front desk. The woman at the desk asked me if I had just had breakfast downstairs charged to my room. I told her that I had. She then said that there was no credit card affiliated with the room, and that I’d have to provide one to charge the breakfast to. I reminded her that, upon check in, we told her exactly what card to charge — the same card that was used to book the room. She then responded by saying «Well, there’s no note in here to indicate that.» I told her that it was discussed upon check in and that she should use the card on file. She eventually agreed and hung up.
On the morning after my wedding, at 6:55am, the fire alarm started making a chirping noise, indicating that its battery needed to be replaced. I got dressed, as did my husband, and we called the front desk. We told them that there was a smoke detector needing a new battery and could they please send someone up to change it. 10 minutes later, font desk calls and says there was a ‘Do Not Disturb’ tag on my door and did I still want maintenance to come up? I told her, yes, I forgot that I had put it there (I was groggy). 10 minutes later, a maintenance man came up. He looked at the chirping alarm and removed its battery cover. He then told us he’d be right back because he needed to get a battery. I don’t know how we could have been clearer that a battery should have come with him in the first place, but I was too tired to mention it. Another 10 minutes later, and he replaced the battery and left. At that point, after being awake for a half hour, there was no going back to sleep.
At 10am, I called down to the front desk to ask for a late checkout. I planned to have brunch with my family and wanted to make sure I’d have time to clean out the room before I needed to check out. The front desk person said, «Oh, I think we already have you as a late checkout.» I asked her to check. «Oh, no wait,» she said, «I was thinking of another room. Would you like late check out?» I replied, «Yes.» She said I could have late checkout at 1pm (as opposed to noon). I agreed and hung up.
Upon returning from brunch (at about 12:15) I went back up to my room to find my key card had already been deactivated. I returned to the front desk and had to ask for the key to be reactivated.
The people at this hotel were the only part of my wedding weekend that went poorly. Every person I dealt with on the phone or in person was unable to do the basics of their job. At no point did I feel like they cared about me or making anything right. I can safely say I will never recommend that hotel to visiting guests again, and I regret picking it for my wedding.

We had to stay here for a work event and I have to say, the location is great! The hotel room was basic, standard amenities and clean. The conference center is really big– they do a lot of weddings and corporate events here. The price was reasonable, the staff was friendly and helpful.
We really liked the bar! They had a full liquor selection and wine list available. It was big but yet had a cozy vibe about it. Our bartender, Kyle was VERY funny and personable!
I’d recommend the Holiday Inn By The Bay Hotel and Lounge to anyone, especially those in town to see a show at the Civic Center as it’s literally only 50 steps out the front door!

I guess it’s possible to gave a good stay here, in that maybe my experience is an isolated one.
However, here’s what happened to me:
I checked into this hotel, got up to my room, and found that the room absolutely REEKED like red onions. A very distinct and pungent odor, and it slapped me in the face when I entered the room.
I called the front desk immediately, the sent up someone who sprayed air freshener in the heater to cover the smell. I guess it worked for a little while, although it wasn’t much of an improvement.
Normally, I would’ve asked to be moved to a different room, but I overheard a hotel employee at the front desk tell someone that the hotel was completely booked out, so I knew that would not be a possibility.
I left the room for several hours for dinner. When I came back, the smell was worse than ever, as if it had actually gotten worse while I was out. It was late, and I was very tired, and frankly I was too beat to complain about it (again) to the skeleton night crew. Well, I wish I would’ve been more tenacious, because the smell became overwhelming in about an hour or so, and I basically got no sleep at all that night because of the incredibly pungent and noxious smell in the room. There was no escaping it. At one point, I actually considered going down to my car in the garage and sleeping there– that’s how desperate I was to get a few hours of sleep.
When I was ready to check out, I called the front desk to tell them about this, so that at the very least someone else would not have to deal with that stench. They said they were sorry, but that was it– they didn’t send anyone up to check it out, or offer anything beyond that. I went down to the front desk to check out, and again told them about the awful smell in the room. The front desk employee apologized, and took $ 25 off of my bill. Thanks, I guess.
While I appreciated the sentiment, I left like the hotel didn’t go very far to deal with this problem, at all. I guess I should’ve complained more and been more of a jerk about it, but frankly I was so tired from the sleepless night I didn’t have it in me to make more of stink (pun intended). Also, how many times am I supposed to call with an issue like this? The room was unsuitable, it shouldn’t have even been allowed to be rented. This wasn’t a cheap room, so knocking $ 25 off of the bill doesn’t really go very far, and I don’t feel like they cared whether or not I was satisfied, and they just wanted get me out of the door.
Based on this experience, I would never stay at this hotel again. If you plan on staying here, I hope you don’t get room 914, or that you really like the smell of red onions.

We booked a bay view room about two weeks before our stay. I wasn’t expecting much, but this hotel is great! The view was amazing, the room was spacious and clean and the bed was comfy. The bathroom was also nice and my inner 15 year old was THRILLED that they had Bath and Bodyworks products. The Keurig in room was also a great touch. The location is also great — about a 5 – 10 minute walk to downtown or to the Art District (which has a ton of great restaurants now). They also give you a coupon for a free drink in the hotel bar upon check-​in. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to check it out. All of this and cheaper than most other hotels in the area.
Long story short, this is our new go-​to hotel whenever we visit Portland!