Just returned from the H.I.We spent 7 nights at the H.I. Check-in went smoothly. Room was ready at 1pm, which was a plus. We had a partial ov room on the Playa Linda side of the building. It was fine. There is a view of the parking lot, the street and the beach/ocean. The room was clean. I think our maid did a great job daily. Plenty of towels. The bed was comfortable & the linens were clean.
The couch was dated. The furniture dated as well, but sufficient.There was a table & chair set, two medium dressers, two bedside tables, a flat screen tv and a large closet with safe. Nothing fancy here.The ice machine on our floor didn't work for the 1st few days. I notified the front desk and the next day it was working. The hall carpet needs to be replaced. This is a basic hotel with no frills. The majority of the staff was kind. The beach staff is great and the grouds keepers always said hello and had a smile. It makes a difference.
The beach is beautiful. Some huts need repair. Hut 4 has a big hole in it. Looks like they are replacing some with plastic huts.Can't really tell they are plastic! They can use some new beach loungers.
We had pretty good weather for this time of year. Some big waves though! The ocean water our 1st day was kindof murky green. However, they had rain 3 days in a row prior to our arrival. By the 2nd day it was a pretty blue.
If you are looking for a hotel on a great beach will no bells & whistles, then you should stay here. Would we stay here again? Probably.The island itself is very safe and very Americanized. We like islands that are a little more exotic, but Aruba is dependable.
There are great restaurants within walking distance from the H.I. There is also a grocery store nearby. It is Kung Fui's. We walked to it. About 10 minutes or so. The room also had a fridge so you can keep drinks in it. That is one thing I love about this hotel. You do your own thing. If you want to bring a cooler to the beach, it's not frowned upon. We had a great vacation.

I just spent 4 nights in the Holiday Inn Aruba and to be honest I was a little concerned for some not very good reviews, however, we did not experienced anything terrible or concerning during our stay. We arrived 2 hours before check in and they provided us a room since our arrival which had a great view, we took the breakfast option as we had already tours scheduled for each day and was definitely the best option. The breakfast buffet was good. There's a system so you can reserve your palapa the day before which we do and had no problems. The room was very clean, the staff was really friendly and the food at the iguana bar in front of the beach was big and at good price. The location of the hotel is just great in the main street and in front of the beach. The only thing I have to say is that we had not a very good internet connection at our room, however, we were able to access internet near the lobby and at the beach....In summary great experience!!

From the uk so not used to rooms not been ready on arrival, but saying that the staff were helpful and off we went to explore! an hour later room still not ready but she said "i could give you another but this is lovely" ( i had emailed and requested a view and a high floor if possible) and she promptly got some one to go up and see if the room was ready, it was, glad we held out for it, nice quiet room and lovely view!
The hotel was lovely, we found it a little odd signing for the food on all inclusive, but again soon got used to it. service was great no problems at all, we also manged to reserve a papla everyday with no problems although we did want one in the quieter area of the beach.

Cannot fault the hotel at all, the only area we did not use, was the pool as we prefer the sea which was lovley.(no good for snorkelling though, which we missed.) Found it quite funny that the beach has a constant stream of people walking up and down, nothing wrong with this, but not like the relaxing beaches of Barbados or Cuba.
Local area was nice to walk around and always felt 100% safe.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn for 3 nights last week and had a nice time. We arrived in Aruba on Thursday so there was no line to check in at the hotel. Margot was at the front desk and was very polite and had us checked in promptly. Our room in the Aruba Tower, was very clean and we were at the beach within 30 minutes of check in. However, the hallway carpet could use a cleaning. I also want to give a shout out to Hugo at the pool bar who was our waiter for happy hour all three nights. We did eat at the seafood buffet Saturday night and thought there could have been a few more seafood choices. We have stayed at the Holiday Inn and other hotels in Aruba in my 8 times visiting the island. The Holiday Inn is not a Riu or a Marriott. With that said, we have never had a problem with this hotel and will stay there again.