Now called the Decatur Conference Center and Hotel, I stayed here before when it was a Holiday Inn Select. My memories of the Holiday Inn were great. My memories of this most recent stay as an unbranded hotel are not so great. What happened? As I entered the hotel I was impressed as usual by the lovely lobby. Checking in was painless and my room was large and near an entrance to the large parking lot. I noticed almost immediately that there was a lot of dust on the furniture. A call to housekeeping brought a promise that this would be handled promptly - and a delightful housekeeper dusted and then asked if anything else was needed - she gave us her name and said to ask for her personally. I was impressed. The remainder of the stay was quite unpleasant. Room service hung up on me twice and then the phone rang for several minutes before someone picked up. I was told that the item I wanted was unavailable - that I must have an "old menu". I was told I could come to the desk and get a recent menu but no one could bring it to me. We decided to just eat at one of the restaurants. Service was inattentive, slow, and the quality of the food was way below the standards I was used to at this hotel. The servers spent more time flirting with one of the male employees than they did waiting tables. I wasn't the only one who complained to a very unfriendly male manager from the front desk. There was no one available to complain to who seemed to be a restaurant manager. When we returned to our room, there was a distinct odor of marijuana smoke coming from one of the rooms in our corridor. Calling to the front desk resulted in the comment "Gee, and they didn't invite us?" I didn't find that amusing at all. Someone knocked on our door to ask if we were "the ones getting high". I informed the gentleman I was the one who complained. He said he didn't smell anything and to let the desk know if we needed anything further.
We checked out - a task which was painfully slow due to only one person being at the desk when several people were checking out. I will not return to this hotel - sadly - because it was one of my favorite places to stay when visiting friends in Decatur and Springfield. I am not sure what company now manages this hotel but I can see why Holiday Inn wouldn't want to be affiliated. Aside from some very nice employees (especially the housekeeping staff), I wouldn't say there was much outside the attractiveness of the building to recommend any more. During my stay here in 2004, there was an enthusiasm and excitement from the employees that just isn't there now. If you want just a decent room (rather overpriced for the area, but some deals could be had here if you check them out) and a place to sleep, you'll be fine here. Don't expect the service to be great, but it is a large hotel with many nice rooms and suites.

Having enjoyed my stay in previous visits, I was surprised to see the negative reviews and hoped that they were wrong, but unfortunately, they were right on. I checked in with the Best Breaks rate, and expected to get breakfast included in our stay since that was the rate. The check-in desk said that they didn't honor that rate on weekends. Luckily I printed out my confirmation, and it didn't say anywhere about any exclusions. So, I called the 800# and spoke with guest relations who did agree that the hotel was to provide breakfast. So, Holiday Inn Guest relations spoke to the manager and told them to provide us breakfast, which they did. They also lied to us about their debit card policy. We had inadvertently left our AMEX on the dining room table at home, so thought it not a big deal to pay with our check card. Well, the hotel can hold up to $200 extra on your card along with what the hotel total is. Two employees at the hotel told us that it was our banking institutions policy, yet when we spoke to our bank, they said it was the hotel. So, once again I called the 800# of Holiday Inn and spoke with guest relations to sort it out. I explained what our bank told us and what the staff at our hotel told us. She sighed and apologized and explained that it was the hotel's policy. I am also a Priority Card member and discovered I was supposed to get a coupon for a discount at the bar restaurant and a free drink, which the hotel didn't offer. I asked if the hotel was under new management and the guest relations staff member did confirm that they were. To top it off, the housekeeping staff didn't empty the used coffee pot, and we had the Do Not Disturb sign on the door and check out isn't until noon, yet the cleaning staff knocked on our door at 10:15am to know when we would be vacating the room. All in all, a very bad experience and I'll drive the 30 minutes to stay in the Hyatt in Springfield over that Holiday Inn...unless the management changes over for the better....let's hope so!!

O.k., we had car trouble in Decatur, IL, so admittedly we weren't in the best of moods, but this hotel was terrible! We paid $140 a night for a suite with a refrigerator and microwave, which is not exactly chump change in rural Illinois.

It was all the little, subtle things that added up to a lousy experience. The reservationist that said no microwaves - then, surprise, microwaves if you paid $50 extra. The wrong room once we checked in (no microwave). Oops, sorry, security will move you (when they get around to it).

Almost a half hour later, got to a room with the promised facilities... except TV movies don't work. Called front desk. No one on duty except security - he showed up 45 minutes later, played with the TV clicker and gave up. Reported back a half-hour later that the movies were down for the night and the problem was the movie source.

When we went to check out, I heard the girls at the desk take a call from a customer indicating the movies in his room weren't working. They sent someone over, then started laughing because apparently his room wasn't coded for movies and all they had to do was fix the computer entry. Hmmm.

We have a child with food allergies and were out of groceries, so I stopped by the restaurants to see if anything could be cooked for him. Sunday night - all the restaurants are closed except the bar. In the bar, the waitress couldn't be bothered to talk to me, even though she appeared to have one table. Gave me a menu to look at - turns out it was the wrong one (my husband went back for more information). Our son ended up eating leftover lunchmeat and lettuce for dinner.

Asked the girl at the desk to call a taxi. She called one company and said it was an hour wait - did I want the taxi? We cancelled, went to our room and called another service, who said it would be a few minutes.

Maids asked us several times as soon as we left our room when we were checking out. The guy cleaning the windows at the pool spent most of his time there watching my children swim. It seemed like the entire hotel was filled with people who were inconvenienced by our presence.

The town of Decatur itself has some surprisingly nice facilities - a wonderful childrens' museum, a great nature facility... Just don't stay at this Holiday Inn and I'm sure you'll have a great time.

P.S. Looked for a "comments" card...none to be found anywhere in the hotel. Guess I don't wonder why.

I spent 2 nights at this Holiday Inn recently and was disappointed in the service I received this time in comparison to my last stay. The employees didn't seem as happy and welcoming this time - I am not sure what changed, because I was very pleased with my experience here in the summer of 2004. I attended a meeting and noted some improvements to the room - it appeared as though some upgrading had taken place, especially to the carpeting. This hotel is really a beautiful place, and is definitely the best choice in Decatur, but I hope that levels of guest service don't head in a negative direction.