My husband and booked this SCARRY, HORRIBLE ghetto hotel online directly from the holiday inn. As we pulled into the neighborhood it was filled with druggies and drunks! My daughter who is 11 said "there are bad people here, im not getting out of the car"! I could not beleive where this hotel was and how dirty and run down this place is. The photos on the web must be photoshopped or 40 years old. When we got to the unsafe parking lot it was filled with drug deals and people watching you! drunks and druggies were hanging out the doors of the hotel and NO nice cars were anywhere around. I called the front desk and told CHAD no way we were staying here and he said TO BAD and told me he was going to charge my card. I called the holiday inn and they said the hotel would have security take care of us for the night! NO WAY! I finally convinced them to not charge my card and we stayed at the Peppermill. So if you stay at this holiday inn shack you will probably not have a car in the morning. DO NOT STAY HERE!! This place discraces the holiday inns name, they should be ashamed!

We booked this hotel because most other decent ones were already sold out by the time we started searching. Holiday Inn still had rooms left.

Just to echo most other reviewers said, this hotel has quite reasonable rooms. They are a bit old but kept clean. Price is usually cheaper than most other "real" downtown Reno hotels.

It's because it's located off the "strip", Virginia St.

It's probably ok if it's just location. The real problem is the attached casino. Some reviewers said this is owned by managed by separate company. I couldn't tell. But there are a lot of people loitering around the entrance and appeared drunken. I didn't feel very comfortable when I walked in the parking lot. The parking lot is also used by Greyhound. There are lots of buses on west and south side. East side is where casino entrance is. There were so many broken glasses (from beer bottle I assume) in the lot.

Since I base my ratings on value for price paid, I'll start off my saying I paid a $60 government employee rate and am a gold member of Priority Club. I reserved (and received) a 2-bed room facing downtown and the mountains. I was a little puzzled at first that as a gold member I was placed on the 7th out of 20 floors, but the view was great from the 7th floor, and getting a higher room would only have meant more time in the elevator.
The only other hotel I've stayed in Reno was the Eldorado, and I'll have to say off the bat that I liked my stay here better. Although I paid extra at the Eldorado for a "luxury" room, the room here was larger, quieter, had a coffeemaker, and definitely a better view. Also, getting to your car is much easier--just a very short walk as opposed to having to valet it or walk a block away. Finally, this hotel, unlike the Eldorado, does have a gym, albeit a small one.
The hotel is certainly not downtown, nor probably walkable there most months of the year (certainly not in snowy February nor during hot weather). Although they do have hourly shuttle service downtown and to the airport, I wouldn't book this place if I didn't have a car. I didn't notice the seedy characters that others noted in their reviews, but maybe the snowy weather keeps the riff-raff off the streets. Even on a Saturday night, the casino had $2 blackjack tables. Being a low-roller myself, that suits me just fine, but I can imagine that those preferring a more classy casino will want to head downtown and play $10 a hand. No craps table, though, which is my game of choice (and one game which Indian casinos in California are not allowed to have for reasons unknown to me).
Our room was clean and comfortable. I never heard a peep from my neighbors--which was good because I forgot to bring my earplugs, and I'm a light sleeper. The pool was closed (and empty) for the winter, but seemed rather unexciting.
My gripes were minor. I wasn't acknowledged as Priority Club gold, nor told of my benefits until I asked (apparently free local calls and half off at the coffee shop, which we didn't avail ourselves of). Also, the bathtub stopper didn't work. Since we only stayed one night, I didn't bother to have maintenance come to fix it, so I can't comment as to the hotel's response.
So, this ain't the snazziest place in town, and it definitely isn't where the action is. I didn't notice the seedier elements, but this may have been a function of the weather (or they've cleaned the place up). It's a pretty good choice for a clean, quiet place to sleep at $60, with nice views to boot, though.

When I first went in the bathroom there was something floating in the toilet. It was gross whatever it was and I flushed it without examining it. I was worried about the rest of the room, but I found it to have been adequately cleaned. This is definitely an old hotel. Still has cottage cheese ceilings and hard as stone mattresses. I had low expectations after getting it on Hotwire. At the time I made the buy, I forgot that this hotel was included in "downtown", even though it is not in walking distance of Virginia St.

The casino is small and dumpy and there really is nothing to attract you to this hotel unless you are dead-set on getting the cheapest price you can.