Hotel Holiday Inn a San Jose

Good communication, via e-mail, prior to stay as I needed a refrigerator in my room. That was arranged in advance for me. Primarily due to traffic the property is about 30 minutes from the airport. Check-in was smooth. I think this is an older property, but my room was clean comfortable, no obvious wear and tear, renovated bathroom with standup shower and actual towel hooks (seems to be a rarity at many properties these days). All staff was very friendly. The property is somewhat misnamed (at least for a non-resident). The property is not within safe walking distance of the well known La Sabana park. By ‘safe’ I mean it appears that there is at least one major highway that has to be crossed. The grounds around the pool are well-maintained. Plenty of loungers, towels, a couple of covered beds available, but I didn’t see any umbrellas, so the pool was a non starter for me after although some shaded areas in the afternoon. Also, strong wifi in the pool area. The wifi just outside the lobby area was not great. But the wifi at the sports bar in the lobby area covered the front of the property. Note that a password is needed for both the hotel and the sports bar. I did get a takeaway dinner from the restaurant. Food was substantial. A bit strange in that I couldn’t charge it to my room, but if I ordered the same via room service, charging to my room would have been OK. Not a big deal. The breakfast buffet, which I tried once was good with made to order eggs, albeit a bit pricey I thought. The sports bar food was OK, weak house alcoholic drinks. There is a walkable neighborhood behind the hotel. The property uses Gold’s Gym for its gym (free of charge for guests). There is also a sports bar, a Denny’s, a Subway, a supermarket, a ******, and a pharmacy all within a minute walk of the property. Maybe there is a tennis court in the vicinity? I saw many women (but not as a group) with tennis rackets walking through the property. It is a no smoking property, including outdoors. That is a plus. Also, my floor had a filtered water and filtered ice machine. Uber into downtown San Jose works well, but allow for traffic. One trip took me about 15 minutes, returning from the same location, midday took 45 minutes, Plan accordingly. Normally, I’d give a 5*, but in this case just a 4*. I am a IHG Platinum, asked for 1 PM checkout (one hour late). Front desk said all arranged (I re-verified on the morning of checkout day). I had a meeting at noon and didn’t want to be interrupted. Front desk assured me that housekeeping would be advised accordingly. Sure enough, housekeeping was knocking on my door at 12:05 asking when I was leaving the room. The lack of communication between departments is very frustrating. This was a multi-night stay for me as I needed to be in the vicinity for a bit. With the exception of the housekeeping knock prior to my agreed upon checkout time, no complaints.