Rika's Brain

I'm going to start doing some reviews on the samples and deals I get so if that's not your thing, move right along.

A couple nights ago my roomie and I took and overnight trip to the cities (read: Minneapolis area if you're not from around here) for her *gasp* 26th birthday!

We found our hotel per usual on hotwire.com and ended up with a room at Holiday Inn - Bloomington Airport South- Mall Area.

I contacted the Assistant General Manager (he was the contact email I found for the hotel) a few days before my stay to ask if they could maybe put a card or something in the room to make it special for roomie's birthday.  He replied promptly saying they could definitely do something, and then contacted me the morning of to see if we were okay with a poolside room.

When I checked in, the lady at the front desk was very helpful and seemed super happy about having us there for a birthday. We walk into the room after we're checked in... to balloons!!  There were three bouquets of balloons around the room as well as a "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" banner.  The staff also all signed a card and included a coupon for a free pizza and 2-liter soda from the attached Green Mill.  It was perfect!


The room was clean and relatively spacious, there was a little bistro table and two chairs right outside the doors to the pool area.  They had a shuttle running to and from the Mall of America that we took advantage of-- was nice to not worry about parking or traffic.

We only had a couple minor beefs with the hotel.  The first was that the tub was pretty dated, which wasn't a huge deal and I read on a review site that they were actually updating them through the fall.  The other issue was that the pool was stinkin' cold!  Again, not a huge deal and we were easily able to warm up in the hot tub.

I would definitely recommend this hotel based on customer service alone, they were awesome!  Especially since I didn't intentionally book their hotel, I booked a random however many star hotel (I can't remember) and didn't see what it was until I paid.  The fact that they were still so accommodating was awesome to me.

 I highly recommend if you're ever at any hotel for a special occasion to let them know.  The worst that can happen is you won't get anything extra, but I'm sure any hotel will at least wish you a great birthday, anniversary, etc. when you check in and make you feel extra special!

Thank you Erne and thank you Holiday Inn for a great stay!

What about you guys, do you have any hotels you recommend or always like staying at? Is there something special a hotel has done for you?  Let me know in the comments!