Holiday Inn - Earth City, MO - #Hotel #Travel

Disclosure: I received a complimentary stay in exchange for my honest review.

Our road trip to St. Louis at the beginning of October for my niece's wedding was filled with family connections (both new and old), food, laughter, and love. My husband Johnny and I stayed at the Holiday Inn in Earth City, Missouri, which is located somewhat between the St. Louis International Airport and St. Charles. When I lived there many years ago, I remember most of Earth City being flat, open  fields. Now it's a bustling area with businesses, restaurants, and hotels. Best of all, it's just minutes from a casino, one of our favorite ways to spend our entertainment money.

As we walked into the lobby of Holiday Inn Airport West - Earth City, we were greeted by a friendly, smiling desk clerk who checked us in to our room. The lobby was spotlessly clean and very welcoming. The general manager, Mark Stevens, was nearby and came over to say hello. He told us the hotel had recently been totally renovated and remodeled from the ground up. He even offered us a hotel tour or the option to explore on our own.

Holiday Inn actually conducted a comprehensive consumer research study to ensure that guests at their hotels are getting exactly what they want. It's been a long time since I've stayed at a Holiday Inn prior to this stay and it was evident throughout our stay. They even have a 24-hour business center. Every single Holiday Inn employee I came into contact with during our stay was friendly and helpful.

Holiday Inn Earth City also offers a 24-hour complimentary van service for hotel guests. I was thrilled to find out they even do regular runs to the casino, which meant we could enjoy a cocktail or two at the casino and not worry about driving under the influence. Their concierge desk in the lobby is always staffed to help guests with luggage, rides to and from the airport, and anywhere within 5 miles of the hotel.

I loved the little gathering places around the hotel, from the lobby to the patios to the restaurant located on the first floor. Malone's Grill and Pub serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, plus they offer room service from 7am to 10pm. The restaurant also has a bar with several televisions for late night entertainment.

The restaurant is bright, cheery and clean. We stopped in for lunch and there are so many delicious choices on the menu that it was hard to decide what to eat. The waitresses working at the time were fabulous. It's really wonderful to see people who truly enjoy their jobs and strive to do their best. If you live in the area or even if you're not staying at the Holiday Inn Earth City, you must stop by and eat at Malone's!

My husband finally decided on Romine's home-style fried chicken and I chose a half-rack of baby back ribs. I'm not sure which one of us was more happy with our meal. My rib-meat was so tender and juicy, it fell off the bone with a tiny nudge of my fork. Our friendly waitress was very attentive and responsive, and she jumped to help when Johnny accidentally spilled my water everywhere. I love midwest hospitality!

We both decided the broccoli is the best in America. I'm not sure what they use to season it, but it's delicious. They also do full onsite catering for meetings, events, receptions and banquets for up to 650 guests at once. Malone's Grill and Pub also has some great happy hour specials and even carry out. Breakfast on Sunday morning was just as delicious. Plus kids under 12 eat free!

The bar area was clean and organized. It offered seating along the bar and smaller tables for groups to sit together. We stopped in for a drink on Saturday evening and sat at the bar. We had a lively conversation with the hilarious bartender and four slightly-drunk guests. The many televisions allowed us to catch up on the NASCAR race results we missed during our busy weekend.

For those who have time and desire, the Holiday Inn also offers guests a place to exercise, with top quality machines, mirrored walls, and peppy overhead music. I think it's the first gym I've ever been in that didn't have that funny, sweaty smell. Since I was on vacation, we passed on the exercise room and grabbed a soda instead.

I loved their beautiful atrium with an indoor swimming pool. Since it was October, it didn't even occur to me to take a bathing suit with me and the pool area was so inviting I regretted it. Their $10 million dollar renovation is definitely worth every penny they spent.

They have a huge patio area just outside the pool area, featuring a multi-level design. The stone work is breathtaking and there are multiple areas to gather on the patio, plus tons of open space that could be used for just about any event.

No matter how beautiful the hotel, how friendly the staff, or how delicious the food, the single most important thing in a hotel stay is the room where I sleep. Was it clean? Yes. Was it comfortable? Yes. Was it safe and secure? Yes. Was it roomy? Yes, in fact, it was huge.

The king size suite features two rooms separated by a door. The front room is a living room with a couch, chair, ottoman, coffee table, desk and chair, plus a tv table with drawers. From the 37" flat screen television to the free high-speed internet, Holiday Inn took care of all our "screen time" needs.

The kitchenette, or wet bar, offers a fridge, microwave, sink, coffee maker and even dishes in the cabinet to make our stay feel more like home. I really appreciated all the little touches, like the paper towels, salt and pepper shakers, and the cute little bottle of dishwashing soap.

Through the door into the bedroom, we discovered a king size plush top bed with triple sheeting a pile of five pillows. Even the pillows are marked "soft" or "firm" so guests get what they want. Another 37" flat screen tv sits on a dresser in the bedroom for late night viewing. Just like home.

Since I like to look for things that need improvement, I even turned on every light in the hotel suite and discovered one bedroom lamp missing a bulb. So when we headed out for the evening, I stopped at the front desk to request a bulb be left there for me to pick up on my way back in. The clerk offered to have it taken up for me, but I prefer no one enter my room (I always forgo maid service for short stays too). My light bulb was waiting for me at the front desk when I returned.

Sleeping on this bed at the Holiday Inn was dreamy (pun intended). One common hotel complaint is the ability to hear other guests in their rooms, but even with a "Just Turned 21" party across the hall from us, once we were in our room we didn't hear any party noise or music from them.

The bathroom was pretty basic and simply designed. There were plenty of towels for us for the entire weekend and it was easy to locate the extra toilet paper and beauty samples. A nice big mirror and adequate vanity lighting made getting ready easy.

I would rather stand in a shower than sit in a tub when I travel, so I was very happy about the new walk-in showers. The water pressure was perfect and it didn't take long for the water to heat up for a nice hot shower after a long day of riding in the car.

I definitely recommend Holiday Inn Airport West Earth City to travelers (for both business and personal trips). The hotel also features lots of meeting rooms and banquet rooms of varied sizes, and my first thought was that this would be a perfect place for a blogger convention! The smaller rooms would be great for break-out learning sessions.

The "wedding feature" room was lovely and a great example of the attention given to special events. Since I received such great service at Holiday Inn Earth City, I can assume their sales director and catering staff would do whatever necessary to make any event successful.

This Holiday Inn is a five star hotel in my book.

Book your stay with them HERE.