Review: Crowne Plaza Madison, Wisconsin

The seventh and final city we visited in Wisconsin on our 50 state road trip was the state capital – Madison.

Several months before our visit, the Crowne Plaza Madison had been included on IHG’s PointBreaks list. That’s a list IHG releases every three months with dozens of hotels that require fewer points for bookings over the following three months.

We jumped on this deal the day it started and locked in seven nights for a reduced number of points. Here’s a review of our week-long stay at the Crowne Plaza Madison, Wisconsin.

Check-In

We got to the hotel at about 3:15pm, 45 minutes before our check-in time. Thankfully our room was ready and so we were able to get checked in a little early. The person working at the front desk that afternoon wasn’t particularly warm and fuzzy, but she wasn’t rude either.

The website for the Crowne Plaza Madison said that you receive a pet amenity bag at check-in when traveling with pets which contains treats and toys. I asked about this but the front desk agent didn’t know anything about it. She said she could check with her manager when they were in later, so I said we’d stop back by the front desk that evening. We never did end up doing that though which is probably no bad thing seeing as Truffles has more than enough toys and treats.

Bedroom

We’d been given room 306 which was towards the end of one of the hotel’s wings. That meant we were close to a stairwell which was useful for taking Truffles out.

When entering the bedroom, the closet and bathroom were to the right and the main bedroom area was ahead and to the right.

We’d booked a king bed which was extremely comfortable (Truffles agreed).

On the bed was a package containing moisturizer, a spray and some soothing balm. If you use any of these, they’re replenished each day.

Both bedside tables had lamps which had a couple of power outlets on them. We always appreciate that as it makes for easy phone-charging overnight.

To the left of the bed was a coffee table and sofabed which was somewhat comfortable.

Our window looked out over the indoor swimming pool. I was concerned when we arrived that it might get noisy, but even when kids were playing in the pool we could barely hear anything.

To the left of the window was a desk with an office chair and an additional chair next to it. One minor quibble is that the office chair was armless which I found wasn’t as comfortable when working.

The desk had a Keurig coffee maker with a couple of different types of coffee pods, along with Bigelow English Breakfast tea. Being British, I was pleased to see tea as an option, but didn’t care for the taste of it when made with the Keurig, so I just used my own PG Tips teabags each day.

A nice feature is that proper mugs and glasses are provided in each room rather than disposable cups.

To the left of the desk was a good-sized mini-fridge, dresser and TV. It was a decent enough TV, although it took a frustratingly long time for channels to change when flipping through.

The room’s closet contained bedding for the sofabed, a luggage rack, an ironing board and an iron.

Unlike most hotel rooms that have a noisy air conditioning unit, our room at the Crowne Plaza Madison had an air conditioning setup you’d find in a home and so was pretty much noiseless.

Bathroom

In the bathroom, the sink and vanity were on the right hand side. It’s always nice to have a long vanity as it makes it easier to dry our kitchen stuff after washing up. I value having that extra space, but I’m sure others would prefer a second sink instead.

The toiletries were Temple Spa branded. The shampoo lathered up nicely, although I wasn’t a fan of the scent – it smelled a little like an old man’s cologne.

Above the toilet was a wall-mounted shaving/makeup mirror.

The bathroom also had a bathtub with shower. The shower had good water pressure and seemed to have soft water which meant the soap and shampoo lathered up nicely.

Amenities

The Crowne Plaza Madison is a fairly large conference hotel, so there are plenty of amenities for guests to use. There’s a conference center and several meeting rooms, but I didn’t get photos of those as we didn’t use any of them.

As mentioned earlier, the hotel has an indoor swimming pool. The pool was a fairly cool temperature, so it’s better if you plan on actually swimming rather than just floating around in it.

If the pool’s not warm enough for you, there’s a whirlpool next to it.

In the same area as the pool and whirlpool was a games area. This had a pool table, air hockey table and several arcade games. It’s nice that these are all in the same enclosed area as it means parents can swim or relax by the pool while their kids play games.

I didn’t check the price of all the games, but one of the arcade games cost $1 per game (quarters are required).

In a separate room off from the swimming pool area is the fitness room. It’s very small considering the hotel’s size and only has a few pieces of equipment.

There’s only one treadmill which seemed a little weird. Shae was using it one time and several guests came in while she was in there who clearly also wanted to go for a jog. It was 85-90° and humid most days during our stay, so it wasn’t great weather for jogging outside.

The back of the recumbent bike had also clearly seen better days.

The first floor has a couple of washers and dryers for guests to use. The washing machines cost $2, while the dryers are $2.25 per load. What’s nice is that you don’t have to have change on you as the machines accept credit and debit cards, as well as Apple Pay.

If you need to use a computer or print something off during your stay, there’s a business center with two computers and a printer in the lobby.

Next to the business center are snacks and beverages you can buy from the front desk.

In addition to those, there are drinks vending machines and ice machines on each floor. Although bedrooms don’t have microwaves in them, there’s a microwave in the vending area on each floor.

If you need something more substantial to eat or drink, you can order room service or head downstairs to Growlers Bar & Grille.

Breakfast in the morning is served at The Prairie Cafe which is just opposite Growlers in the lobby. Both breakfast and main meals seemed fairly expensive at the hotel (breakfast isn’t included in your room rate), so we passed on both of those and made our own meals in our room.

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi at the Crowne Plaza Madison is free and had a reliable connection and good speed throughout our stay. One annoying feature is that you have to sign in every 24 hours though.

I don’t understand why so many hotels require this when offering free Wi-Fi. It’s understandable if they charge you for every 24 hours of usage as you’d need to confirm you want to continue being charged for it, but it’s frustrating to be in the middle of something and have the connection cut out because you’ve got to log back in. This wouldn’t always be instantaneous either – I sometimes had to wait 15-30 minutes before it let me reconnect.

Pet-Friendliness

The Crowne Plaza in Wisconsin’s state capital is a pet-friendly hotel. As I mentioned when writing about our check-in experience, the hotel – in theory – offers a pet amenity bag with treats and toys, but the front desk staff didn’t know anything about it.

The pet fee is also a little confusing. Their own website states they have a $25 pet fee, with no mention of it being a nightly fee. We stayed seven nights, so I expected our fee to be $25. However, after making our reservation I noticed that the IHG website (Crowne Plaza is one of IHG’s brands) stated it’s $25 per night which would’ve made the cost $175 for our week-long stay. That’s far more expensive and a much more unreasonable fee.

Thankfully we weren’t charged either. In addition to not knowing anything about the pet amenity kit, it seems the front desk agent didn’t charge a pet fee to our room, so I didn’t need to dispute a $175 charge.

Although it’s a pet-friendly hotel, some aspects aren’t as pet-friendly. Given how large the hotel is, there are surprisingly few grassy areas around the hotel and those which are there are fairly small.

There is an official pet area, but it’s the lamest pet area I’ve seen. It’s tiny and didn’t even have any grass.

Behind the hotel is a residential area, so I tended to walk Truffles around the block to do her business there instead.

Also nearby are several parks, including a large off-leash dog park at Sycamore Park. If you’re only visiting the area, you have to pay a $5 fee each day to use it which is a little steep. Residents can get an annual pass which works out to be much cheaper (I think it was something like $35 for the year).

In addition to the larger fenced-in area, there was a smaller (but still good-sized) fenced-in zone for small and geriatric dogs.

Service

Service was fine for the most part during our stay, although we didn’t have much interaction with staff. Housekeeping staff were friendly when we met them, but the housekeeping experience itself was poor.

We declined housekeeping on all but two days of our stay. The first time they cleaned our room, they took both bars of soap which were only a day old and provided new bars. This was completely wasteful as the soap bars were probably large enough to last the entire week. Despite making the effort to replace the soaps, they didn’t leave us with any toilet paper so we had to ask for more.

Our second housekeeping experience was even worse. They made the bed but didn’t bother to empty the completely full trash cans, nor did they leave any toilet paper so we once again had to request more.

Location

The Crowne Plaza is about 15 minutes east of downtown Madison. It’s opposite East Towne Mall and is within walking distance of several restaurants.

Due to its proximity to Dane County Regional Airport, the hotel offers a complimentary shuttle service.

Cost

As I mentioned at the start of the review, we booked the Crowne Plaza Madison when it was on IHG’s PointBreaks list. It cost us 10,000 IHG Rewards Club points per night, so our week-long stay cost a total of 70,000 points.

I have the old version of the IHG credit card which offers a 10% points rebate when booking award stays, so we’re due to get 7,000 points back (it can take a couple of weeks for the rebated points to be credited). When taking into account the 600 points I received as a Welcome Amenity due to having Spire Elite status, our net cost was 62,400 points.

Award nights at this hotel usually cost 25,000 points per night, so a rate of 10,000 points per night saved us 60%. If we’d paid cash, the seven nights would’ve cost a total of $981.47 (including tax). Based on our net cost of 62,400 points, we got 1.57cpp (cents per point) of value which is very good for IHG Rewards Club.

Final Thoughts

Overall, we enjoyed our stay at the Crowne Plaza Madison. Our room felt spacious enough and included a fridge, sofabed and coffee table. Our bed was very comfortable, it was nice having quiet air conditioning and the bathroom was a fairly good size.

The hotel’s amenities were satisfactory, but the fitness room could do with more and better equipment, while it’d be nice to have a warmer pool.

The biggest disappointment was our housekeeping experience. We only asked for our room to be serviced twice but both times they did a poor job.

Truffles Approval Rating

Truffles gives the Crowne Plaza Madison three paws out of four – pawsome. Although it’s great that they inadvertently didn’t charge her for the stay, she missed getting the promised pet amenity bag. (To be fair, the blame partly lies with her parents for not revisiting the front desk to get it.)

Truffles also didn’t appreciate how few grassy areas there were around the hotel. That’s because it meant her dad dragged her around the neighborhood in the heat so she’d do her business.

Our Rating

Room = 4.5 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.2 / 5
Food = N/A
Location = 4.2 / 5
Service = 3.8 / 5
Overall Value = 4.1 / 5

Total = 4.16 / 5

Address

Crowne Plaza, 4402 E Washington Ave, Madison, WI 53704