Booking accommodation for our 7 year, 50 state road trip can be a little haphazard sometimes. I normally try to book at least 6 weeks ahead of time as booking early often gives better cash rates than last minute, while booking with plenty of time before our stay also gives a better chance at finding award availability when using points.
When it came to booking our stays in Arkansas and Missouri though, I’d been undecided about a few different places to stay and had a hard time lining up dates with award availability at hotels and just regular availability for Airbnbs. We’d originally planned to go from Bentonville, AR to St Louis, MO or Kansas City, MO, but those availability factors meant we ended up with a four day gap in between. That ended up being perfect as it gave us a chance to spend four days in Little Rock.
Little Rock – the state capital of Arkansas – is only an hour east of Hot Springs, so we were planning to visit when staying in Hot Springs for a week. It was therefore nice that we’d get four days in Little Rock itself so that we wouldn’t have to make the hour drive each way and detract from our time there.
Four days was also a sweet spot to maximize our stay on points. I found award availability at the Holiday Inn Little Rock-Presidential-Dwntn which is an IHG property. Thanks to having the IHG Premier credit card, we get every 4th night free on award stays, so that reduced how many points we had to redeem.
It ended up being a decent enough stay with very friendly staff, although it did have a mediocre breakfast. Here’s a full review of our stay at the Holiday Inn Little Rock-Presidential-Dwntn.
Check-In
It’s only a 3 hour drive from Bentonville to Little Rock, but our drive ended up being much longer than that. We’d stopped at Fort Smith National Historic Site for a couple of hours along the way, then had to divert via Hot Springs. That’s because we’d had some mail delivered to the Staybridge Suites there which didn’t arrive until after we’d checked out. Rather than having them forward it on and risk it getting delayed again (it had tax documents needed to file our return), we figured it’d be easier to just stop by there even though the diversion would add an hour or two.
As a result, we didn’t get to the Holiday Inn until about 7:15pm. It was a little confusing getting to the entrance initially as Google Maps had us entering the parking lot at the back, so we had to weave through to the hotel, only to get to the entrance to discover that section of the parking lot blocked off due to construction work. Thankfully there was an open spot off to the side, so we parked there and got our stuff unloaded.
The front desk agent was incredibly friendly. I think his name was Orlando as that’s who texted a little while after we got to our room to make sure everything was OK. He was very personable and seemed to enjoy his job, so he’s a great person for them to have as a guest’s first impression of the hotel.
It only took a few minutes to get checked in and then we headed up to room 702.
Bedroom
Being on the 7th floor was great because that’s the top floor. That not only means you tend to get better views, but more importantly for us – and particularly our dog Truffles – it meant there was no one in a room above us who’d be stomping around.
When entering the room the bathroom was on the left and the bedroom was straight ahead.
We’d booked a standard room as that was the only room type bookable with points when making the reservation. Our assigned room had what I think was a king bed rather than a queen and was very comfortable. The blackout curtains worked well and both sides of the bed had tables and lamps. The base of the lamps included a power outlet which made it easier to charge our phones by the bed overnight.
In the corner to the left of the bed was a comfortable armchair, along with an ottoman and a small side table.
Opposite the bed was a desk. In fact, there were two desks – one fixed in place and one on rollers which could be moved.
To the right of that was a unit housing some dresser drawers, a mini fridge, microwave and safe. On top was a Keurig coffee maker and a wall-mounted TV.
To the right of the unit was a luggage rack and a connecting door to another room which could come in handy if you’re traveling with others.
Back by the room entrance was a thin closet which contained an iron and ironing board.
Bathroom
The bathroom had a walk-in shower which had good water pressure.
There were wall-mounted Dove toiletries in the shower.
Breakfast
IHG One Rewards revamped their loyalty program in 2022, adding free breakfast as a welcome amenity choice for Diamond members. I have Diamond status, so we picked that as our option when checking in as four days of free breakfast for two people is worth far more than the 500 points we could’ve chosen as an alternative seeing as 500 points can often be bought for $2.50!
Breakfast at the Holiday Inn Little Rock-Presidential-Dwntn is served from 6am-9:30am during the week and 7am-10am at the weekend. It’s held in Camp David Kitchen which is their main restaurant for lunch and dinner too.
It includes several hot options including scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausage patties, biscuits and gravy and more. Unfortunately the hot options belied their name; despite seemingly being in a section that’s supposed to keep them warm, all of them were pretty much cold every day that we were there.
There were other options for breakfast:
The hotel was charging $10.95 per person for the buffet breakfast. While that’s not overly expensive as far as paid-for hotel breakfast buffets go, I’d have been disappointed if we’d had to pay that and ended up with the cold eggs and meat each morning.
Some of the breakfast staff seemed a little too eager to finish working in the morning too. On one weekday morning they cleared all of the food away by 9:20am even though breakfast was supposed to be available until 9:30am.
Amenities
The hotel had a fitness room with a few pieces of cardio equipment and weights.
It wasn’t the most extensive fitness room I’ve ever seen, but I was the only one I saw in there working out and so it’s not like it got incredibly busy either.
There was a guest laundry room with one washing machine and one dryer which was nice to have. They cost $2.50 per load which is reasonable enough and they helpfully accepted credit cards rather than needing enough quarters.
The Holiday Inn Little Rock-Presidential-Dwntn has an outdoor swimming pool, although it was still closed for the season as we visited in March.
There were several tables and chairs outside near the pool.
There was a fair bit of seating inside in the lobby area too. There were some tall tables, armchairs with side tables and other regular tables and chairs, as well as a piano next to that area.
Next to the front desk was a small business center with a computer and printer. There was a pantry area behind that, with a fridge off to the side with beverages.
In addition to Camp David Kitchen being the hotel’s restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner, there’s a bar in that area. One of the nice things about Holiday Inn hotels is that they have a ‘Kids Eat Free’ policy. This allows up to two children ages 11 and under to eat free per adult who orders from the hotel’s main menu in the restaurant. This is valid on up to four children (i.e. with two adults) per dining party.
Pet Policy
The Holiday Inn Little Rock-Presidential-Dwntn is a pet-friendly hotel as they allow dogs weighing 40 lbs or less. The pet fee is $50 per stay or $35 for IHG One Rewards members. Or you might get lucky like us and not get charged a pet fee at all 😉
Service
Overall service was very good. Orlando at the front desk was excellent, while one of the employees working at breakfast on our final morning was very friendly. We declined housekeeping during our stay and so we can’t rate that. The only negative service we noticed was the breakfast staff who cleared all the food away early one morning.
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi at the hotel is complimentary for all guests. The connection and speed seemed decent.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
Check-in is from 3pm and check-out is at 12pm.
Location
The hotel is just off I-30 and near I-630, so it has good transportation links by car. It’s only a couple of blocks from MacArthur Park and is less than a mile from the center of downtown. If you’re interested in visiting Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, that’s about 2.5 miles west of the hotel.
Lost Forty Brewing is just a few blocks away when using the bridge over the interstate, but I wasn’t overly impressed with their beers.
Parking
Parking at the hotel is free. There are limited parking spaces out front, but there’s an underground parking lot beneath the hotel if the above ground spots are all taken.
Cost
We booked our stay using IHG One Rewards points. IHG uses dynamic pricing which means the number of points needed can fluctuate from night to night. They were charging 27,000, 26,000 and 25,000 points per night for the first three nights respectively. I didn’t make a note of how many points would’ve been charged for the 4th night as that night was free for us thanks to the 4th night free benefit on my IHG Premier credit card.
That meant the total cost for our stay was 78,000 points, but we’ll get 10% of those points back thanks to the 10% points rebate we get from my separate IHG Select credit card. As a result, our net cost was 70,200 points or an average of 17,550 points per night. We bought those points for half a cent per point, so that means our stay effectively cost $87.75 per night. That was a decent price because the cash rate for our dates was $151.55 per night including tax, so we saved more than 40%.
Final Thoughts
We had a decent stay at the Holiday Inn Little Rock-Presidential-Dwntn. The hotel was good value using points, our room was quiet and dark at night and staff members were very friendly, plus it was in a pretty good location. On the downside, the breakfast was mediocre, but we got that free with my status and so it’s not like we were out of pocket on that.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives the hotel four paws out of four – pawfect! They neglected to charge us a pet fee, although at only $35 per stay (or $50 if you’re not an IHG One Rewards member), that would’ve been a very reasonable cost.
The hotel doesn’t have much grass around it, but the surrounding neighborhoods seemed very safe and were cute, so it was nice being able to take her for a walk near the hotel.
Our Rating
Room = 4.1 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.4 / 5
Food = 3.2 / 5
Location = 4.3 / 5
Service = 4.4 / 5
Overall Value = 4.3 / 5
Total = 4.12 / 5
Address
Holiday Inn, 600 I-30, Little Rock, AR 72202
Thank you for your thorough review. Always enjoy reading them.
Thanks – I’m glad you like them!