After cutting short our stay in Kansas City, MO by one night, we stayed overnight in Omaha, NE and then continued to South Dakota – the 34th state on our 7 year, 50 state road trip. Our first stop in South Dakota was Sioux Falls where we stayed eight nights at the Holiday Inn Sioux Falls-City Centre.
We picked this hotel because we wanted to be within walking distance of everything downtown, plus it was very good value when using points. Shae and I had a really nice stay there; our room was quiet, it is indeed in the perfect location for wandering around downtown and it has a surprise feature I wasn’t expecting from a Holiday Inn.
Here’s our full review of the Holiday Inn Sioux Falls-City Centre, SD.
Check-In
We arrived at the hotel at 5pm and got checked in straight away as there was no line. On our way to the hotel I’d checked to see if there were any one bedroom suites available so that I could ask about an upgrade (I have Diamond status with IHG One Rewards).
They didn’t have any one bedroom suites, but I did notice that they had rooms available on the Concierge Floor. I’d missed this when initially booking the hotel and was surprised because it’s rare that IHG properties have a lounge. You might get them at InterContinentals, perhaps at Crowne Plazas, but very, very rarely at Holiday Inns.
IHG One Rewards has a Milestone Rewards program where you get to pick certain benefits or bonus points for every 10 nights you stay from 20 nights. For one of my benefits last year I picked lounge access, so I asked when checking in if we’d have access to the Concierge Floor. As it turned out, they’d already upgraded us to a room on the Concierge Floor. I’m not sure if that’s due to the lounge access Milestone Reward I’d picked or if it was thanks to having Diamond status, but it was nice that they’d proactively upgraded us before we arrived.
Another benefit of Diamond status is complimentary breakfast for two if you choose it as your welcome amenity, which we did. We were given 8 breakfast coupons, each good for two people and which had gratuity included. They also provided a couple of coupons good for $5 off a drink in their restaurant and bar which I think all guests might receive.
Bedroom
We were assigned room 907 which is on the top floor of the hotel. When entering our room the bedroom was straight ahead and the bathroom on the right.
The room’s king bed was nice and comfortable. The blackout curtains worked pretty well once we used the clips on a clothes hanger to hold them together.
In the corner was an armchair with an ottoman. Both sides of the bed had a dresser drawer and cubby hole beneath that, while the bedside lamps had power outlets.
Opposite the armchair was a desk and office chair. The desk was on rollers, with a standalone desk around it.
To the left of that was a unit containing a mini fridge, microwave and some dresser drawers, with a Keurig coffee maker on top and a wall-mounted TV above.
The mini fridge was a decent size as mini fridges go and even had a section for fruit and vegetables at the bottom.
Back by the room’s entrance was an open closet with a luggage rack, iron and ironing board.
Shae and I tend to decline housekeeping throughout our stays, so I was pleased to see a door hanger offering bonus points for doing just that. Even better – the hotel did a pretty good job with tracking this. When taking advantage of programs like this in the past, I’ve often had to follow up with the hotel chains to get the bonus points credited. In this case they awarded the 500 bonus points for six of the seven eligible nights, so it wasn’t worth following up for the missing 500 points.
Bathroom
The bathroom was an average type of hotel bathroom. There was a bathtub with shower; the shower had good water pressure.
Rather than having large bottles of refillable bottles of shampoo, conditioner and body wash which is what a lot of hotels are moving to, the Holiday Inn Sioux Falls-City Centre still provides small bottles of Dove toiletries.
Breakfast
The hotel has two restaurants – Grille 100 and Verde Lounge. Breakfast is served in Grille 100, while lunch and dinner is available in Verde Lounge. Having said that, the hotel had some construction going on in the normal Verde Lounge location during our stay, so those operations had been moved to Grille 100.
As someone who’s normally a late riser, it was great having breakfast be available until 11am Monday-Saturday and until 1:30pm on Sundays. That meant we could either sleep in a little, or get some work done before heading down for breakfast.
Grille 100 has both a breakfast buffet option and entrées that you can order from a menu. The breakfast buffet included your standard buffet fare like scrambled eggs, breakfast potatoes, sausage, bacon, freshly cut fruit, cereal, breads, cinnamon rolls and muffins, yogurt, etc.
As for the entrée options, here’s the breakfast menu.
We did the breakfast buffet on one or two mornings and ordered entrées on a couple of other mornings. One morning I ordered the country fried steak skillet which was very filling, although the hash browns were a little too buttery for my liking.
Another morning Shae got the Innjoyable Breakfast…
…while I got the Morning Breakfast Burrito which was very good.
On Sunday mornings the hotel offers a brunch option which has their standard breakfast buffet options along with all kinds of additional options like salad, prime rib, ham, fried fish, lo mein, garlic mash, vegetables, desserts and lots more. Brunch costs a little more than the regular breakfast buffet, but our breakfast coupons covered the Sunday brunch too which was great, especially considering our eight night stay included two Sunday mornings and thus two of their brunches.
If you’d like to check the latest breakfast, lunch and dinner menus, you can access those via this QR code:
Concierge Lounge
I mentioned my surprise earlier that the Holiday Inn Sioux Falls-City Centre has a Concierge Lounge. It’s on the 9th floor and you have to have an eligible key card to access the floor in the elevator.
The space itself is open all the time, but its hours of operation are 6:30am-9am Monday-Friday for breakfast and 5:30pm-7pm Monday-Thursday for evening hors d’oeurves and drinks.
I liked that we had the lounge so close to our room because it meant that I worked from there at night rather than having to go and work down in the lobby once Shae had gone to bed.
Concierge Lounge Breakfast
If you have the choice between breakfast in Grille 100 and the Concierge Lounge (e.g. you have Diamond status for free breakfast or you’re on a work trip where they’re covering the cost of breakfast), I’d recommend getting breakfast from Grille 100 as the options are more extensive.
The Concierge Lounge has an OK selection of items, but the only hot options are scrambled eggs and breakfast potatoes – no sausages or bacon. However, if you’re on the 9th floor and want something quick and easy on weekday mornings, this is a nice option to have.
Concierge Lounge Evening Hors D’oeurves
From 5:30pm-7pm Monday-Thursday the hotel also provides hors d’oeurves and drinks in the lounge. Similar to the breakfast offerings, the evening food options aren’t extensive, but have the potential to provide enough food to count as an evening meal if you don’t want to eat elsewhere.
I ate dinner there a couple of times. The first time there was some kind of beef dish, scalloped potatoes and carrots, while another night there were lo mein noodles and chicken patties. Both meals were tasty enough.
There were a few additional snacky options, along with desserts like strawberry cheesecake and cookies.
Something that was even more surprising was that they also provided complimentary adult beverages. That included a few different types of beers, wines and spirits. I’ve been in nicer hotel lounges where they charge for alcohol, so getting it for free was awesome.
While this wasn’t the best spread I’ve ever seen in a hotel lounge, it was still a great offering overall considering it’s a Holiday Inn.
Amenities
Guest Laundry
The hotel apparently has guest laundry facilities available. We didn’t need to do our laundry there and I forgot to take a photo of the laundry room, so I’m not sure how much it costs to use their washers and dryers.
Fitness Room
The fitness room wasn’t massive, but it had a few pieces of cardio equipment, along with weights. They kept towels well-stocked in there.
Swimming Pool
Although we had pretty good weather while we were in Sioux Falls (it was late April), they don’t have weather conducive to having an outdoor pool. As a result, there’s an indoor swimming pool along with a whirlpool.
Business Center
Next to where the construction for Verde Lounge is going on and near the indoor swimming pool, there was a business center. There were two computers and printers, although one of them was out of order during our visit.
Pantry
Opposite the front desk is a good-sized pantry area with all kinds of microwaveable meals, snacks, drinks, etc.
Shuttle Bus
The hotel does have a shuttle bus as I saw it coming and going several times during our stay. The hotel’s website confirms in their FAQs that they have a shuttle and to see their Area Transportation page for more details. However, when viewing the Area Transportation page it says there’s no shuttle which is untrue.
I imagine it does pick-ups and drop-offs at Sioux Falls Regional Airport as that’s only 2.5 miles away, but if you think you might want to ask them for a ride elsewhere in town, you’d want to contact the hotel ahead of time to make sure that’s something they offer.
Sioux Falls Activities
When entering the hotel there was an information board detailing all the events taking place in Sioux Falls during that week which was a nice feature to have.
Pet Policy
The Holiday Inn Sioux Falls-City Centre is a pet-friendly hotel. They have a $50 pet fee per stay which is very reasonable, especially if you’re booking a longer stay as it means the net cost per day gets reduced the longer you stay.
There are a few grassy areas around the hotel, plus its location means you can walk around the city safely where there are even more grassy areas.
Less than a 10 minute walk from the hotel is Kirby Dog Park. This is an Astroturfed dog park with separate sections for small and large dogs.
Service
Service at the hotel was good. I didn’t have many interactions with the front desk, but they were nice enough when checking in, checking out, etc.
The restaurant service was very good too. It wasn’t always great when you first arrive as there could sometimes be a long wait before someone would take you to your table, but once we were seated they were always exceedingly friendly and attentive.
Wi-Fi
The hotel offers free Wi-Fi for all guests. The connection was always very good, as was the speed.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
Check-in at the Holiday Inn Sioux Falls-City Centre is from 3pm, while check-out is at 11am.
Location
The hotel is in a fantastic location downtown. It’s within a 5-10 minute walk of pretty much everything downtown, while Falls Park is only a 10-15 minute walk away. Sioux Falls has a lot of breweries and distilleries downtown and we visited several of them, so it was great being able to walk back to the hotel rather than having to get an Uber.
Parking
The Holiday Inn offers free parking for all guests. There are quite a few parking spaces out front of the hotel, with plenty more parking available in a covered parking lot right next to it.
Cost
We booked our stay using IHG One Rewards points. IHG uses dynamic award pricing which means that the number of points needed can potentially be different for each night of your stay.
For our dates, prices ranged from 23,000-34,000 points per night and would’ve cost a total of 217,000 points for our 8 nights. A couple of things helped us reduce that cost though. I have the IHG Premier credit card which offers every 4th night free on award stays. That’s why we booked an 8 night stay – it enabled us to get both the 4th and 8th nights free which dropped the cost by 58,000 points.
I also have the IHG Select credit card (no longer available for new applicants) which gives a 10% points rebate on award stays. Our cost had already been reduced to 159,000 points thanks to the 4th and 8th nights being free, so the 10% rebate made our net cost 17,888 points per night.
We’d bought those IHG points for 0.5cpp (cents per point), so we effectively paid $89.44 per night. That meant we got excellent value from our points because the cash room rate for our dates was $214.82 per night. As a result, we got 1.2cpp of value by using points that we bought at 0.5cpp.
Final Thoughts
Shae and I had a great stay at the Holiday Inn Sioux Falls-City Centre in South Dakota. Our room was your average type of Holiday Inn bedroom, but it was clean and quiet, while the mini fridge kept everything at the right temperature without freezing items or being too warm.
We were upgraded to the Concierge Floor which meant we had access to the lounge there, plus my Diamond status also meant we got free breakfast in the main restaurant.
The hotel is in the perfect location downtown, so if we return to Sioux Falls then this would be the first place I’d look at staying.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives the hotel four paws out of four – pawfect! She enjoyed how quiet our room was even though it wasn’t massive, plus she got to go on lots of walks and outings downtown.
Our Rating
Room = 4.1 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.2 / 5
Food = 4.4 / 5
Location = 4.9 / 5
Service = 4.2 / 5
Overall Value = 4.2 / 5
Total = 4.33 / 5
Address
Holiday Inn, 100 W 8th St, Sioux Falls, SD 57104
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