After staying 11 days in Colorado Springs, we headed west to stay in Montrose for 12 days. We managed to get the last available room at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Montrose which was great value on points considering hotel prices in the area at the time.
It ended up being a great stay as it was nice hotel with a decent hot breakfast, friendly staff and in a good location for visiting local attractions.
Here’s a full review of our stay at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Montrose in Colorado.
Check-In
There was a slight delay in getting checked in when we arrived as there were a few other people who’d arrived at the same time, but it didn’t take too long before we had our keys to room 145.
Bedroom
We’d booked a standard room as that was the only kind of room left when booking our stay just over a week beforehand. We ended up in a room with a king bed which we preferred to getting one with two queen beds.
When entering the room the bathroom was on the right and the bedroom straight ahead.
The king bed was very comfortable and we didn’t have any trouble sleeping at night as the room had good blackout curtains. Despite being on the first floor at the front of the hotel, there weren’t ever any noise issues from outside.
To the right of the bed was an armchair with an ottoman and a side table.
On the other side of the room was a desk and office chair. A Keurig coffee maker was on top of the desk.
To the left of the desk was a dresser with a TV on top which was probably the smallest hotel TV we’ve had in years.
Although it was a small-screen TV, there was a good TV channel selection – far better than the simply awful channel selection we’d had at our previous hotel (Hyatt House Colorado Springs).
To the left of the TV and dresser was a good-sized mini fridge and microwave.
Back by the room’s entrance was an open closet with an iron, ironing board and luggage rack.
Bathroom
The room had two sinks. One of them was outside of the bathroom and had a long countertop.
The bathroom itself had a small sink, along with a toilet and a bathtub with shower. From what I can remember, the shower had good water pressure.
Rather than having small toiletry bottles, there were large bottles attached to the wall.
Overall it was a decent room. Although the TV was a little small, it was comfortable, quiet and had enough storage space for all our stuff.
Breakfast
The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Montrose had one of the best breakfast selections we’ve had since COVID started affecting hotel breakfast offerings. In case you’re not familiar with our road trip, we live in hotels and Airbnbs and so we’ve had a lot of breakfasts since March 2020!
Before getting on to the food itself, a great feature of their breakfast is that it’s served from 6am-10am every day. I loved that it was available so late as it meant we didn’t have to be up early in order to get food in the morning.
Breakfast wasn’t self-serve; instead, they had an employee who’d get everything you wanted. Although this sounds like it might make the breakfast process drawn out, there were never long lines for food.
The hotel offered several hot options each morning. Pancakes, oatmeal and biscuits with gravy were available every day, with egg and meat options that rotated each day.
In addition to the hot options, there were cinnamon rolls, yogurts, cereal and more available.
I also want to give a special shoutout to both the ladies who served breakfast every morning. They were always exceedingly friendly, welcoming and helpful.
Amenities
The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Montrose has a massive indoor swimming pool which looked like it would be perfect for doing lengths. Apparently the pool is 60 feet long.
The swimming pool room opened out on to a patio at the front of the hotel which had a whirlpool and lots of outdoor seating.
There’s a fairly small fitness room next to the swimming pool area which has a few pieces of equipment and some weights.
There’s a business center just off the lobby with a couple of computers and a printer.
Next to the front desk was a pantry area with various snacks, drinks, toiletries, medicine, etc.
There are a few things I didn’t get photos of. There’s a guest laundry area with washing machines and dryers, although I don’t remember how much it cost to use those. The hotel has an airport shuttle available from 6am-9pm. There’s also a nice open lobby area with a fireplace and lots of seating areas to hang out or have breakfast.
Pet Policy
The Holiday Inn Express & Suites Montrose is a pet-friendly property. There’s a limit of two pets per room and they charge a pet fee of $20 per night.
Paying $20 per night isn’t too bad if you’re only staying for a night or two, but it meant that our 12 night stay was due to cost us $240 as we had our dog Truffles with us. That’s excessive, but we were willing to take that hit seeing as we were paying for our stay using points and so were saving that way. Thankfully they didn’t end up charging us a pet fee at all which we were grateful for.
The hotel has several grassy areas, including a long stretch of grass at the back of the property next to Safeway. We’d also recommend taking your pup to Montrose Dog Park which was only a couple of miles away. The dog park has separate sections for large and small dogs, a water station and lots of shade.
Service
Service at the hotel was very good. The highlight was the two staff members who worked the breakfast area during our stay, but the front desk staff were always friendly too.
Wi-Fi
After having appalling internet service at our previous hotel, we were relieved that the Holiday Inn Express had very good internet service. This is free for all guests.
Check-In & Check-Out Times
The check-in time at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Montrose is 3pm and check-out is 11am.
Location
The hotel is in a pretty good location. It’s right next to a Safeway, so you can walk over if you want any groceries during your stay. There are other grocery stores, restaurants, breweries, distilleries, etc. within a short drive, along with several parks. On our last night in Montrose we visited Storm King Distilling Co and had a great time – we’d highly recommend checking them out and trying their different spirits.
Montrose was also a fantastic place to stay to visit Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Curecanti National Recreation Area, Telluride (with its free and pet-friendly gondola) and more.
Parking
The hotel offers free parking for all guests. There’s a limited number of spaces at the very front of the property, but there were lots more spaces available a little further back.
Cost
We booked our stay using IHG Rewards points as they were only charging 16,000 points per night. We have the IHG Premier card which offers every 4th night free on award stays, so seeing as we were staying 12 nights we got our 4th, 8th and 12th nights free.
On top of that, we have the old IHG Select card which offers a 10% points rebate on award stays. The 4th night free benefit and 10% points rebate means our net cost was only 10,800 points per night. That was excellent value seeing as it would’ve cost us $159.94 per night including tax. That means we got 1.48cpp (cents per point) of value by using points which is about three times the value you can normally expect to get when using IHG Rewards points.
Final Thoughts
Shae and I enjoyed our stay at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Montrose. Our room was comfortable, it wasn’t a noisy hotel despite being full, they offered a good breakfast, the staff were friendly and they had some good amenities like a huge pool. It was also in a great location for exploring the local area.
While our room wasn’t as large as some of the other types of room available at the hotel, that’s not too surprising seeing as the hotel was full for much of our stay due to a cycling group who were staying there at the same time.
If we return to the area in the future, we’d definitely look at staying at this property again.
Truffles Approval Rating
Truffles gives the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Montrose three paws out of four – pawsome! She liked having some decent grassy areas, although the pet fee of $20 per night could’ve impacted on her ability to get as many treats as she might’ve liked 😉
Our Rating
Room = 4.1 / 5
Hotel Amenities = 4.4 / 5
Food = 4.6 / 5
Location = 4.5 / 5
Service = 4.6 / 5
Overall Value = 4.5 / 5
Total = 4.45
Address
Holiday Inn Express & Suites, 1391 S Townsend Ave, Montrose, CO 81401
[…] entrance of the National Park was only about 20 minutes from the hotel where we were staying (the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Montrose), so it was nice having it so close […]