Holiday Inn Express & Suites South Bend – Notre Dame Univ.

As Justin C. has noted in his review, this property has draconian cancellation policies. Don’t give them your business!!! I have been trying to help my sister get her money back after she had to cancel her reservation for the USC weekend. She was not aware of the current 60 day cancellation policy and I did not see it on their website either (but I did not make an actual reservation). She has medical issues and the hotel’s refusal to refund will cause severe financial hardship. They just don’t care!

Our room is horribly smelly and there is something that was spilled on the wall by the curtains but never cleaned before we arrived. The room isn’t all that nice. The staff was nice enough. Out of all the Holiday Inn Expresses that I have stayed at this is the second worst. We normally stay at Holiday Inn Express and will continue to based on past experience. This hotel, mainly due to the rooms horrible smell, definitely wouldn’t encourage me to come again though.

BEWARE: if you book on a game weekend and your plans change too bad; EVEN WITH FIVE MONTHS ADVANCE NOTICE THEY REFUSED TO CANCEL WITHOUT FULL PAYMENT! I travel extensively for work and have stayed at several Holiday Inns; this hotel has the worst cancellation policy I’ve ever seen. I booked a room with reward points. A couple months later something came up and needed to cancel; I was told that if I cancelled not only would I sacrifice my points but would also be charged an additional $ 300 per night. So, they keep my points, get full rack room rate from me, and have the next five months to find some else to rent the room on a ND game weekend!

Not the cleanest or the best experience. I stay at Holiday Inn Express hotels across the USA and this one is fair at best. The 3^rd floor hallway smelled of smoke. The room was clean, but not spotless. The breakfast was good. Attendee was very attentive to the customers breakfast needs. The parking was adequate. Bad experience with them recommending a horrible taxi and the front desk person was incapable of making a decision. I will follow up with general manager, however she was on vacation for 2 weeks — during one of the busiest weekends of the year — Notre Dame Move In. Based on the GM knowingly vacationing during one of the busiest weekends, I am not impressed with her ability to make a decision. WiFi was alright.

I was greeted by a friendly staff and given several suggestions on food and things to do in the area to kill time. It was my first time in the city so I appreciated that greatly. The room was very clean and nicer then I thought. I used the fitness center and whirlpool and had no issues with those. They have free breakfast every morning and it was wonderful. I was there 3 days and had plenty of choices all 3 days. This was a definite WIN

Nice big rooms and spacious bathroom as well. Very comfortable stay. My biggest complaint is about the guests who stayed in our room before us. It was a nonsmoking room, but as soon as we opened the door, the stench of stale cigarette smoke hit us like a brick wall. Unfortunately, the front desk people said this kind of thing happens all the time. Too bad since that just causes more problems for the front desk people. They did move us to a different room which of course we appreciated and this time it was actually a smoke-​free, smoke-​free room.
The ceiling on the main floor is really cool. The arched ceiling is painted with all kinds of butterflies and other mystical-​like creatures. Very cute. Nice pool and hot tub too.
Pretty good breakfast, but the eggs and sausage looked like leftovers from the previous weekend. Food has a kill time yo!
Oh and the parking lot is kind of messed up. It says parallel parking only every 50 feet or so, but I guess not everyone sees this as there were some parked parallel and some not. It just looked kind of silly and had to get creative at times to park… Anyway, would stay here again as the staff was friendly and the rooms were comfy.

Clean. Nice big rooms. Comfortable. The maid service was not on top of things. I worked in South Bend from 1pm until 9pm three days out of the week. The maid did not clean my room on those days. The days I had to leave before 9am they did but they either left dirty towels on the tub or didn’t leave any towels. The parking isn’t very convenient either. I would stay there again though.