Last weekend was the first time I have gotten away for a night since March of this year. As we all know, the world has been dealing with COVID-19 and this virus as cause a lot of us to stay home and has affected may parts of our lives. Between working all the time since March of this year and staying home most of the time when I am not work, I got a bad case of cabin fever and needed to get out. While most of California is close, Nevada is farther along in their reopening and thought this would be a good weekend to get away. And to make things worse, California is having a bad wildfire season and most of the state is covered in a thick layer of smoke. So, between all of this, and a lot of stress at work, I needed to do something that helps me relax.
So, you may be wondering like most people, why did I choose to go to Carson City. I went their because it is not too long of a drive from where I live, and I knew I could get a hotel on short notice. I have not stayed there in a while and thought this would a good time for me check out a new hotel to me. When I was looking at prices online, the Holiday Inn Express was the least expensive and I thought this would be a good choice for a quick getaway. I had a Chase offer for an IHG hotel stay to get 10% back, wanted to see what the check in was like with COVID-19, wanted to just check out this hotel in general, and wanted to see what the breakfast would like.
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| Holiday Inn Express in Carson City |
One thing I like almost as traveling is figuring out a way to get a good deal on a hotel stay. I knew that when I booked the hotel for this trip, I knew I was going to be booking through Rakuten so that I could so earn 2% cash back on the stay. What made it even better is that on my Chase Sapphire Reserve card, I had a Chase Offer to earn 10% on my stay that would have to over $100. This was going to be ease since I knew the room for the night was going to be more than that. Even without doing the math, getting 3% back in the form of Chase Ultimate Rewards points and getting the 10% cash back on my card was better than getting the 10% earnings on my IHG Rewards Club Premier Master Card. After making my booking online I was set. I just needed to pack and wait for Saturday to drive up to the hotel.
When getting to the hotel, it was quiet there and not many cars in the parking lot. Normally this would make me nervous but because of the need for social distancing, it was good to see that there were not too many people were there. The check in process was about the same. It was very quiet in the lobby. They did have the plexiglass in front of all the check in computers. We were still given plastic room keys for the doors and over all the check in process was still very quick. I could tell that they were very happy to have people staying in the hotel again.
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| The Lobby |
As far as the room itself, it was what you expect from a Holiday Inn Express. The colors of the room were the green, blue, and the dark brown wood color scheme. When opening the room for the first time, everything looked really clean to me. Other than a part of the parking lot, this looked like the hotel was relatively new. It seemed normal until I saw what they had to do for all the COVID-19 compliance. I was kind of disappointed that the pool was closed but could understand why they needed to keep it closed. I did like see a good number of reminders that one would need to have a mask or face coverings when in the public areas of the hotel and reminded people to be socially distancing. I could also see that most of the lounge area closed in the lobby to promote the social distancing.
Breakfast was impacted I feel the most by COVID-19. The area where the hot breakfast normally would be served was closed to the public. During the normal breakfast hours, they had a hotel staff member serving breakfast and recommended that you eat in your room but were welcome to sit in the lobby for breakfast. They had things such as warm breakfast sandwiches, fruit, yogurt, warm water and oatmeal packets, and cinnamon rolls. They also would offer different kinds of juice and a cup of coffee. They had small bags that you could put your order in and take it back to your room with no problem. As far as we knew, there was not limit to the number of trips to get breakfast items, but we only went two times. And the check out when we were ready to leave was also quick.
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| My breakfast in my room. |
Overall, it was a good stay and was nice to get out of town. What I liked about this hotel was that it was very clean and looked like it was kept well expect for small part of the parking lot. It is not too far from the freeway and is easy to find. I also like that in is on the main road through town (Carson Street). Normally when I stay at a place like this, I like to be able to park my truck within view of my room but could do that here. It was ok because I felt my truck was safe where I parked it. It was behind the hotel and had a good size parking lot with other cars in it. I got the feeling that the hotel was doing what it could to comply with the health orders due to COVID-19 and still be true to the Holiday Inn Express brand. I thought they did a great job with still have a good breakfast being served. Having the indoor pool closed due to how contagious the virus is, is totally understandable. If I was ever an event in the Reno or Lake Tahoe area and was willing to drive a little more, this would a hotel I would think about staying here again. It is good to know that this hotel is an option for when I just need to get away for a night. I hope the next I am there; we are done with COVID-19 and I can try out the indoor pool.
Until next time, save travels....
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