Got an amazing deal on hotwire for $49 so I was not expecting much when I arrived. The location is a little far from downtown but within walking distance. Lots of places to eat around and plenty of museums, including one across the street. Check-in was easy and I requested a king room, which was given to me. Marielle, the clerk, explained the free internet procedure as well as the complimentary breakfast.
Upon exiting the elevator, I noticed a strange smell (the reason for the average score in cleanliness but the only example) in which I found a couple of employees drying the hall carpet on the second floor. Luckily, I was the last room down the hall and the odor was not present in my room. Average king size room with comfy big chair/ottoman, desk, micro and fridge. The bed was nice, soft and the sheeting looked new.
The best thing about this room was the bathroom. HUGE! Probably larger than my guest bathroom at home. Something you would see in a resort, not a hotel. Great products, including bath gel with the hint of cinnamon.
Since it has been awhile since I have stayed at HI Express, I did notice that their scrambled eggs are much better. No longer do you need to salt and pepper them, they taste great. The bacon was crisp, the coffee was fresh and of course the cinnamon rolls were fantastic.
I did use the workout room, which at first looks small, but with the size of the hotel, it is not. I used the eliptical machine which ran well. The gym also included 2 treadmills and a sitting bike. I feel management might want to include a couple of free weights, and a sit up mat to make it better.
With the other comments, yes the location is not ideal. I did feel safe walking around but I would not suggest to at 2am, or any other part of this city either.

I was horrified to read poor review about this hotel. But I paid $52 per night using Hotwire and I thought the hotel was great. Complementary breakfast and newspaper were unheard of among my colleagues who stayed at Hyatt near by. They were envious. I traveled alone but they gave me a large room with a spacious bathroom. I'm not a fussy traveler and I was pretty busy with my conference obligation during the day, and I didn't drive. They maintained my room clean everyday and staff was friendly. Although I have to agree with some reviewers about the need for updating their furnishing. I thought I time traveled to the mid 80s. But $52 per night?! I have no regrets.

Got this on Priceline, which will teach me to never bid 2.5* downtown Sacramento again. Unpleasant chemical smell (to cover up cigarette smoke?) in the hallway and my room on second floor. During my stay, someone knocked on my door. Before I could get up from my chair to answer they unlocked the door and attempted to enter. Fortunately I had the mechanical lever engaged and they could not get in. Totally unacceptable. Entire property surrounded by fence which makes you wonder about personal safety. Yuk. Stay away. You can do much better.

In all my years of travel I have never once written a review on a hotel. However I am so disgusted by how I was treated at this place that I feel I MUST write this.

First of all, they state that they have complimentary parking. Yeah Sure!! It’s only free if you’re lucky enough to find a spot. Otherwise just go fend for yourself in the seedy neighborhood surrounding it. I came back my first night from a pre wedding event and drove around for a good 15 minutes, even in the near by other motel’s parking lot. However after hoping desperately to find a spot I found nothing at all. I felt so uncomfortable having to park far off in some random area (which I wasn’t event sure was a proper spot) and the entire night I was so worried my car was going to get towed by the time I woke up. Had there been some alternative paid parking I would have gladly done that for peace of mind, however there was none available.

I called down to the front desk and complained about this and was told not to worry about it. I told them that I didn’t want to stay anymore because I couldn’t keep doing this for the next few nights! I was going to be attending wedding festivities and I wanted to feel comfortable that I would be able to find some sort of parking upon my return. The guy at the front desk told me that Holiday Inn Express had a policy where I could cancel the remainder of my stay and get a full refund on the remaining days. I said great, this is exactly what I want to do.

The next morning I called down and asked the front desk numerous times if I could still do this. I told them I did not want to stay any longer and wanted to cancel my reservation completely. I was assured many times that this was fine as long as I left by a reasonable time.

At around noon I called down again to say that I was leaving early, and asked whether I should I come down to the main lobby to check out. I was told again that this was fine! Again I told then that I wanted to cancel my remaining 2 days completely and not get charged anything extra than the one night that I stayed. Again I was assured that was fine. Since I have never had a problem checking out over the phone before, I believed what I was told and left the hotel for another place where I had a much more comfortable stay.
Unfortunately the hotel did not stay true to their word and charged me anyway for the extra two days. When I tried repeatedly to get my money back ($200), they refused to do so. Jason Duemmell, the General Manager was extremely rude and kept saying that no one remembered saying that it was OK for me to leave early and that I should have come down to check out properly in person. He also said that initially since I had told them that a friend would be joining me the following day they took that as me not cancelling completely (even though I said 100 times I wanted to cancel completely). And then finally he said “oh you took too long to tell us.” So basically, which excuse is it? It hadn’t even been a month! And I told him I been moving and therefore unable to check my account, so was this all my fault? Am I supposed to check my credit card statements immediately every time I stay at a hotel or else pay up for nights I did not even stay!?

I don’t understand how difficult it is to comprehend a customer saying “please cancel my reservations completely! I do not want to stay here, nor do I want to get charged anything extra”. And had they told me when I asked to come down I would gladly have done so! I would never just walk out of a hotel early and not make sure I was checked out properly! Clearly if their staff that gave me the wrong advice they are not going to admit it, and as a result I the customer must suffer the consequence. I have always been so careful when it comes to these things, and now unfortunately it has gotten to the point where a hotel like this can completely deny any wrong doing on their part and instead blame their customer.
All I wanted was to have my money refunded as I had been assured numerous times that I would be fine. However they have completely shattered my trust. Furthermore, their corporate headquarters refused to do anything when I contacted them. All they would do is forward my complaint to Mr. Jason Duemmell, when clearly he was anything but helpful in my situation.

Anyway, even despite me wasting a total of $300 on this hotel I would still not recommend this dump of a Holiday Inn Express, especially if you plan to have a car while staying here. You will be so frustrated with their parking situation (which they told me I should have expected at such a location). Well you know what, I later stayed somewhere else for the remaining few nights and I was perfectly fine with their parking. And if it’s expected that there may not be parking, DON’T SAY YOU PROVIDE FREE PARKING!!

This hotel and their manager are so full of excuses, one after another! I have never had such a horrible experience at any other hotel, however after this experience I don’t feel I will ever be comfortable staying at such a place. Horrible horrible horrible experience!