We stayed here for three nights (11/23-11/26) while visiting family in the area for the Thanksgiving holiday. First the negative: I reserved a suite with two double beds for my husband, me and our two children. I was pleased by the Trip Advisor rankings and the fact that they had a two room suite (which allows for flexibility of putting kids to bed earlier without having to tip toe around a single room while they sleep). I cancelled my reservations at a much fancier hotel in the City Center area because I wanted a suite (this was hard because I like luxury hotels).

My husband checked us in and when we got to the room, I saw that we had a king sized bed instead of two double beds. The reception staff had for some reason changed our room (the room number was crossed out and changed on our check-in envelope from room 109 to room 202). My husband said that the receptionist told him that the sofa was a double pull-out bed, so the kids could sleep in that bed. No problem we figured (we actually love sleeping in a king). Hours later when we were getting kids ready for bed we discovered that the sofa (which was a short sofa) was not a pull out bed!

I called the front desk and they sent up a cot. Also I received a text alert from my bank citing the hotel charge and noticed it was higher than my reservation price quote. I called the front desk to tell them that I didn't think I should pay a higher rate for a king bed room when I initially reserved (and preferred) a room with two double beds. She changed the charges on the spot to an even lower rate than my reservation.

The room was spotless clean and the king bed was so comfortable. They were a tad stingy on blankets though. The cot was not one of those thin ones, but a nice comfortable twin bed that folded easily enough to get out of the way. Still, the change of room type did cause some inconvenience as my daughter ended up sleeping on the sofa (not as comfortable as a bed). Luckily she spent two of the three nights sleeping at her cousins' house anyway (otherwise I would have insisted on a room change).

As for the rest of the stay, I can't say enough nice things for the friendliness of absolutely every employee there. The restaurant staff, the cleaning staff the receptionists as well as the maintenance staff were always outgoing with smiles and greetings every time we stepped foot into the lobby or passed them by on the hallway floors. Another bonus was the free hot cocoa and latte machine in the lobby. This was a huge hit when we had the cousins come to the hotel to swim in the pool---they had hot cocoa and came up to the room to watch a Christmas movie.

I will definitely be staying at this Holiday Inn when we go back to Newport News for future family visits. This time, though, I will insist on getting the right room from the start. Since everything else was so outstanding I'm assuming the mix-up was an anomaly.