I had seen the "new hot bar in town" commercials for Holiday Inn Express hot breakfast bars and thought they were clever, so when I needed a place to stay for a friends wedding, I checked out this hotel. The rates were MORE than reasonable and the location to the wedding couldn't get any better. And more than anything, I was excited about some free hot breakfast! So when my friends and I arrived at the hotel to find cookies at the front desk, a clean (not smelly) and very nicely kept room, a pool and a spa and good TV channels we were plenty happy.

Then I sat on the bed and it was the most comfortable bed I've ever sat on. I was trying to think up a scheme to get that mattress out of there and back down the coast to Anaheim for my room! The pillows were labled firm and soft and were excellent. The shower was amazing. I just needed to rinse off after the wedding rehersal, maybe a 5 minute shower tops, but about 2 minutes in, I noticed how soft my skin was thanks to the filtered water from the rain-style shower head and how amazingly yummy the provided shampoo and conditioner smelled! 5 minutes quickly turned into 20 and my roommates quickly followed suit. I slept like a dream both nights, there was no noise from outside or above.

The breakfast was delicious, not gourmet by any means, but about what I would have spent $15 on at Denny's. Eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy, bagles and cream cheese, all kinds of toast and jellies, cereal, yogurt, hard boiled eggs, fresh fruit and FAT FREE milk in cartons! I only drink FF Milk and I've never seen it in cartons before so I was just thrilled that it was here. There was also oatmeal, hot chocolate and coffee of course. The front desk staff was so kind and very accomodating. The housekeeping crew did a wonderful job keeping everything clean and the only smell that ever took me aback was an overabundance of Pledge or Pine-Sol in the elevator one morning, which had disipated by the time I was done with breakfast about half an hour later.

One of the girls in our group was asked to stay with the bride the night before her wedding down the street at the Days Inn and I had to run over the usher's ties that were accidentally left in our bag. The girl who had started out in our hotel met me and told me how sad she was to stay in the Days Inn, which was pretty yucky in comparison to ours! I went in and checked out the dingy room and was glad to be where I was at the Holiday Inn Express. It's great location and I am hopeful to be able to stay there again when I get a chance to head back up to SLO! I highly recommend staying here, room 224 if you get a chance!