Hotels in Indy?

July 26, 2006 12:18 PM

Indianapolitans: Headed to GenCon (held at the Indiana Convention Center) and am trying to determine which lodgings are most or least sketchy?

I'm looking at the Quality Inn & Suites ($77/night), the Jameson Inn ($79), America's Best Inn ($73), the Travelodge Airport ($58), the South Travelodge ($65), Best Value Inn ($70), Knights Inn ($80), Days Inn Airport ($80), Super 8 Emerson ($55), the Budget Inn East ($59) -- I'm basically running through what's listed on Expedia that's under $90 and still listing available rooms. The important factors are basically that it be someplace we can get a restful night's sleep. (There are three of us, so it should be someplace amenable to a two doubles + cot scenario, but I don't expect you to know that.) We would like to be able to walk to the convention from the hotel, so knowing whether a particular place is or isn't on a four-mile-or-less route that we would want to walk after dark is important. Other amenities are less important, although continental breakfast and free wifi would get bumped.

Basically, I want to know whether the Jameson is particularly nice, or the Super 8 is particular clean, or the Days Inn is particularly terrible, or whatever.

posted by blueshammer to travel & transportation (10 comments total)

I'll be at Gen-Con as well, but My rooms are booked with the artist I am assisting.

Dude(et), I know this is not the advice you are looking for, but if you can find a room book it TODAY. I would love to see a follow up on if you did actually get a room.
posted by BeerGrin at 12:40 PM on July 26, 2006

The Indianapolis Airport is nowhere near the Convention Center--so do not stay in any hotel with 'Airport' in the title.

There is a Days Inn on East Washington Street and it is easily a 10 minute walk from the Convention Center. There are two Marriot Courtyards downtown--one next to the Capitol (which is next to the Convention Center) and one on West Washington Street.
posted by gsh at 12:47 PM on July 26, 2006

The thing about living in the Indianapolis area is that I don't stay in hotels in Indianapolis, so I can't comment on the quality of the particular hotels here. I can say that I've been disappointed in America's Best and Knight's Inns in other cities and probably wouldn't stay there again. I've had mixed experiences with Travelodge.

Sadly, none of the ones you list in your question are within walking distance of downtown, even given a generous 4-mile radius. (Although I couldn't find a Best Value Inn--their own website doesn't list one in Indy.)

If you're looking for a reasonably priced hotel and are willing to accept that you won't be able to walk, I recommend Microtel. Again, I haven't stayed at the one in Indianapolis, but I've always been pleased when I've stayed there in other cities, and tend to seek them out when I travel. Clean rooms (although rather on the small side, but who cares?), free wifi and continental breakfast. Most of the ones I've stayed at also have what I call "real cable" (~50 channels), not "hotel cable" (~15 channels).
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 12:53 PM on July 26, 2006 [1 favorite]

what gsh said. the convention center is downtown, the airport is way the fuck out in strip-mall hell.

honestly, if you're going to be within walking distance of the convention center, you're looking at more than 90/night. especially when there's an event on.

when i lived in indy, i always wished i didn't so that i could stay at the crowne plaza. it's part of the old train station that they refitted into a luxury hotel; something about the juxtaposition of the plush hotel stuff with the bare steel and rivets really appeals to me for some reason. if it was me i'd splurge out on that.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 12:57 PM on July 26, 2006

I would be very surprised if any of those hotels weren't out by the airport / the prison / the power plant and an Applebee's. Days Inns in my experience are almost always nasty and creepy.
posted by crabintheocean at 1:06 PM on July 26, 2006

I put in the convention center address into Expedia, and those were the hotels that it spit out, nearest to furthest, many within a four-mi. radius. I wondered how they could all be so close, and thought perhaps I had misestimated where the convention center was, but I see now that Expedia is simply wrong.
posted by blueshammer at 1:08 PM on July 26, 2006

Dev, I always pick Microtel as well when presented with a field like this, and it looks like that's the best option here. Twelve miles away is not ideal, but I'm sure I can score some cheap gravel-lot parking near the center.

Sarge, if I was going with, say, my wife instead of two other guys who expect to be out until the weeish hours trying to hawk their wares, I would probably pick the train station hotel as well.
posted by blueshammer at 1:45 PM on July 26, 2006

When I got screwed over by a "buddy" for our hotel room at GenCon year before last, me and my actual friend wound up out at one of the airport hotels. I want to say that it was the Travelodge, but I won't swear to it. What can I say about it? Not much really, it's a transit hotel. Free breakfast, and they also offered lunch and dinner. The drive down to the convention center was only about 15 minutes, and parking was plentiful and cheap. I use the lot attached to the Pacers arena. It's further away, but it's *always* open, has spaces, and is dead easy to find because of it's size. None of that "Which direction is the lot again?"

The biggest downside was that we weren't close by and so whenever we went back to the room, we were inclined to stay there. We missed all the late night parties and such, but maybe we weren't sufficiently motivated... Whatever the reason, I have decided that I will not try another GenCon until I know I can stay within easy walking distance. Since I can't afford any of the hotels currently, you won't be seeing me there. Sadly...
posted by schwap23 at 4:42 PM on July 26, 2006

I too strongly discourage the Days Inn. Never had anything but bad experiences at them.

If you have a AAA card (and thus can get the $90/night room rate), stay at the Hawthorne Suites in Indy. They are FABULOUS. We stayed at one in Columbus, Ohio, and got 2 full-size beds, a mini-kitchen complete with pots & pans and dishes and a stove and fridge, bathroom, and tiny living-room area with a desk and a TV/VCR (there was another TV in the bedroom too!) and of course, free high-speed Internet.
posted by IndigoRain at 12:32 AM on July 27, 2006

[Off-topic] - when did GenCon move to Indy? I used to go when it was at UW-parkside and then moved to Milwaukee. Now Indy? WTF?
posted by nightwood at 6:04 AM on July 27, 2006