Crowne Plaza Mall America

The hotel might be fine as an overnight business stay, but the small details and upkeep seem to be missing to make this the 3-star hotel, torn wallpaper in the room, mismatched furniture, empty display frames in the elevators, dated and very worn info folders in the guest room - all minor details that added up to a general impression that hotel hasn't been kept up-to-date.

The staff was pleasent and didn't take long to check in or out.

Was just passing through, got there late in the evening and left early in the morning.

Upon checking in, the receptionist told me, Our check-in time is 3pm. I looked at the clock; it was 2:50pm. She paused for a bit and then said, But I'd let you in anyway, your room is ready. In my mind, I went Are you kidding me? Do you need to tell me that? This is not my first time staying at the hotel! Besides, the parking lot was empty so really, I don't see why I cannot check in before 3pm. Then, she took my ID and credit card and said that she's charging me $90 for incidentals and that will be dropped when I check out. That's bogus. Other hotels I've been to didn't practice this kind of charge! I was a bit turned off but oh well, I was ready to take a nap in my room. The room is OK. Clean. Decent. No cockroaches or anything. We stayed for 3 nights - called housekeeping numerous times to ask for toothpaste we forgot to bring but nobody answered. They also forgot to give us more shampoo/conditioner when they fixed up our room on second day. Called them again - still, no answer. We decided to just use the last few drops of the shampoo and be done with it. Upon checking out, we woke up late and thought it'd be OK to check out late (around 1pm or so). In this economy, and on a Monday, I was sure that this is a request that makes sense - again, my past experiences in other hotels were good, they let us check out at 1pm. I called the front desk and the girl said, You can check out at 1pm but there'll be a $30 charge for that. I was baffled. So of course I refused and hung up. Later at 12pm when I did check out, I called the front desk and it took ages for this process! I think they still use stone-age computers. I also confirmed with him that the $90 charge for incidentals will be dropped - I don't want to see that on my credit card bill! Other than those issues, the hotel is great. Good location - near the airport, near Mall of America, and close to nearby restaurants, stores, etc. read more

Great place. Very well kept up.

Older hotel, comfortable, and was clean. Staff seemed a little disorganized when checking in.

For what we paid for this room, we got our money's worth. But the air conditioning fan was not working properly, the toilet wouldn't flush correctly and actually broke while we were staying there (the middle of the night) and the elevator sounded as if it was going to die with us in it. No breakfast options on a weekend except a pricey buffet. In their defense, once we alerted them to the toilet problem, they fixed it within an hour and we very friendly and apologetic. Lots of airplane noise as well, since it is located close to an airport. read more