Holiday Inn Waterbury Hotel

Stayed here from 10/16 - 10/19 (2009) as part of a group of over 900 people. We had most of the hotel's rooms and meeting space rented out, and you'd think the management would appreciate that.

The GM (Chris) could not have been more rude to our group, constantly kicking us out of public areas, and restricting our use of amenities.

The wifi "mysteriously" stopped working on 10/16, and started working just as mysteriously on 10/19. The air conditioning didn't work in a large number of the guest rooms, and we were told they would fix it "on Tuesday" (10/20). When we said we'd be gone by then, we were told "I know." Many rooms were infested with ants. "Clean" towels had stains on them.

On 10/15, the GM shut off the lights in the atrium area at midnight, which is a public area connecting all of the guest rooms to the main lobby. This is ILLEGAL as it is a public access area (like a hallway), and the GM refused to turn the lights on until we threatened to call the fire marshall.

At one point the GM informed our group's head of security, "I don't want your people in my lobby." When it was pointed out that they can't selectively enforce a rule, and they'd have to kick everyone out whether they're with our group or not, the GM said "that's fine."

The staff of the hotel's restaurant was rude, service was exceptionally slow, and they stood around making jokes about us well within earshot.

I should make it clear that out group has gone to this same hotel for the last 2-3 years, and have not had ANY problems or complaints until the hotel changed management from the independently-owned Waterbury Grand Hotel to the new owners, Holiday Inn. Even then, problems were minimal until this year, when the hotel's new GM "Chris" started.

Our group will likely be finding a new hotel, as it's clear the Holiday Inn no longer values our business. Given that we represent at LEAST $75k in revenue for four days' work, I'm not sure why.

We just stayed at this hotel 4/2 and 4/3. The hype, and it IS hype, is that they have the only indoor water park in CT. It's not a very nice waterpark at all. If your kids aren't under 8, don't bother going. My 9 and 12 y/o kids didn't want to stay or go back. When we made reservations by phone, they gave me the AAA rate, and said the water park tickets were included, and could be picked up at check in. The water park tickets were NOT included, and we had to pay $29 per person for Friday, and they it went up to $39 per person for Saturday!! The room rate went up $10 too!! The hot tub was crowded and dirty. Age limits of kids was not enforced, lots of kids without parents in areas they were not supposed to be. The customer service in the hotel is non-existent. They take no responsibility for anything. Spiders were in the lamps. Two of the three vending machines we tried to use were broken. In this economy, this is not a good choice for a vacation, or even a Stay-cation. Don't waste your time or money.

Comments (1)

Deb - 04/04/09
I had to rate this at 1 star, cause it won't accept no stars!!!

This review is for the waterpark. The website for the Waterbury location is misleading, shows photos and videos of rides that are not part of this park! The park is very small and crowded. The water is cold, and we could see lots of kids shivering. There's a door in the back that opens to an outdoor spa, so the back half of the park is full of cold air in winter. The locker rooms are very dirty, broken showers, missing curtains, etc. The spa water was very murky. They need to have a policy about street shoes; it's really dirty to have people tracking in dirt and walking around in the areas where everybody else is barefoot. Overall-- small kids might have a good time but it's not worth the money. Teens and up will probably feel grossed out and there's not much in the way of exciting rides, just 3 tube slides. We were bored after about 90 min.