Review: InterContinental Saint Paul Riverfront
Recently I visited some friends in the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, I had a great time and was able to visit the state fair for the first time. It was a feast of fried foods and interesting sights. One of the most interesting being the butter sculpture of winners around the state.
While I was there, I needed an overnight stay before heading back home and decided to try the InterContinental Saint Paul Riverfront.
Booking
I booked my stay with my IHG credit card, which comes with a free night every year on the anniversary of the card. I have my card anniversary coming up soon, which means that the night would expire.
InterContinental hotels have always been one of the best parts of the IHG brands, along with Kimpton that was acquired not too long ago.
Location
The InterContinental Saint Paul Riverfront is located in the south part of downtown, just a few blocks away from the Xcel Energy Center and a decent walk away from CHS Field.
It's also in a beautiful part of downtown with easy access to some walking trails along the water front. For a warm summer day when I visited, it was the perfect visit and walk.
Check-in
The lobby area is open and spacious, with a decent sized check-in desk to your left as you enter and an area off to your right for lounging and hanging out while waiting for others or just to relax in the lobby area. Around the corner, it leads out to the conference center and other facilities.
All the spaces felt very modern and well cleaned and put together.
The Room
You can tell that the building is older just due to the small, narrow hallways and entrances to the room with narrow entranceways. Those small walkways into the bedroom open up to a larger living area, and the room that was given to me was a king corner room with views of the river and downtown.
When you enter the room, you have a small closet on your right and a large modern bathroom on the left. The walk-in shower was nice and large, and I appreciate they put the water controls away from the shower head, so I wouldn't get blasted with cold water trying to turn it on.
The main part of the bedroom had a decent sized TV, if not just a little under sized for the room. Along with the TV, there was a lounge chair, place for your luggage, and a desk area to work.
It feels much like the hotel rooms that I've stayed at in downtown New York City. The older buildings had smaller rooms with low ceilings, however they make the most of the room they have with well-placed furniture.
The large king-sized bed was very comfortable and after a long day of walking around the Minnesota State Fair I was tired and fell asleep quickly. If I had to find one thing wrong with the room, I would like to point out the bedside clock. It was very bright during the nighttime and cast a glow around the room.
The room was on the 21st floor of 22 floors, meaning you got a nice view all around the Saint Paul area, and this corner room, while pointed directly out to the city, still allowed for some good river views.
Food
The hotel has an onsite restaurant called Citizen, while I didn't get a chance to visit it thanks to eating all that fried food at the state fair. I got the chance to glance at the menu and see some dishes. All looked great, and food quality and presentation looked well enough to pass for a good place to eat.
There also looked to be a private room that could seat a little over a dozen people for private events.
Service
Overall, the front desk workers were lovely and got me checked in quick. I did have a run in with a persistent maintenance man. I got a repeated knock on my door at 8PM, even with the Do Not Disturb sign being on my door, with the maintenance man being told that there was some work needing to be done on a room on my floor, but he didn't get the right room. So instead, he was just knocking on everyone's doors to find the right person that called for the maintenance man.
Probably not the right way I would have handled that, but it seemed he found the right room, a few doors down from my room. So I at least appreciate them having maintenance on standby even late in the evening if anything breaks.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I had quite the good stay. Of all the IHG brands, I mostly stay at InterContinental or Kimpton, and this time did not disappoint. For the budget brand, it always feels nice an upscale and on par with Marriott or Hilton named properties.
For the twin cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, I would probably prefer the MSP airport InterContinental, but for a nice downtown experience, it was perfect.
