Travis Boots

Review of Omni Severin - Indianapolis

Pros: The Wine Thief Bar--excellent selection of b...

Pros: The Wine Thief Bar--excellent selection of bourbon and scotch. Incredibly friendly and knowledgeable bar tender.

Downtown and near everything. A lot of easily accessible restaurants and shopping.

It's pretty.

Cons: Basically everything else.

I booked through the "name your price" option on Price Line so I got a decent deal, but that was all. After booking the hotel I called the 800-number to find out about my room and was told I was in a 2-double room. Asked if it could be switched to a king room and was told to contact the hotel directly for something like that. Called the hotel directly and was told that moving to a king was no problem and it was taken care of. Get to our room: 2-doubles. I contact the front desk to be told "it was put in as a request, not a room change," and they're booked full on king rooms. Explain what I was told, they don't even make any comp offers. Just "Sorry."

The room itself, while large, was pretty underwhelming. The layout was incredibly weird with a lot of wasted space. There was 6x10 area between the desk and beds that was just empty for no reason. Could have had a couch there, but it was just empty. Our windows gave us an incredible view of the roof of the mezzanine and front facade. On the upside, had we been so inclined we could have wandered around on that bit of roof because the windows tilted in. They couldn't be raised more than two inches, but they completely tilted in.

The bathroom was okay and offered the same amenities that you'll find at virtually every hotel. The only item of note would be the "throne," and that's only because it was what you would expect to find in your local McDonald's, not a 4-star hotel.

Parking at the hotel was expensive, and I was hit with an additional $5 a night because they had an "oversize" fee (I drive an extended cab pickup truck). I didn't think much of it because I know that getting a truck into a parking garage can be a PITA. They told us at drop off that on Sunday mornings they would need about 15 minutes of warning to get our vehicle because they are generally busy--no biggie. At the 20 minute mark I begin to get antsy because I have seen the valet I showed my ticket just wandering around. Then I look across the drop off area and see my truck parked among some of his brethren, not running, and obviously cold. My truck hadn't even been put in the parking garage. It had been left outside the entire time. They failed to mention that "oversize" meant "not going in the garage." After a few minutes of incredulous staring at the valet I finally walked back outside and asked the valet for my keys. He checked his hip, realized he didn't even have them and had to retrieve them. Didn't even offer to help us load.

Final Thoughts: If you want to get downtown on the cheap, use Priceline and roll the dice. If you're not scared of spending the cash, spend it at another hotel.