Holiday Motel

June 13 – 14, 2015 — After talking directly to the hotel front desk prior to traveling to Olney, IL, Myself plus 6 other family members booked rooms to be with family due to a funeral. The Holiday is very run down but more than that, the balcony which all the 2^nd story rooms are on is falling apart as in large areas crumbling, the outdoor carpet on the entire balcony is worn, torn, and filthy. The rooms have bad odors, the non-​smoking rooms smelled like smoke, the carpet needed to be vacuumed, the tubs were dirty as a health hazard. The cigarette smell that was coming into the room during the made me very sick even though this was designated as a non-​smoking room. I did go to the front desk with my concern and was told, the smoke is from others smoking all around our rooms… there is no separation of smoking and nonsmoking even though we all requested nonsmoking rooms.
This could be a very cute hotel, they need to clean up the outside and remodel inside and out. What a disappointment for all of us traveling many miles for a family funeral with very limited places for accommodations.

We came to Olney for my 20 year HS reunion being held at The Holiday. We are from Nashville TN & have both travelled internationally. This is a nice hotel for rural IL. The customer service was a bit slow but very helpful! I got the flu as we were leaving & they allowed me to rest in my room 3 hours past checkout. Very kind! My husband said the Prime Rib lunch was very good; better than breakfast. The indoor pool & hot tub are worth a visit. The room was smoky which I did not like. The Buffett, bar & apps were all very good at the event. The staff was very professional & did a great job. It Was great to see classmates after so many years & the Holiday was a nice place to have the event.

This place is so old that there is no way to rate it any higher than two stars. It was cheap at $ 55 per night but faucet was leaking badly and the painted walls looked like a little kid painted. Furniture, mirrors, lamps all should have been laid to rest along the shoulder of the road for some poor college kid to use for a semester.
Found several hairs in bathroom and two on the pillow and sheets. No way to tell for sure but I bet the sheets were not fresh for my arrival. GROSS.
BOTTOM LINE, I could handle the old building but the low level of cleanliness is unacceptable.

OK… so take this hotel and put it in a major city and it would probably get 1 or 2 stars. It is old and even though it has been or is in the process of being renewed, it would never be my hotel of choice if there were a decent chain hotel around. (Yes, there is a Super 8 near by… but I said a decent hotel chain.) The remodeled rooms are limited by the old layout that was refreshed… but still old. New carpet, newer flat screen (even though very small) TV’s, and fresh paint makes the rooms livable. The thing that bumps it up to 4 stars is the friendly and attentive staff and budget rates and cost. (The 20 oz soft drinks in the Pepsi machine were $ 1.25! The dinner buffet was $ 9.95.) It is the best hotel in town… so worthy of 4 stars even if it is a blast from the past.

I’m not one big on buffets believe or not unless it’s Indian and possibly Chinese but for American cuisine it tends to be a lot of heavy, greasy and not very well prepared food. Not the case with Holiday, though the choices were less then most buffets the food I chooses, fried wings, gee no surprise there, ribs, and ham were all worthy of more then one visit.
Hey you want a good laugh the ‘I hate veggies because they’re so yucky’ guy had a spinach salad, I’ve actually had I think 5 in the past few weeks so a word of caution
emus maybe coming or all else will cease on in December 2012.
But back to reality, surprisingly again I limited my feeling the plate with deserts but one item the lemon things were really, really good, If I wasn’t becoming such a weirdo on eating healthier I would of cleaned them out and taken no pity on other customers.
One item of note too is the wait staff or servers or what ever the PC word is these days were great. There was some Rotary thing going on so there was an army of them but all were friendly and quickly giving you the attention one would want in carting off the bones of the devoured chicken and ribs. One staff/​whatever person who was not a Rotary person but was our original hostess/​server etc was Abby. She had a good sense of humor and was very receiving of taking our being obnoxious in a good hearted way.
The going out the door on Holiday is go when Abby is working and fill-​up on wings, ribs, ham lemon things but don’t forget your spinach! It’s good for you and that comes from a life time I HATE VEGGIES guy

The saga of The Holiday is one of struggle, death, and resurrection. Owned for years as a derelict property by a deadbeat owner, the city was able to work a deal to see its most prominent corner begin to revitalize. Seriously, there is no large gathering location in this region. As one, the Holiday is pretty decent. But enough of history, let’s talk food.
Every Friday is a seafood buffet, and in small town Midwest that means deep fried. Sorry, that’s just the way it is. Seating and dining area are spacious, dated, but still vibrant. So, the place is spacious, but let’s not treat it like the pasture. Put on your good shirt and jeans, and put on a belt just to impress the ladies. OK?
The buffet is modest, but has the local favorites; shrimp of the popcorn variety, fried cod, fried oysters. Bonus points for fried frog legs. It’s been so long since I’ve tasted those pretty things, on a buffet no less!
But, the litmus test of any good buffet in the Midwest is the veggies. They are stereotypically bad at many joints, and nothing drops stars from my reviews faster than crummy beans and broccoli. Holiday did pretty good here. They wisely placed small portions on their buffet service, making the veggies fresh, hot, and frequent. Green beans were exceptionally green and tasty, not making the mistake of slathering them in bacon. Green beans should taste like beans, not like bacon. Very good, Holiday. Mixed veggies were a little limp, but not bad. Some people like them that way. I’m a crisp veggies kinda guy. Greens in addition to romaine for the salad. Bonus point there.
A restaurant can’t lose with fried seafood, but can’t really win either. There are a few things that need improved. First, noseguard is necessary. No exception. Really surprised by this. Second, how about some baked cod? Seasoned properly and served in some steam, I think patrons might like an alternative to frying. Give the fryer a break. Third, soups looked delicious, but the tomato vegetable was GONE. More of the good stuff. Fourth, expand dessert. The premade pie and cookies isn’t going to cut it. People remember a buffet by the dessert. Really. Set up a soft serve machine in the corner, some fudge, chocolate chips and sprinkles and watch the adoration from Richland county grow. Finally, and most importantly, keep improving. There was enough here to keep me coming back, but just once. I’ll need to see a little something more to get me to make the trip back a third time. Thanks Holiday. Best of luck.

First class accomodations and very friendly staff! I couldn’t be happier with The Holiday. The rooms are clean, quiet, and newly rennovated… and the mattresses are EXREMELY comfortable. As for the restraunt, they have the best food and prices in town. You simply can’t beat this place. I find myself making excuses to visit Olney just to sleep and eat at The Holiday!