The Highlander Hotel Iowa City, an Ascend Collection Hotel

Location and pool

Terrible breakfast. Cold eggs, cold “French” toast. Couldn’t drink the coffee. No bread, potatoes, sausage, or cereal.

The location was great, very out of the way and very little outside noise. The staff was extremely friendly. The breakfast was on par with what was expected for a continental breakfast.

The condition of the room, especially for the price I paid. The room was small, there was no in room fridge, we had to fill up a wastebasket with ice to keep items cold. The in room tv was very small. There were no outlets near the bed to plug in charge cords. The room was on street level with a wall to wall window, but no curtain to draw shut at night to keep the lights from the parking lot out. The floor in the bathroom was chipped and had peeling paint. The shower had rust all around the floor drain, and some weird pink stuff all around the top of the tub. The shower curtain and floor mat were stained and had holes in them. I was thankful that we had 2 beds, because the one had fluid stains all over the top of it, and the pillowcases had mascara and what appeared to be nose mucus left on them from the previous guests. When I booked the room, everything advertised made this hotel seem as if it was geared more towards adults, but there were kids everywhere. The hot tub was full of kids the whole night except for the last hour that the pool was open, not a lot of good an hour does. Same experience with the arcade and game/vinyl areas, we didn't get to experience any of these amenities, which was 95% of the reason we booked the room. Hindsight I should have asked for a refund and found somewhere else to stay. I won't be booking at the Highlander again.

The location is excellent, since most members of our party were arriving on the interstate via car. The meeting and conversation area options are great, allowing for good get togethers.

The breakfast could have used more variety. For example: the keto members of our party couldn't eat the eggs, because they had potatoes in them. (Perhaps separate egg, meat and potato options?)

The decor and style of the hotel were nice. Beds were comfortable. Pool was very spacious.

Where do I begin? We had a poor experience at the restaurant and received cold chicken wings. They kicked us out of the pool for maintenance. The jacuzzi hot tub was closed which was why we booked this hotel. The bar by the pool was closed even though hours posted showed it should be open. Seemed like the place was running low on staff. Breakfast was the worst hotel breakfast we have ever seen. It was described as a buffet style breakfast and yet there were only two options. Egg casserole and yogurt…. Not even cereal or toast were available. Also the coffee was out. When we read about this place online, we were really excited. In the end, we feel like we got way less than we expected.