Holiday Inn Express Murrieta

★★★★☆

I’ve stayed here several times. It’s nothing fancy, but there’s nothing wrong with it either. Staff is friendly, and the rooms are clean and in good condition. The complementary breakfast is decent, and has better coffee than the coffee pods provided in the rooms. (The coffee and breakfast at Rival Coffee Co., which shares the same parking lot, are better, but of course they’re not free!)

It’s a bit out of the way despite being right next to the freeway (it’s between two exits), but that mostly means if you’re on the side aimed away from the freeway, it’s not particularly noisy unless there’s a football game at the high school across the street. And those don’t run into the middle of the night, unlike the freeway traffic, but at least the nighttime freeway traffic is mostly just the collective “whoosh” of cars actually moving, so it’s easier to tune out than it would be on a busy street with starting and stopping and honking and so forth.

WiFi is free and the room TVs are compatible with Chromecast. There are several car chargers available for EVs, all run by ChargePoint: six type 1 and two each type 1 combo and CHAdeMO (as of early 2024).

One caveat: If you want to sleep, I would recommend against the room on the first floor across from the conference rooms, next to the laundry room and fitness room, with the pool outside. You’ll be kept awake by the “thump, thump, thump” of people using the fitness equipment* late at night, the washers and driers, and any parties that might be going on across the hall or out by the pool.