Hilton Garden Inn Indianapolis Downtown

Wow! it is hard to believe that the Big Ten Tournament is about to start again; it just seemed like yesterday our downtown Indianapolis hotel was playing host to some of the most notable teams in the Big Ten Conference. This year is extra special as the city of Indianapolis takes center stage in the NCAA Tournament. With the selections and seedings being announced right here in Indianapolis before the Tournament, as well as the Final Four with the Championship game being played at Lucas Oil Stadium downtown, there is sure to be a buzz in and around our city for the next couple months.

With all the action and excitement located just blocks away from the Hilton Garden Inn,  there is an opportunity to be part of March Madness as it transcends into downtown Indianapolis. There are a very limited amount of spaces available for the women’s as well as the men’s Big Ten Tournament, so don’t delay and make your reservations today! We are one of the hotels near Conseco Fieldhouse, at only two blocks which is a very convenient walk to all the action, and near Indianapolis Airport. So when you’re searching for downtown Indianapolis hotel accommodations, and cheer on your team, join us at the Hilton Garden Inn Indianapolis Downtown! Although the Final Four is not available, don’t miss the chance to be a part of this historic year in the Big Ten Conference as well as the NCAA Final Four!

Calling all stylists!  Are you ready for the fashion experience of a lifetime? The Indianapolis Children’s Museum presents Barbie: The Fashion Experience, where you can not only be Barbie’s stylist, or makeup artist, but you can also walk the runway as she would!  Barbie will be on the runway in Indianapolis until February 2011.  The Children’s Museum is less than five minutes away straight up Meridian Street. Also, don’t forget to bring along your friends to meet Barbie!

Our General Manager, Mike Campbell, took his daughters to see Barbie and his son got to see Bob the Builder. As you can see in the picture, the girls look like they're having a great time in front of the wall of Barbies!  While you are visiting, make a weekend of it and stay with us in our newly renovated hotel in downtown Indianapolis.  We offer different family-friendly Indianapolis hotel packages that you can reserve to see our magnificent Indianapolis Zoo, or go shopping in the Circle Centre Mall, which has plenty of stores, a movie theater and great restaurants and is only a block and a half away.

Guess what?  Race season is just around the corner!  There are three races this season: The Indianapolis 500 (The Greatest Spectacle in Racing), the Brickyard 400 (NASCAR) and the Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP.

As a newly renovated hotel in Indianapolis, we are happy to offer rooms and rates during the Indy 500.  Our Indianapolis group travel deals are great for your group if you need ten rooms or more.  The Hilton Garden Inn Indianapolis Downtown is the northmost Hilton hotel in downtown, making it the Hilton hotel nearest the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

For group rates and Indianapolis hotel reservations information, please contact Camille Lauer, Corporate Sales Manager at clauer@fhginc.com or 317.405.5710.

Looking for something for the whole family to do in Indy?  Although this event isn't until September, it's something to plan for!  The 29th O'Reilly Auto Parts 4-Wheel Jamboree Nationals will take place September 17, 18 and 19 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.  It's a fun 4x4 event the entire family can enjoy!  The event includes enthusiasts who come from all over to display their 4x4 trucks and race them the whole weekend.  There's vendors and sponsors there to visit as well.

You should check it out!  Of course, you know I'll recommend you make a weekend out of it and enjoy the rest of what Indy has to offer, which is quite a bit!  There might be a concert at the Murat Centre or a Colts home game at Lucas Oil Stadium.  Being one of the hotels near Indianapolis Speedway, you could take a few hours to tour the Hall of Fame Museum.

If you need Indianapolis hotel reservations while visiting, we have discount hotel rates for the 4-Wheel Jamboree online.  If you visit the event website, you'll find a great hotel deal for our newly renovated Indianapolis hotel!

Now that we are on the other side of the process of making us the most newly renovated hotel in downtown Indy, I can share the green processes we used to lessen the impact to the environment. While we were able to incorporate several practices and introduce several products that were eco friendly, we also ran into several challenges that kept us from implementing everything we wanted to do with regard to this topic. So any suggestions of what we can do moving forward would be greatly appreciated.

Any time you do a renovation you have to balance what you need to do and what you want to do.   Here’s our scorecard:

1.        We were able to donate about 16,000 square feet of carpet and padding to another business.

2.       That which we weren’t able to donate, due to condition or lack of interest, we sent to Kruse Carpet Recycling Center. This amounted to about 51,000 square feet of carpet and padding

3.       We refurbished and reupholstered out common area seating on the second floor landings rather than replace the entire furniture piece as the frame was still in very good shape

4.       We were able to utilize Sherwin Williams Harmony line of zero VOC paint for all accent painting done in the main lobby and in the elevator landings on each floor, and in the restaurant. 

5.       Much of our fabric in our new guestroom and lobby seating was made with 100% recycled fibers.

6.       Any plastic or cardboard packaging that came with the new furniture was recycled this amounted to a tremendous amount of cardboard and the single stream recycling option from Waste Management made this a easy process and they were very helpful in working with us to remove the tremendous amount of cardboard that came with the packaging of our new guestroom chairs, lobby furniture, and restaurant seating. 

7.       We introduced dimmable CFL fluorescent bulbs into our restaurant area, and have experimented with LED lighting solutions in our lobby. To date the LED lighting solution does not deliver on adequate illumination in the lobby and we are told in about 3-4 months a satisfactory LED lighting will be available to replace a 250w flood lamp, which is our primary lighting source for the lobby. We are anxious to seeing this work.

I guess most important of all we were able to demonstrate to our management design company that several low cost/no cost sustainable solutions are available with a project like this and hopefully we can prod other hotels to take some of these same steps.

The Hilton Garden Inn Indianapolis Downtown is the most newly renovated hotel in Indianapolis downtown.  These changes make us one of the best hotels near Indianapolis Convention Center and Lucas Oil Stadium.  As of today all projects are complete. The project required some great coordination by the housekeeping, maintenance, and front desk staffs to ensure that our guest service did not suffer during the renovation. We accomplished this by keeping any work well away from any guests that might be staying in the hotel at the time this work was completed.  The results of the renovation are terrific.  The designer took our comments about ensuring our desire to continue giving great hotel accommodations Indianapolis.

Already we are getting very positive feedback from frequent guests about the enhancements made to the décor as well as our conversion to the GSS bedding system. In addition to replacing the carpeting throughout the entire building, we added a new soft seating chair and ottoman that compliments the existing décor as well as being a comfortable place to watch the big game on our LG flat panel televisions. 

I am by no means a great photographer, and these photos don't do the changes justice.  The most dramatic change is to our lobby and restaurant .   As an important historic hotel of Indianapolis, we had to ensure that the changes were in keeping with the great flavor of the Fletcher Trust Building.  The new colors compliment the historic flavor of the building while adding a new design element . The restaurant design enhancements have opened up the area to a more relaxed atmosphere. Whereas the feel of the restaurant was classic and established, maybe even a little boring before, the new semicircular booths, additional flat panel TVs, and lighting enhancements give the area a trendier atmosphere that is more fun to hang out in.

Let me know what you think, or better yet stop in and see for yourself. 

Celebrate the Big Game Downtown with the Hilton Garden Inn! What better place to be than in the heart of downtown Indianapolis while the Indianapolis Colts face off against the New Orleans Saints! Check out this great Indianapolis hotel deal: Enjoy deluxe accommodations in our newly renovated hotel and breakfast for two for only $99 on Sunday, February 7. If you want to bring a couple more people to share the room, we will include breakfast for four for only $109!

Our Great American Grill and bar will be open for dinner to serve up some tasty food and drinks while you watch the game in the grill or have room service delivered to your guest room. If you want to bring your own food and drinks to your room, all guest rooms include a complimentary microwave and refrigerator.

There’s nothing wrong with a little competition…chat it up with your friends, Tweet scores and update Facebook while watching the game by using our complimentary wired and wireless high-speed internet in your guest room, our lobby or bar and grill!

You can also make a weekend out of it; these special rates are available Friday through Sunday that weekend. The Nuclear Cowboyz freestyle motocross riders will be downtown on Saturday, February 6. Being one of the hotels near Lucas Oil Stadium, you can there in a matter of minutes.

Call us today at 317.955.9700 and ask for “The Big Game” rate! Or go to our website to reserve your room online by entering group code GAME.

See you at the Hilton Garden Inn for the Big Game!! GO COLTS!!

Happy New Year and welcome to 2010!  There's going to be a lot happening this year!  The Colts have home field advantage for the playoffs and face off against the Baltimore Ravens this Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium!  Being one of the hotels near Lucas Oil Stadium, our lobby is decked out with Fatheads, flags, bobble heads and our staff will surely be in Colts attire starting tomorrow!

We are officially one of Indianapolis' newly renovated hotels!  Only a few final touches remain before we're 100% complete.  Our restaurant, the Great American Grill, has been completely redone and has a very chic feel to it.  The guestroom beds, carpet and furniture have been replaced.  Lobby furniture is brand new and, as and Indianapolis meeting hotel, we have updated our meeting space as well!  Check our pictures out on our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter too!

The Hilbert Circle Theatre will be host to some great shows this season.  I'm particularly interested in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's presentation of The Music of Pink Floyd!  Of course being a concert fanatic, I'm very excited to see what other venues will present this year.  We're the closest hotel to Murat Centre, so why not stay with us when you come to your next show?  Don't forget about the Pacers and those performances at Conseco Fieldhouse to which we're one of the the closest hotels.

Big things will be happening in 2010!  Oh...ladies and gentlemen, Valentine's Day is rapidly approaching!  So when you get engaged, be sure to call our wedding hotel when you're looking for a place to host your rehearsal dinner, small ceremony or reception or simply need a discounted hotel room block for your group's travel!

Happy New Year from the Hilton Garden Inn Indianapolis Downtown!

Need a mini get away?  How about coming to an Indianapolis Downtown Hotel like the Hilton Garden Inn.  Book a night and go see an Indiana Pacers game. We are one of the Hotels Near Conseco Fieldhouse, by only being two blocks north you can easily walk there in 5 mins.  If you need any tickets feel free to call the hotel for suggestions. If you need an Indianapolis Group Travel discount, don't hesitate to contact our sales office for a price break.  Being a Newly Renovated Hotel we want to make sure you know about our new Garden Sleep System beds.  They adjust on the side to fit your comfort needs. 
Check out the Pacers' Schedule down below!

The PourHouse, Inc. is a non-profit organization in Indianapolis dedicated to helping the homeless community.  To quote their website: "Our approach is simple and a bit unconventional. We live in true community with those who are homeless. They are a part of our family holidays…we celebrate birthdays, new jobs, sobriety and warm farewells.

We help them with the difficult things of life, but also the simple ones like doing laundry, filling out applications and choosing the perfect shoes for an interview.

We celebrate their joys and triumphs, but most of all, we celebrate who they are as people. Healing and change happen when dignity, a voice, hope, and a name are restored."

The Hilton Garden Inn Indianapolis downtown hotel will begin collecting clothing for The PourHouse on Monday, November 30, 2009.  I will keep a donation box in my office at the hotel.  Clothing and items given to the Front Desk will be transferred to this donation box.  All items donated will be picked up by or walked over to The PourHouse on Monument Circle.

What they need:

• Men's clothing
• Men's Underwear & Socks
• Men's Shoes
• Blankets
• Jackets & Winter Coats
• Coffee, Creamers, Sugar, Cups & Lids

How will YOU help get someone back on their feet this year?  Please help The PourHouse in their efforts to help others.

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra is proud to present the Duke Energy Yuletide Celebration!  A time-honored tradition complete with tap dancing Santas and flying reindeer, these shows are not to be missed.  December 4 is the opening weekend at Hilbert Circle Theatre downtown Indianapolis on Monument Circle, a two minute walk from our historic hotel.

Keeping with our tradition, we are proud to once again partner with the ISO and WFYI to offer two incredible Indianapolis hotel packages!  The first hotel package, Yuletide, Shop & Stay, is valued at almost $400 and includes:

• Hotel accommodations at the Hilton Garden Inn Indianapolis Downtown,
• Two main floor tickets to the Yuletide Celebration,
• One year membership to WFYI, breakfast for two, 
• A $25 Simon Malls Visa Gift Card and
•  A gift bag with shopping coupons and goodies from WFYI!

The second hotel package, Yuletide, Stay & SAVE, is valued at almost $350 and includes:

• Accommodations at our three star hotel downtown Indianapolis,
• Two 2nd mezzanine tickets to the Yuletide Celebration,
• One year membership to WFYI,
• Breakfast for two and
• A special holiday surprise gift!

We have a great cause we need your help with.  Nic Nihiser, a marketing executive at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was hit on his bicycle on Saturday, September 19 while riding home.  Fox 59 Video  As one of the hotels near Indianapolis Speedway, we are supporting Nic on his road to recovery.

Friends and family are holding a spaghetti dinner for him on October 10 from 4-7:30 at Decatur Intermediate School located at 5650 Mann Road Indianapolis.  Donations for spaghetti, paper goods, salad, dressing, Parmesan cheese and help setting up are appreciated.  Donating directly is also appreciated through PayPal by using the email address thefightfornicnihiser@yahoo.com.

Local businesses, friends, family and others are providing and seeking donations to auction off at the dinner.  All proceeds will benefit Nic and his family in his recovery.  You can follow his progress and learn more about how to help on the Facebook page The Fight for Nic Nihiser.  Our Indianapolis hotel will be donating one overnight stay with breakfast for two to be auctioned off at the dinner.

The staff at the Hilton Garden Inn Indianapolis Downtown has the caught the FEVER!  No, not a temperature, but for our Lady Fever.  We want to send out out congratulations for making it to our first WNBA Finals!  The ladies will be taking on the Mercury in game 3 at Conseco Fieldhouse on October 4, 2009. 

Maybe you can "catch the fever" and make it an overnight.   Looking for a hotel deal in Indianapolis?  Look no further.  We offer great Indianapolis hotel packages.  You can't beat out location... one of the closest hotels to Conseco Fieldhouse.   Go to work on Tuesday and let your co-workers be green with envy, that you were able to see the Fever win, and stay at a historic hotel of Indianapolis.  Start by checking into a room with a view of the Monument Circle and before the game have dinner in our American Grill, but don't stop there.  Have a victory drink in our lounge before calling it a night.  We'll see you in the morning for an amazing hot breakfast buffet.  Our staff is second to none and is proud to be one of the star hotels of Downtown Indianapolis. What are you waiting for?

Make your hotel accommodations now and start the celebration!

I received this email today from the Indiana Sports Corp.  Help us bring the FIFA World Cup to the U.S. and to Indy!  This would be HUGE for us and benefit not only downtown Indy hotels, but many Indianapolis area hotels!  Talk about a boost for our economy, restaurants, retail, airport, transporation, etc.  As a former server and bartender, I would salivate over an event like this just for the potential tips!  Ha!  But seriously, what a great event and a great opportunity for the U.S. and Indianapolis to show the world we care about this sport and welcome it to our country and our city.
 

Do You Want to See FIFA World Cup Soccer in Indianapolis? 

Indianapolis was recently selected as one of 27 U.S. cities still being considered as a host city for the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup. The host city selection process will continue over the next few months. It's time for Indiana and Indianapolis to prove how passionate we are about hosting this great event. We're challenging you to help us make Indiana the most-represented state for the USA Bid Committee's online petition. Our bid will be judged on the number of residents who sign this petition to support our bid.

Forward this to soccer fans, sports fans, fans of world-class events in Indiana, your family, friends, co-workers, and all e-mails lists you can. Print this and hang it up in your office, your gym, your school, or anywhere else you can think of. Ask them to support Indianapolis and the United States' bid to host the FIFA World Cup by going to http://www.gousabid.com/page/s/sticker and signing the online petition that you want the FIFA World Cup to come to Indianapolis.

More than 40,000 fans have already shown their love of soccer and patriotic spirit by signing up.

Your support counts! Help us bring the FIFA World Cup to the U.S. and Indianapolis.