Hotel Indigo Atlanta: Atlanta's Low-Cost Boutique Hotel

The Hotel Indigo Atlanta is located in the Midtown area of the city on Peachtree Street, Atlanta's most famous thoroughfare, near its intersection with Ponce de Leon Avenue, its second most famous. The hotel is accessible from the Interstate 75/85 Downtown Connector. MARTA, Atlanta's public transit system, has a train station about four blocks away. Several bus lines serve the area as well. The hotel is directly across the street from the Fox Theatre, Atlanta's best-known performance venue, and it is within minutes of many of the city's other artistic and entertainment venues, including the High Museum of Art (part of the Woodruff Arts Center), the Ferst Center for the Arts, Philips Arena, the Georgia Dome, Turner Field and the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

Hotel Indigo is a new hotel concept - Atlanta was the first location - that aims to bring luxury and upscale amenities to guests at a bargain price. The hotel features wood floors, glassed-in showers and seasonally changing artwork, design options usually only found in very expensive "boutique'' hotels. Owned by the InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG), the Hotel Indigo "fills a critical gap ... by addressing middle-market consumers who are trading up to higher levels of quality and taste, but still seeking value,'' says IHG's Americas President Steve Porter. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the company has "likened the concept to Target's lines of housewares and clothing designed by Michael Graves and Isaac Mizrahi.''

The hotel's 140 rooms are small but bright and airy, with playful colors. Amenities are standard but comfortable, with plush bedding, Aveda bath products and teak benches in the showers. Every room has complementary high-speed, wired Internet access. Wireless access is only available in the hotel's common areas. The bathrooms, according to the New York Times, are "tiny and cramped, [but] do their best to live up to high-style standards. ... Still, they are not designed for luxuriating.'' The hotel has a small but adequate fitness center but no pool. The one restaurant, The Golden Bean, serves breakfast and dinner, and light fare is available for room service. The Indigo is also known for its dog-friendliness, including a "dog happy hour.''

The hotel has two boardroom-sized meeting rooms available that come with basic audio/visual equipment. Onsite catering is available for breakfast and dinner from the hotel's restaurant. A business center with wireless Internet access and printers is available 24 hours a day for business travelers. The Indigo also touts itself as a wedding location, based on the 1920s elegance of the building combined with the stylish playfulness of the design. Wedding packages are available from the hotel.

Reviewers of the Hotel Indigo on travel websites are mostly enthusiastic about the hotel, with a couple of glaring exceptions. Most people were pleased with the value they received. Many guests who stay there are attending an event at the Fox, and they love the proximity to the theater as well as other Midtown Atlanta locations. Dog lovers are thrilled with the pet-friendly policies. The stylish, colorful d,cor is also a hit among travelers. For those who do not love dogs, however, the animals can be a shock. One guest called the hotel a "kennel'' that cared more for its "furry guests'' than for its humans. The other major complaint is the size of the bathrooms, which were not able to be redesigned from the original plumbing of the building. One person said, "I had ... hoped that people were exaggerating the smallness of the bathroom, but no ... it is miniscule.'' Overall, the Hotel Indigo seems to be a welcome, attractively priced addition to the Atlanta hotel scene.