--- title: Donald Trump Stayed at a Holiday Inn Express and Liked It description: “I actually enjoyed it. It was good, it was clean.” canonical: https://time.com/4192488/donald-trump-holiday-express/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-25T16:08:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:24:43.760Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's What Donald Trump Thought of His Holiday Inn Express og:description: The real estate magnate spent a night in less comfort than usual og:url: https://time.com/4192488/donald-trump-holiday-express/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab7b39b37ef370dc/69887a713c1639a2ff45bb2d/506635720.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Holds Iowa Rally og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What Donald Trump Thought of His Holiday Inn Express twitter:description: The real estate magnate spent a night in less comfort than usual twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab7b39b37ef370dc/69887a713c1639a2ff45bb2d/506635720.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Spends a Night at a Holiday Inn Express > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jan 25, 2016 4:08 PM UTC  Donald Trump, president and chief executive of Trump Organization Inc. and 2016 Republican presidential candidate, right, greets attendees during a campaign rally in Muscatine, Iowa, U.S., on Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016\. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images Donald Trump, president and chief executive of Trump Organization Inc. and 2016 Republican presidential candidate, right, greets attendees during a campaign rally in Muscatine, Iowa, U.S., on Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016\. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jan 25, 2016 4:08 PM UTC While campaigning in Iowa last week, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump [spent the night at a Holiday Inn Express](http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/01/24/donald-trump-did-stay-at-a-holiday-inn-express-on-friday-night/)—a far cry from the luxury suites the hotel magnate’s own digs boast. But according to the [New York _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/01/24/donald-trump-did-stay-at-a-holiday-inn-express-on-friday-night/), which first reported the populist development from the millionaire businessman, he quite liked his stay. “Good mattress, staff was great, good mattress, good everything,” Trump said.“I actually enjoyed it. It was good, it was clean.” He added, “It’s different and it’s certainly not Mar-a-Lago.” A Holiday Inn Express certainly is no [Mar-a-Lago](http://www.maralagoclub.com/) — the luxury Palm Beach club features “ornately carved and hand-painted Moorish ceilings, spectacular ocean views from balconies and verandas and antique Spanish-tiled mosaics.” By contrast the [Sioux Falls Holiday Inn Express](http://www.ihg.com/holidayinnexpress/hotels/us/en/sioux-center/sciia/hoteldetail) offers “free high speed internet, indoor pool and whirlpool, fitness center, and our Express Start hot breakfast bar.” \[[_NYT_](http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/01/24/donald-trump-did-stay-at-a-holiday-inn-express-on-friday-night/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4192488/donald-trump-holiday-express/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4192488/donald-trump-holiday-express/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Spends a Night at a Holiday Inn Express","datePublished":"2016-01-25T16:08:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:24:43.760Z","description":"\"Good mattress, good everything\"","url":"https://time.com/4192488/donald-trump-holiday-express/","keywords":["Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab7b39b37ef370dc/69887a713c1639a2ff45bb2d/506635720.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab7b39b37ef370dc/69887a713c1639a2ff45bb2d/506635720.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Holds Iowa Rally","caption":"Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Holds Iowa Rally","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4192488/donald-trump-holiday-express/","name":"Donald Trump Spends a Night at a Holiday Inn Express"}}]}] ```