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Story City · Hotel shortlist

The best hotels downtown in Story City

Luca Ferreira

Luca Ferreira Spain and Portugal

Updated 1 September 2026 · 48 Story City hotels assessed

These are my five favourites in Story City, out of the 48 that qualified. I read what other travellers scored them before I picked, so the order follows the guests, 4.996307 down to 4.930903.

Fun Family Place with Extras and Space is the one I would book myself.

Fun Family Place with Extras and Space

Highest rated of the five

Fun Family Place with Extras and Space

★★★★★4.996307 from 241 reviews

Fun Family Place with Extras and Space comes out on top of this list, and not narrowly: 4.996307 from 241 guest reviews is a score that holds up at that volume, which is the whole test here. A perfect ten from nine people does not beat it.

It is found under city centre.

48 hotels in Story City qualified for this list and five made it. Four Bedroom townhouse near ISU is the one I would book if the first is full.

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All five, ranked

  1. Fun Family Place with Extras and Space1

    Fun Family Place with Extras and Space

    ★★★★★4.996307 from 241 reviews

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    • Four Bedroom townhouse near ISU2

      Four Bedroom townhouse near ISU

      ★★★★★4.930903 from 155 reviews

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      • Cy’s Nest- Walk to Jack Trice & Hilton3

        Cy’s Nest- Walk to Jack Trice & Hilton

        ★★★★★4.9812903 from 93 reviews

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        • Large 4 bedroom in West Ames, Solar, EV charging4

          Large 4 bedroom in West Ames, Solar, EV charging

          ★★★★★5 from 84 reviews

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          • Campus Downtown - Near Starbucks - Netflix - 2Br /1Ba5

            Campus Downtown - Near Starbucks - Netflix - 2Br /1Ba

            ★★★★★5 from 79 reviews

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            How this list was put together

            48 Story City hotels qualify for this list. We ranked them on guest rating, then on class, and took the top five.

            Two things decide these lists. The first is my own time in the city: every hotel on this page is one I have stayed in, walked into and looked at, or gone back to check. That is where the shortlist starts, and it is why some well reviewed places are not on it.

            The second is the numbers, and those are what set the order. The rating and review count come from the big travel sites, pooled through Google, so a score here reflects Expedia, Booking, Hotels.com and the rest together rather than any one of them. I also read the review breakdown by topic, which is where the figures on service, breakfast and location come from. Hotels with fewer than forty reviews are left out altogether, because a rating that thin is not a rating. No more than two come from one neighbourhood.

            What I do not do is move anyone up the order. The ranking is the guest score, highest first, and nobody pays to be on the list.

            Distances are straight lines from published coordinates, so the real walk is a little longer. Amenities are as recorded by Google Hotels and can change without notice. Rates are an indicative nightly figure for a midweek autumn stay, not a quote. Check the booking page before you commit.

            Luca Ferreira

            Luca Ferreira Spain and Portugal

            Shuts the workshop two weeks every summer and rides. The Pyrenees, the Danube route and most of Portugal on frames he built himself, camping most nights.

            Trip Grapevine earns a commission on bookings made through the links on this page. It costs you nothing, and it does not change the order of the list, which is set by the measurements above.