The hotel block reservation is official. For those that have attended the STAR workshop at Rice last year, nothing really changed in terms of the location of the hotel. It's in the Medical Center and very close to the Rice campus.
What did change is the name of the hotel: it changed ownership and is now called the Wyndham Houston Hotel instead of Holiday Inn. And, while the month of November should bring pleasant weather allowing the for a ~15-20' walk, courtesy shuttles still run between the hotel and the Rice campus.