We have not stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in a while. For the record, we have been staying at Marriot Hotels over the last couple of years due to IHG Hotels seem to be a little run down.
But we chose to stay here because our other family members were all staying here while in town to see our nephew play football at Augustana University.
First thing I would like to say the lady who checked us in was great, very friendly and even though they were having some computer issues she apologized for it a couple of times because it was slow. Really no big deal to me.
The breakfast was fabulous and the ladies taking care of the area were friendly and very nice. The food was great and more than we expected. Everything was well done in this area.
The few basic negatives I have about this location are first it is a bit run down and needs a little freshening up. They do not even have a USB plug in's anywhere in the room. The pool was nice but we were warned twice that we were not allowed any drinks in the pool area. Really kind of silly, we wanted to sit in the hot tub and having a bottle of water is really a necessity when doing this but ok whatever.
My biggest issue with this stay happened when my wife went and used the workout area. It was very nice and clean. After working out she went back to our room and the key would not work. So she went to the front desk and the gentleman working scolded her about having it next to her cell phone. First of all, she was not carrying a cell phone second and this is the kicker after the key not working again she goes down to the front desk and the guys says and I quote, Oh yeah we had a mix-up and when I was checking another couple in I checked them into your room. Don't worry though when they opened your door they saw it was occupied (we were not in the room) they shut the door and came back down to the desk. Although I am sure this is true about the couple there was no apology or anything he said don't worry we are going to credit your husband's account an extra 500 bonus points. Of course, my wife went back to the room and finally got in she checked everything in the room because our laptop was sitting out and her purse was on the desk. Luckily nothing was taken.
The best part of all of this was I went down to the desk to get my key reactivated and the gentleman played it off like that never happened. Even scolded me for having my key close to my cell phone. Again not carrying a cell phone. The kicker was when I explained what room I was in there was no apology and he said I quote, Your key should have still worked. Really you overwrote our keys when you checked someone else into our room.
Bottom line just another reason why we have been staying at Marriott locations and not with IHG locations when we travel.
