Hotel Indigo Jacksonville-Deerwood Park by IHG — Attraction in Jacksonville

We have stayed in a few Indigo properties and have always been 100% pleased - until this one. The property is lovely, well maintained, clean. The room was the same. Comfortable, well appointed. The location is super with walkable restaurants, shops and walking trails by the water. (Just be aware of the "private, no trespassing sign as you leave under the arch right behind the hotel. Do not enter and try to go walk over the bridge). And no property can be blamed for the loud, rude people who walked the halls, slammed the doors and literally whooped it up until after midnight last night.

Our issue was this: we were to check in Friday evening and stay for three nights. Our flight was delayed so we called the at 7:35pm to say we would be late. No one answered. At 9:15pm our flight was cancelled altogether. Once again, we called the property. The phone rang over 300 times and no one answered. (Yes, I counted.) We then called the main Indigo number and spoke with Shamoya, who stayed on the phone with us for OVER thirty minutes, trying to get in touch with the property and help straighten things out before we got there. She assured us she would make a note on the computer, that we would not be charged for that night and we still had our Sat/Sun night reservation. She was thorough, patient, polite.

Fast forward to the next day. We finally got to Jacksonville and when we arrived at the hotel we were told (with a screwy face) we didn't have a reservation, she saw no notes in her computer and when I told her about Shamoya she said "Who?!" She then proceeded to tell us we "should have called the property directly" and that SHE "was there last night". I showed her, on my phone, the phone number and length of time we were on the phone calling the property. She then said she left at 7. THEN she said "Let me see what I can do." She got us a room, telling us we were "lucky they had rooms or else ..." and she stopped mid sentence. At no time did she apologize for the situation - which we now see was a pattern for everyone there EXCEPT for the sweet guy working in the kitchen, who could not apologize enough for the breakfast orders that were incorrect at a table near us. When ours came out wrong, I didn't bother to say anything. We could hear the waitress fussing at him, telling him it wasn't HER fault. We figured he'd had enough.

When it came to tipping, we asked for change, because we no longer had small bills after tipping at other places. We were told they didn't have change. (Oddly, I did see the front desk guy give a person who walked in change. We had seen this person the day before hanging out at the bar, chatting up guys who walked in.) We left the larger bill because we didn't want to be "that customer" (the other table left nothing after the wrong orders).

So, while we would like to recommend the property itself, the staff needs a bit of training and the "after hours" communication could use a going over.

I would not confidentially recommend...

Where do I even begin. Late last night around 11:30 PM my husband received a call from the front seat stating that there was a leak coming down from a light fixture. I assume the front desk agent assumed it came from our room because it does have a bath in bathroom. My husband went down to desk to discuss what was happening. He did observe a leak but it was not coming from our room. The desk agent named Hope made it clear that my husband lied. He told her to come up to the room to take a look. She refused. I’m not sure why, since the front desk is empty a lot of that time. She stated that an engineer needed to go to our room to look. We were quoted 15 minutes. My husband let her know we have a toddler that needs to sleep. She didn’t seem to care at all. We wait for the engineer. My daughter is getting antsy because she is very tired. 25 minutes pass and still no engineer. My husband goes back to the front desk to ask what is going on because we haven’t heard anything. Hope tells my husband that neither she nor the GM know the location of the engineer. Finally after 45 minutes the engineer arrives at our room. It is now 12:30 AM and my daughter is still not in bed. He tells us that there is no flooding, which is what my husband was accused of doing to the room. My husband goes down to front again and is met with the engineer and the front desk agent. It is made clear it is not our room. Instead of apologizing to my husband, she stands her ground. We leave. This is horrible customer service. I see that many reviews talk about the lack of customer service. My husband asked for the managers number but Hope gives him the number to the assistant manger. He told her that’s not what he asked for and she finally gave him the info. As I leave I express how upset I am about that whole situation. What does Hope do? She just shrugs her shoulders. What kind of customer service is that? We have been staying at this property for the last 4 years. We always stay in their 1 bedroom suites. What a horrible way to treat your loyal customers. We will be taking this up as far as we can. This was so insane. It wasn’t about the leak, just lack of customer service and implying my...

Actually the hotel is very nice. My husband and I stay here whenever we come to Jacksonville. Honestly, I was truly insulted at check-in when the Asian lady at the front desk insisted I show her my "Government" card for which gave us the discount. I don't remember reserving using a government rate. I always us AAA or any of the others that give just about the same discount. Nevertheless, she asked for proof and of course, I didn't have the card. She was rather demeaning and insisted that I present the card. Fortunately, all three of my adult children worked for the government and one showed her card. Of course, I told her I didn't make my reservation saying I worked for the government, but I had the other cards........I just didn't like her condescending attitude. ||She, being the first encounter at the hotel, started me off with a bad attitude. This has never happened to us at the Indigo and we've never been asked to show any of our cards we used for a discount. Being and African-American, I took offense to this. I would never ask for a discount pretending to be a member of a discount group. My two sons, my daughter, my husband and I are all professionals. I would never make a reservation under false pretense. Maybe some people do this a lot and they have to start asking now, but I have never had to present a card before. I just didn't care for her "stank" attitude. At one point, she waited for me to produce a card and acted like she was going to "cancel" our reservation or something. Yes, it was embarrassing. ||Please post a sign at the front desk that says, "You will need your card if you are reserved with a discount rate". Then I won't feel picked out! ||As far the hotel, it's a great place. We had a suite and another room. Clean, comfy and a shower that was large enough to dance around it. ||Please be reminded that the person at the front desk is usually your first encounter and sets the tone for the rest of the stay. My stay did not start off with the right tone, but...