Holiday Inn Express & Suites Kinston by IHG — Attraction in Kinston

Perry Suggs

Six (6) day ago

I arrived at the Hotel at 1156 Farm Hill rd. Kinston, NC. On Thursday 6/6/2024 for check-in the young lady at the desk was very nice and check-in went very smooth, things looked pretty good at first glance. We did not spend much time at the hotel that evening and went about our business, returning to the hotel later that evening. There are other things I will talk about as far as maintenance goes for the hotel. Let's start with this, up on Friday morning 6/7/2024 a notice had been pushed under our door stating the water for the hotel would be turned (cut Off) from nine (9) am to five (5) pm that day, which if I were the hotel manager I would consider this an emergency. The notice did not indicate emergency. I went to the front to speak with the manger about the situation there was another guest Ahead of me talking to the manager about the water problem. From my point of view the manager and guest did not reach suitable consensus as the guest appeared very unhappy with the situation. I approached the manager myself also concerned about the water problem, which in my opinion the manager did not appear to think this problem was too serious. We only spoke briefly he informed me that the plumber or Maintenace worker or whoever would there at nine (9) am to commence work, which I thought was little lack luster. The manager's attitude seems to be that this is not a big deal, and we need not to even think about any sort of compensation for paying guests. After a short discussion the manager and I agreed that on check-out the manager would add additional IHG points to my account and I agreed. Well on check Saturday 6/8/2024 the General manager was not there and no one in this hotel knew anything about the compensation. The on-hand manager informs me the general manager would be in Sunday 6/9/2024 at nine (9) am okay; Call back to hotel Sunday 6/9/2024 after nine (9) am the manager stepped out for moment left message. No response, call back 6/10/2024 manager in but has stepped out, left message no response, called back 6/11/2024 manager in but has stepped out left message no response, call back 6/12/2024 manager in but stepped out, left message Manager return call around two (2) pm that day told he had applied an additional 1000IHG points to my account ,he looking and the points are pending, as three (3) pm today 6/13/2024 no additional pending or otherwise, so also appears the manager is a liar. I don’t know how other guests faired but at a minimum the manager and hotel should have offered the guests something. Other problem at this hotel first and foremost in my opinion the bathroom had absolutely exhaust ventilator, under rim sink had crud build up at the rims edge, shower doors hung unlevel would remain close during showering, water pressure for sink much to high splashed water everywhere,, I don’t know if smoking was ever allowed in this hotel but the back of the bathroom door had what appeared to be nicotine streaming down the door after showering, shower stall corner not clean, Bathroom door hung with residential hinge. I have one good thing to say about this hotel the breakfast and breakfast crew was very good. I will not patronize this hotel again as this General manager...

We came to the area as Essential CoVid workers. Check-in was great and the staff was extra friendly and helpful. Before bringing luggage up to my room, I had cleaning supplies to wipe everything down because of risk of infection. After cleaning, there was no dust nor dirt on my wipes (I was very impressed!).

The beds were extremely comfortable, the room large, and the bathroom big and well-lit. The hotel was quiet and not many guests checked-in because of the stay-at-home order in place.

I knew because of CoVid, they were not doing full service housekeeping (which was fine with me - I can do my own cleaning) which signs were posted downstairs when you checked in. So, in order to protect myself and housekeeping, I gathered my dirty linens (bathroom linens) and placed them outside of my door. I figured this would help them in not having to enter my room and they would leave fresh towels in a bag next to my door. When I returned to the hotel about 2 hours after leaving the dirty linens outside of my door, they were gone but nothing was left outside. I figured they might have entered my room and left them in the bathroom but they did not. I had to go downstairs and request the replacement towels from the front desk staff. No big deal but it exposed me and the front desk person to possible exposure.

On our 5th day in the hotel, we come back from working (our jobs get us very dirty), we see that they have started renovations on the 3rd floor. No signs are posted to let us know this but again, as long as it doesn't go on at night, we were fine. I get up to my room, remove my dirty work clothes to take a shower, and boom - NO WATER!!! If it had been early in the day or before 5pm, no big deal but this was 6pm. Only after a co-worker complained did they turn the water back on.

It was after this that they posted signs saying they were doing those renovations between 8am and 5pm M-F. But then, they posted that the elevator was out of order (even though it wasn't - they were using it for the construction crew to bring supplies up). Again, no big deal as we can take the stairs. But they had been hauling out all of the old toilets from the 3rd floor down the stairs and it made the stairwell reek of sewage.

Overall, the stay was not bad, even under the circumstances. Just minor inconveniences that was easily fixed. The hotel staff was very helpful, friendly, and took care of any issues that arose. I also know that even though we didn't know they were going to be doing renovations, it was not the staff's fault.

If I have to come to the area again for work, I will...

My experience happened on July 19th and 20th. I will be returning to Kinston in the next couple weeks for an overnight stay. My experience at the Holiday Inn was so sad that actually I am just putting a review in now. I expressed my complaints to the hotel staff who was supposed to have management call me... unfortunately never happened. When I got ready to retire for bed which was late around 11:30 my sheets were gritty and hair stained. It was as if someone had gone to the beach and got into bed without taking a shower. That would indicate that the sheets may have been on more than one visit. The person at the front desk was very kind and was changing my sheets on my king size bed at 12:00 a.m. She was very kind and very apologetic. No excuse! Photos of the breakfast were absolutely atrocious and should have gone to the trash. It was as if the person who put it out didn't care and her attitude was even poorer. I did complain about the breakfast to the person who was responsible on that weekend for customer care. She also took pictures and said that she would report it to management because it was inexcusable. How can you serve overcooked, dried out, poorly prepared food. The pancake machine wasn't working as a last resort of some type of decent breakfast. Pictures are posted. I did put a complaint in on company's site but never got a response. The person preparing the food had a very poor attitude and made a complaint to me that I heard that somebody's been complaining about my service. I said yes as they should...||At this rate it was just easier to just chalk it up to a terrible experience and I wanted to completely put it far out of my mind. However, returning back to Kinston for this next trip coming up brought up emotions in me that I thought I had put behind me. Actually I think I'm as irritated now as I was then and actually did not put it behind me at all because I should not feel this way. No management call. No response to my complaint.... I hope the pictures are viewable and this was a total of 2 days so after the first complaint, the second day was even worse.||||Still very irritated at the lack of...