Holiday Inn Express Hamilton - Upper James by IHG — Hotel in Hamilton

I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Hamilton and boy was I disappointed. I checked in and went up to my room to relax and unwind. Not 30 minutes into my stay until I asked to switch rooms… the blinds were broken, the carpet was bubbling up, there was dark human hair on the office chair, and I could clearly see that the floor had not been vacuumed. I tried calling down to the front desk twice with no answer; with no luck with calling I decided to go down to the front desk myself to have someone come look at the room. After having someone come to the room and look around, I was offered two options. I could either have the room vacuumed or be switched to a different room. The employees also tried to convince me that the floor was dirty because they had recently put in the ac units and must have just forgotten to vacuum, which made no sense as to how I found long, dark human hair on the office chair. I obviously took the new room as it wasn’t just the floor that was dirty. The room I was switched into was smaller than the first room I was put into. Although this room was fairly clean, it was missing hand soap. You would think they would check the room they were switching me into to make sure it was ready for a guest. Anyways, I went down to the front desk again to ask for hand soap as the room did not have any in the bottle provided. They handed me a bottle of hand soap for me to use instead of coming into the room, using their special key to unlock the cage and switching out the empty bottle so as to not have guests steal. Well as I was going to check out, I had asked the so called manager who was working reception for a partial refund as the room they had originally gave me was not up to standards. I was not looking for a full refund or anything of that matter but to be compensated for the added stress and uncomfortableness from the first room. They at first said they could not give me any refund, but as I kept pushing (since that was unacceptable) he said that he could only give me $20 off the first night. ONLY $20??!! A brand new hotel, with a filthy room and all they could offer was $20 off of one night? Really? This seemed like ageism to me as I am only 19 years old but if someone in their mid thirties went through the same thing, they probably would’ve gotten a room upgrade, not a downgrade. I have never received such disrespect and unapologeticness from a company. I honestly hope that people read this review to better be educated about this hotel as I am very disappointed with how I was treated...

This is a strange one, I have stayed in many hotels in many cities all over the world - this is a first. There is a trust dynamic involved in staying in a hotel, I am leaving my personal belongings in the room, including food. I need to have trust that the cleaning staff is not going to do anything to my stuff. I came back one evening to discover there were 5 finger nail cuttings left on my bed. They were not mine. They were not stuck to the bed spread (they easily jumped when I tapped the bed), they were fresh, I had slept in that bed the night before.. I called the front desk immediately, they responded as you would expect and told me they would look into it. I had to bring it up with them a couple days later - an "investigation" was being started. I never did hear what the story was, I was offered extra 2000 points, which I did not receive, and for the dollar value of ~$15-18 (for those points) - I would have offered $20 to the hotel for not having staff finger nails left on my bed. I seriously checked my room, even my food to see nothing else had been "left behind" Where are the other 5 finger nails, who trims only one hand!! Also there was mold spots on the ceiling of the shower in rm 613, the blackout blinds were pulled out of the frame ( I fixed) - this is a new hotel! I also had one cleaner just barge into my room on Sunday late afternoon, no knock just walked in. She was very apologetic, but seriously,...

The check-in process was smooth as can be. We requested an early check in as we had to drive 2 hours, change and then make it to the venue. They were able to accommodate our request, but others at the same wedding were not so lucky.

The front desk service was perfect and we had no complaints about our stay itself. I personally didn't eat the breakfast provided, but my husband did and advised that it was pretty standard but wouldn't eat it again. It's also served right in the front lobby, which is weird and makes it a tad uncomfortable.

The hotel was built on a small lot, so the parking situation is a disaster. There aren't any signs telling people which way traffic flows and we all know how much common sense people lack, so it was a bit chaotic. Also, turning left from the hotel during a peak time? No thank you.

The stay was lovely but the location/property is brutal. If we ever find ourselves back in Hamilton and not needing to turn left (haha), we would...