Holiday Inn Express Strasbourg - Centre by IHG — Hotel in Strasbourg

I'll start with the good...

Reception was very friendly at check-in and thanked me for my IHG status/loyalty. She also gave us the option of rooms at check-in which we appreciated. The room was comfortable and the bathroom looked new!

Location was great. Short walk from the tram which we took in from the train station. Even with luggage, we found this to be a very short and doable walk. We also walked all throughout the historic/touristy city center. We never required other transportation, which we prefer since you see so much more by walking.

Now the downside to our stay....

The morning after our first night there, housekeeping walked into our room without proper knocking/announcing themselves. Having a hotel background myself, plus staying in hotels as much as we do throughout the year, I'm aware that they should knock multiple times before just walking in. It was 9am, she knocked AS she walked in. Only once. Not multiple times as they should. What if we had been indecent?! Immediately after this incident, we placed the Do Not Disturb on the door. Somewhere between 30-60 minutes later, housekeeping was knocking on our door. We had a DO NOT DISTURB. This means, do not disturb.. I've never stayed at a hotel which doesn't respect the DND door hanger. She continued to knock so I answered the door at which point she simply quickly walked away. What was the purpose of this? Lastly, we never need service and 99% of the time simply request NO service or leave the Do Not Disturb sign on the door so that no one disturbs the room. Upon leaving our room, we left the door hanger on and also saw what we believe was the housekeeping supervisor as she was with their team but not in the same uniform and with a clipboard checking rooms. As we walked out of the room, we told her we did not want service (and again we had the sign left on the door). She repeated it which told us she understood and we left for the day. Fast forward to our return to the room later in the day. Our room had been serviced. NOT what we wanted. We don't want our things moved/disturbed and also hadn't bothered to use the safe since no one should have been in our room. Some small things were thrown away (which could have easily been mistaken for trash, but we used for packing purposes). Beyond frustrating given that we said no service and the DND was on the door.

I called reception to let them know of what happened. He wasn't the least bit apologetic for the mistake. I felt as though I kept going in circles with him. He simply said that housekeeping must have misunderstood. What is there to misunderstand about a DO NOT DISTURB? Not just when they cleaned the room, but also earlier in the day the housekeeping team made various mistakes. There is nothing to misunderstand. That door hanger is a clear indication that they are not to knock on the door or enter the room. After he excused their behavior, I asked if the reception manager was available at which point he said that he was. Clearly, there was nothing left to say if the manager didn't seem to care about what happened. I've never encountered a manager who wouldn't at the very least sincerely apologize for their error. He just didn't seem to think it was an issue. A shame, because this is an issue that is very important to us. Had this been handled differently, or I should say handled at all, perhaps we would have left here with a better impression of the property but this ruined it for us. I would have rated you a 1, but that wouldn't be fair to the other reception staff which had been very kind and helpful during our stay. They earned your property a...

I have stayed at this location a few times in the past, so I knew from my previous stays tat this location was JUST OKAY! It was never a clean/well kept location, but there are not many other hotels to choose from that are just outside of the tourist locations for when someone is traveling for business. The hotel has just gotten dirtier and dirtier over a short period of time! I have never experienced such a dirty/unsanitary room. When I arrived to my room, there was an empty water bottle on the floor, there was human waste left in the toilet from the previous guest!!! There was hair all over the pillows, sheets, towels, floor and all over the place. The sofa was very dirty and badly stained that I was so afraid to even sit on it.

Around 2 hours after I checked out of the room I had realized that I had left an electrical adapter in my room. I returned to this location to retrieve my electrical adapter. I explained this to the receptionist at the front desk. Without checking to see if there was now another guest that had checked into that room, she gave me a key to go to the room and retrieve my electrical adapter. THIS IS WHERE I EXPERIENCED THE MOST EMBARRASSING THING IN MY LIFE! "WHEN I ENTERED THE ROOM TO RETRIEVE MY ELECTRICAL ADAPTER, THERE WAS A WOMAN IN THE ROOM (NEW GUEST) IN THE PROCESS OF CHANGING HER CLOTHES) !!! This woman looked like she wanted to kill me! I was in awe and so embarrassed! I returned to the lobby and told the receptionist what I had just experienced and at the same time the other guest that was in the room immediately called he front desk phone to explain what had just happened. She was screaming at the top of her lungs and was very angry, as was myself, and I did not blame her one bit! This is very alarming that this can happen to any guest! I'm sure that this woman would never feel safe at this hotel and neither would myself! The woman (New Guest) was reluctant to but did bring my electrical adapter down to the lobby. THIS WAS SUCH A BAD EXPERIENCE FOR NOT ONLY ME, BUT FOR THAT POOR WOMAN THAT I WALKED IN ON AS WELL! I really feel that Holiday Inn Express should be ashamed of themselves for not properly training their staff for these kid...

Due to the local roadworks there was a diversion in place. When our satnav tried to take us down roads that no longer existed we called the hotel, the directions they gave were really only helpful to decipher what the satnav was trying to do but did not help or remotely describe the fact that there were roadworks and this diversion.

Once found though, all was well, the receptionist was lovely, courteous and helpful. Our room was fine, until my 12 year old son found that the 5th floor window could be opened fully, "hey come take a look at this view" ... holy c**p ! Sadly, I failed to report this to the hotel as I had many other things on my mind at the time and completely forgot to bring it up (we stayed in room 515 if you're reading this).

Aside from that, the room was peaceful, the shower was almost perfectly clean which seems rare in city hotels (in my experience), it was ideal for our stopover.

Breakfast was an altogether unusual event, from the coffee machine that only produces half a cup of whatever your choice was (espresso sized everything, inc. hot chocolate) to the entirely missing margerine or butter spreads.The layout of the tables and chairs could have been much better, squeezing my behind around a pillar and another seated diner just didn't feel appropriate ... and I haven't yet mentioned the utter free for all and crush of people for the entire length of time we were there.

Also, note to ALL hotels, not just this one, Strawberry yogurt ALWAYS runs out first, please ensure you buy double strawberry because there's never any for me !!!

Checking out was just as easy and pleasant as checking in, the staff are...