Holiday Inn Express & Suites Ludington by IHG — Hotel in Amber Township

I was a guest at this hotel from 11-11-20 thru 11-13-20 and received bedbug bites, and to my knowledge, the hotel did nothing to remedy the problem in the room. After the 1st night, I developed a series of bites on my left arm, along with itching and considerable swelling. Upon my return to the hotel the 2nd night, I quietly asked the clerk to be switched to another room as I suspected bitten by bed bug bites , she asked to see the bites and I showed showed her my now swollen and itchy left arm.

The night clerk was very polite and apologetic, switched me to another room, and told me the manager would inspect the room personally the next AM and reach out to me before I checked out. Upon checkout, I asked the day clerk if the problem had been taken care of in my previous room as I had not heard from the manager. She asked me to remind me of the problem (which I did), and informed me housekeeping did not see anything wrong with that room.

I again rolled up the sleeve on my left arm, which now had swollen bites in a clear line from my elbow to to the of my hand, and told her that I am 100% certain now that it was bed bugs, that it came from that room and did not come from anywhere else. I also asked that for the sake and comfort of future guests that both rooms needed to be fumigated before any other guests stay in them. She just looked at me and shrugged, and I, now fuming, got in my car and drove away.

I am a 30 year business traveller and this is only the 3rd time in 1000's of hotel nights in which I was bitten by these pests. The previous 2 times were in recent years, I informed the hotel and they immediately told me the problem would be fixed - this property did not seem to care, a quick visual inspection by the housekeeper confirmed to them there was no problem.

I also contacted IHG corporate twice on the issue, and they have yet to reply, nearly a week since my initial contact. My concern is that other guests don't have to go through this. My severe reaction to bedbugs is one thing, but making sure you don't take them home with you is another complete hassle altogether.

I realize that bed bugs have been a growing problem in the hotel industry, Though the focus now is to prevent the spread of Covid, and rightly so, I find the hotel's response to this issue, and the lack of one from IHG corporate to be appalling - let alone to a frequent business traveler. This is the "IHG Way of Clean", I guess.

On separate note - the wireless internet did not work in either room on both nights. The beds are also very hard in comparison to other IHG properties, including Holiday Inn Express. Lastly, I find it weird that you can grab your own breakfast items from the counter and cold drinks from the cooler, but you cannot pour your own coffee - you have to wait on an attendant to hand you one. I am sure this makes sense to somebody...

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Ludington for two nights in July 2025. Upon arrival, we asked the very friendly desk clerk for four extra pillows. I could tell that she was busy and multitasking, so I offered to come back down and pick them up after we took our luggage up to the room rather than having her deliver them to us (because she said she would have to prepare them – I guess put pillowcases on them or something). A few minutes later when I returned to the front desk for the pillows, she was very apologetic and said she had forgotten all about the pillows, and she told me she would get them ready right away and deliver them to our room. She also gave me a voucher for a free food item from the lobby shop “for the inconvenience,” which was unnecessary but a nice gesture. She delivered the pillows to our room within five minutes.

Although this appears to be a new property, my online research seems to indicate that it was actually built in 1975 but was renovated in 2016. It is very well maintained. The beds were excellent and quite comfortable.

The only thing with which we found fault (see photos) was the condition of the electrical outlets on the nightstand. There are two banks of outlets. In the set of outlets on the left, all but one are dead. (You can see that we have a green cord plugged into the only functioning outlet in that set, and that includes the USB ports – those are dead also.) In the set of outlets on the right, NONE are usable because the circuitry BEHIND the switchplate doesn’t line up with the holes in the switchplate. If you look closely at the second photo, you can see that the circuitry and the switchplate are at odd angles with each other. If management of this property sees this review, this was Room 306.

Otherwise, we found the staff very friendly and efficient and the hotel comfortable and quiet. We would stay there again. I would rate this property five stars, but I’m giving it four stars because of the...

The staff is really great at this location and the rooms are modern and generally well appointed. I only had a few issues. First, the lounge chair in my room had charcoal gray upholstery and right where you would sit was a large white stain that you can only imagine what it was. Secondly, it seemed like the TV used internet instead of a normal TV signal, So about every minute or two my picture would cut out in the sound would cut out for about 2 seconds which made viewing any program irritating. In addition, the function on the remote that was supposed to let you cast from your device to the TV so you can watch Netflix or another streaming service did not work no matter how many times I tried . The blackout blind in my room was off of its track so when I got there I spent about 5 minutes fixing that. The HVAC system could not consistently keep a temperature, so I found myself either freezing in the middle of the night or overheating. This one isn't the hotel's fault, but it seemed like the contractors that were fixing the elevator were staying at the hotel and we're being loud and disruptive in the parking lot right outside of my room until late at night. Maybe they just happen to be an entirely separate group of contractors that weren't working on the elevator during my entire stay, but who knows. I don't want to let these minor inconveniences detract from the overall experience which was pretty good. The young lady who did breakfast in the morning named Summer was extremely nice and all the other staff that I encountered were equally as friendly. The only complaint I would have about breakfast is whenever they served turkey sausage, it was like cardboard and cold. Other than that this is a great hotel and I would stay here again. Hopefully they get the bugs worked out of...