Holiday Inn & Suites Ann Arbor Univ. Michigan Area — Hotel in Ann Arbor

Negligible accommodations in a pinch, conveniently located. I was traveling for work and brought my family along, including at the moment three kids and a large, clean and exceptionally well-behaved service dog. Though I mentioned the dog at check-in and it aligned with their policy, I received a look as if an appendage was growing out of my forehead. "A service dog? Hmm." Our fourth floor room had drainage issues; after giving my son a bath the plumbing made great belching noises during its excessively-slow drain. Tapwater was not fit for the dog. Ice tasted bad as well. Lastly--and this is a sticking point--the breakfast experience was both lackluster and most unaccommodating for a party such as mine. I'm a lifelong traveler and IHG Diamond Elite member with over 110 IHG stays in the past six months, also a current Diamond member of HHonors, Marriott Bonvoy, Best Western, Wyndham, and also a longtime member of Choice and Hyatt. I know hotels and have worked extensively at such brands as the Hyatt Regency and Gaylord resort chain. My favorite all-around hotels are Holiday Inns / HI Express. This one is not up to par. Upon check-in, I opted for amenity breakfast in lieu of points, which should include myself and a registered guest, or in this case, myself and my spouse WITHOUT BATTING AN EYE. I was working nights on a project at the nearby university, and upon arrival back at the hotel in the morning, in order to get a plate for the buffet, had to request one from the "restaurant" counter. I was told it would be $11 and some change. I told the lady behind the counter that I was a rewards member and had opted for a free breakfast at check-in. After a long, awkward pause, she handed me a plate and silverware in a cloth napkin. I mentioned that my wife would be down and I asked if there was going to be a problem with her getting breakfast, and was assured there would be no problem. The meal offering was blah; spotlight on the undercooked bacon that would only be welcome in Canada. No water available, juice available only in the form of kiddie boxes, not meant for a hungry and thirsty full-grown man. I returned to the room for a couple hours to sleep, at which point my wife went down to get breakfast. She was hassled because she did not have a breakfast voucher, which had not been previously mentioned to either of us. After some explaining and arguing she was given 'an exception'. Forget the kids--who eat like birds and could have done with a muffin and piece of fruit, were there paper plates or napkins available--we departed the hotel and got them some McDonald's to spare what would have been $35 bogus breakfast experience ($60 for the family if we were paying). Couldn't even get a coffee to-go from the hotel. Overall, a poor experience at a location that does not reflect the decency of hotels in general, let alone IHG which is my preference.

Direct feedback for hotel management: if you're going to have a restaurant, have a restaurant. Don't guard / goaltend your less-than-desirable breakfast bar, especially from guests who spend more time staying at your brand of hotels than in their own home. It's an older hotel, so if the infrastructure itself is waning, do something extra to woo your guests... or be limited to single-time visitors and few repeat customers. Get back to basics, don't be complacent. Offer exceptional customer service, for starters... the 'handwritten note on the pillow' goes a long way; helps offset the odorous ice, for example. Increase the pet-friendliness of your staff. Eliminate the 'breakfast voucher' concept, akin to military chow hall meal chits of old, made for the coupon-clipping generation and existing today almost exclusively at cut-rate Motel 6 and America's Best locations that are co-located adjacent to a Denny's, IHOP, Waffle House or Huddle House restaurants. Adapt, or decline predictably to be sold at low bid to a hotel management / hospitality group who can do better. Sorry for the harsh review; I much prefer leaving great ones... it's...

I have to say, this is the first poor review I have given. Typically I can provide excellent ratings for the IHG hotels I stay at, but not this time. I'm a really easy going person, but this was simply awful. Upon checking into my room I was impressed with its size. By far the most spacious hotel room I've every had, but that is where things stopped. The air units both had mold on the vents (one extremely bad), so I was moved to another room, which also had mold on the vents and obviously hadn't been cleaned (hair in bathroom, small pieces of paper and fuzz on floor, TV had something smeared on it, and an outlet cover missing with potentially live wires open). Then moved to another room which upon stepping into my feet stuck to the floor, toilet continuously running, more mold on the vents, more hair in the bathroom. Moved again, but this time to a much smaller room and more of the same. Moved back to original room and was told mold would be taken care of the following day. After coming back to the hotel that evening the mold was still there. I contacted the front desk and they had maintenance come to clean it. The maintenance guy was shocked how bad it was and sprayed it with bleach which helped a lot, but it had been on so long it stained the unit. He had to remove the cover and replace with an older one that was stained yellow, but was clean. The food was really on the poor side compared to other Holiday Inns I've been to as well. The biggest thing is cleanliness, which was evident throughout the entire hotel. I even noticed a piece of food in the elevator which remained there the last 2 days I was there, probably still there unless a guest cleaned it up. The hotel General Manager did fully refund my stay and the dinner I had there, which was greatly appreciated, but I don't think this was a one time occurrence because every room I moved to was bad in regards to cleanliness and maintenance. When I arrived there was another guest who was complaining about his room not being cleaned, so unfortunately I simply can't recommend this hotel even though they did provide a refund, I did give it an excellent value because you can't argue with free. This was business travel, so that only was a benefit to my employer and not me and even if offered to stay there again for free, I wouldn't want to deal with all of...

I travel quite a bit and stay at many IHG properties. I have had some problems at other properties - but this one was perfect.

I arrived in Detroit at about 7AM and then would have to go to the client at about Noon. I called the night previous and talked to someone at front desk (I really wish I remembered her name) - anyways - I explained that as early as she could check me in I would greatly appreciate it.

She initially said "I can get you in at noon" but then in further discussion she understood the issue I was trying to solve. She reserved my room directly to me at that time and said "just head here after you get your luggage and car."

Exactly as promised - the room was available. The check-in clerk was super nice and quickly got me checked in. I think it is sometimes lost on check-in agents, but simply a pleasant demeanor and understanding tone are the biggest things a weary traveler is looking for after a long flight!

I didn't need to use the hotel bar or restaurant - but they looked awesome (and smelled awesome too :) ). This is a "real" Holiday Inn - and not an Express, so it has a real restaurant - which again is somewhat out of the norm for a Holiday Inn (the only other one I recall with a full restaurant was in St. Louis).

The pool area had some renovation or work being done on the hot tub - but the pool was open. Unfortunately, because of the quickness of my trip, I didn't use the pool at all - but it looked nice.

The fitness center was outfitted with very nice Lifefitness treadmills. If I hadn't been dead tired when I returned to my room - I would have used it. Another great thing about this property is that the fitness center is open 24 hours a day (usually IHG's close about 11PM). If I may be so bold - all IHG properties should try to do this - those of us Business Travelers don't always have time before closing.

The only things I could complain about is that the furniture (particularly the desk chair) in the room could be updated (the chair looked well used) - but otherwise the room was clean, filled with enough consumables for the time I was there. The hotel was also very quiet.

I definitely would recommend...