Holiday Inn Express & Suites Athens by IHG — Hotel in Athens

This is my review for the two (2) hotel chains that I experienced on my recent trip. I include my comments for all to compare as to what you have done right, and what needs to improve, within the chain and what your competitors are doing.

As a base let me say that all of the hotels met all expectations.

For the Holiday Inn Express, Athens, Ohio:

Outstanding property location! A national chain restaurant and a national chain pharmacy/convenience store located within the shadow of the hotel made for a great chance to eat, relax, and replace a forgotten item left at home. Multiple other restaurants were also available close buy, and gas.

I was greeted upon entry, with all check-in paperwork ready. I was even awarded extra loyalty points as the guest of the day. Though not requested, the staff had express check-out ready.

The room was of good size, with reasonable desktop/counter space, making it easy to place luggage on to unpack (essential for those of us with bad backs), and a great mattress. The bath had great water pressure and hot water.

The only negative that I have to offer is that being unfamiliar with the room layout for this hotel, when offered room 222, I accepted, only to find out it is next to the elevator. My wife and I had ‘magic fingers’ until near midnight when the elevator calmed down. The staff was also unable to tell me what my loyalty points were, or how to use them (if possible) at my next IHG hotel stay in Princeton WV.

For the Brand H Inn, Mansfield/Ontario, Ohio:

Located in the commercial area of Mansfield/Ontario. Multiple and varied restaurants, shopping, and grocery stores near by as well as an urgent care facility nearby.

The room was of good size, and usual amenities (refrigerator, microwave, toiletries). Again, a very comfortable bed. Desk top/counter space was limited, and a mirror instead of artwork over the desk would have made for a dressing/makeup table.

The in-shower body wash and shampoo (? Zero products), though convenient, did not react well with my wife. The only grab bar in the shower/tub was located mid length of the tub, on the far wall, and both my wife and I were uncomfortable with the long reach over the tub and the high step over the tub to get in the tub/shower. An additional grab bar at either end of the tub on the outside of the tub would have made us feel more secure.

Housekeeping was very accommodating, ensuring trash was emptied and towels replaced daily (3-night stay).

The breakfast was good, with a surprise of Belgium waffles, but the waffle takes up the ENTIRE paper plate, resulting in syrup running off and onto the table (need to find larger plates).

Holiday Inn Express, Princeton, West Virginia:

It is convenient to the turnpike, but not well marked, and sits back off of the main road. After a short wait, the desk clerk appeared and checked us in.

After a hit or miss elevator ride (the controls were malfunctioning) my wife and I were pleasantly surprised by an enormous room (for a hotel), also with refrigerator and microwave. This room also has a very comfortable bed.

Unfortunately, without an electrical engineering and computer programing degree, the TV remote was hard to use. You have to manually go through each and every channel (with many channels not used/available) to find a station or program. The water pressure is weak and the temperature gets to a warm enough to use, but not hot temperature. At least after the manager ‘reset’ the elevator control panel, it seemed to operate correctly. There were a few fast-food locations that were nearby, and a gas station (not much else).

All hotels offered a hot breakfast with a varied menu, that was most appreciated.

All of the beds were very comfortable, and the rooms clean.

As a more ‘mature’ guest, who suffers from neuropathy, slips and falls are of great concern. The ability to ‘black-out’ a room is a benefit for those that want to sleep in or are light sensitive, but walking around in a black, unfamiliar room at 2 AM is scary and dangerous. A dim night light, or a courtesy watch battery flashlight that could be kept handy on a nightstand was needed in all of these rooms.

All in all, my wife and I were well pleased with our room and stay at all of these hotels, with the items noted. The ability to see what my loyalty points could do for me, and any specials being offered by corporate would have also been nice to know/use, on the spot and while on the road. Like when I got home IHG is telling me for 2 nights stay I can get a bonus 2,000 points. Well, I just had 2 nights stays, do I get my 2,000 points? Wish I could have used...

Stayed here for 4 days and 3 nights and had a great time! We would highly recommend it to anyone staying in the area. Lots of positives to mention, but we were especially grateful for how friendly and accommodating the staff were, especially the agent staffing the front desk during the evenings we were there (if you ever read this, thank you for your kindness). If we needed towels in the pool area, a pillow, or anything else, the agent immediately helped. The same friendliness and diligence were demonstrated by other employees, such as in the breakfast area or housekeeping. Thank you to all of you for making this stay great!

We originally had been deciding between this and another hotel of similar quality in the area after we canceled a reservation at different place in town with recent reports of bed bugs and poor service. We ultimately chose the Holiday Inn Express because of the availability (and affordability) of a room with a couch and the hot tub. I had zero regrets about that choice after our experience this past weekend.

I added a more detailed description about the rooms in the Rooms section for this review. Wrote too much because of the great experience!

The amenities of the hotel were wonderful, especially the hot tub since we knew we would need it after a weekend full of running. The gym was right next to the pool area, in fact there was a windowed wall between them. The pool area was generally clean and not busy while we were there, I also appreciated that the pool was a decent temperature for not being heated. The hot tub’s jets did not work our second night, but they were great the other nights we sat in it. There also were towels available in the pool area; they were a bit small, but you could use as many as needed.

On the way to the pool and gym, there was a lovely little area with free cookies (when available) and a dispenser with a different lemonade each day. It was an amazing little thing to have when you were walking back to the elevator. They also had a complimentary coffee dispenser available in the eating area 24/7, it also would dispense hot water. Breakfast was great too, including the pancake printer (2 pancakes in a minute!), cereal, cinnamon buns, fruit, yogurts, a variety of hot food, bagels and toast, different juices, and a bit more. The hours were ideal as well since it started as early as around 6:30 and lasted until 11. Breakfast was peaceful and there was a view of the tennis courts in the back, but I think those were tennis courts for the town.

The reception area also had a little concession store with a variety of items and very reasonable prices. We also got a chance to use the washer and dryer on the second floor since some of our clothes needed to be washed sooner - it was $2.00 in quarters (the reception was more than prepared to help you get change if you did not have quarters) for the washer and dryer each, and both services took less than an hour and a half together. The front desk was able to supply free powdered detergent and dryer sheets as well.

Parking for the hotel was great, and there was an Applebee’s right across that you could walk to if you did not feel like driving. In general, everything in town was maybe at maximum an 8-10 minute drive away from the hotel.

Thank you so much to everyone at the hotel for taking care of us and making this a...

My husband and I were guests at your Athens Holiday Inn Express June 27th-this morning July 1st. I am contacting you to make you aware of our experiences during this stay. First, we drove in from Oklahoma and had requested an early check in time of 11:00am. When we arrived we were told our early check in could not be accommodated and that the rooms would not even begin to be cleaned until 12:00, and that we could check in at 3:00.

My husband is a 100% disabled American veteran. The reason we normally choose to stay in Holiday Inn express locations when traveling out of state is due to HIE’s no tax policy for card holding veterans and their exceptionally well prepared handicap accessible rooms/treatment of the physically impaired. Upon checking into the hotel we presented my husbands card and 10 minutes later a charge to our credit card was taken out, with taxes and no discount.

After 3 days of being in our room and no trash being taken out, no towels brought to us, or a change of sheets, I called the front desk and requested that house keeping please report to our room (237) and take care of these issues. 3 hours later a male member of staff presented to our room with 3 towels, and stated that room service had gone home for the night, so the other issues would need to be addressed the following morning. The next morning around 11:00 I presented to the front desk and reported my problems with the clerk who immediately asked if I had the do not disturb sign hanging on my room door. I explained to her that No I did not and had not the entire length of our stay, she then stated “well then housekeeping will be by to clean up later.”

When house keeping did arrive a young man stated that due to personal reasons he had left early the day before and that his shift should have been covered but that clearly it had not been. (Which in no way explains the previous days.)

At 3:00am on July 1st a fire alarm sounded and the entire hotel was awoken and evacuated with no explanation, other than it was now safe to return to our rooms.

There have been more problems with this hotel and this stay than I have time to write in a single email. The air conditioning unit at the end of the hallway next to our room was malfunctioning the entire stay and shaking so hard that it rattled our door all day and night long. There are no slip proof liners in the “handicap assessable baths” at your hotel.

In the event of an actual fire how would you expect a handicapped person who is wheelchair bound and on the 2nd or 3rd floor to safely escape without injury? Would you have them rely on an elevator during the event of a fire? I am absolutely certain that this is against a legal fire code.

I am appalled by the lack of respect, cleanliness, and safety we have been shown at this Athens location and don’t know exactly who to contact regarding these matters. I can only hope that for the sake of your future guests that they will be addressed promptly. I have attached photos of our room on our 3rd day of our stay without house keeping.

I will be looking forward to hearing from you or a member of the customer service...