Holiday Inn Express & Suites Bad Axe by IHG — Hotel in Bad Axe

Pros: Newly renovated. Clean lobby. Clean room. Breakfast was good. Cons: POOR customer service & complete lack of regard for hotel guests. After a long day of travel, my husband & I took our kids to the pool. Upon entering the pool area, it was apparent that an entire baseball team & their families were enjoying it. The patio doors connected to the pool area had been propped open so the tobacco smoke was billowing in. There was heavy alcohol usage on the patio and the pool itself was FULL of kids. The kids were SCREAMING, throwing footballs, running around and doing cannonballs in the pool. Again, I have children so I understand but this situation was EXTREME. There were kids IN THE HOT TUB with pizza, kids running & sliding around the pool deck on their bellies, parents video taping, laughing, throwing the footballs & encouraging the behavior. I ended up standing on the very side of the pool so to block any children from jumping on my 5 yr old little girl because it was so rowdy and incredibly LOUD in there. Although it felt like a lifetime, it was probably 45min-1hr of this before what seemed to be a coach walked in. He announced that "the people on the other side of the wall weren't happy with the noise so the kids needed to quiet down". Probably about 10 minutes after that, another coach came in from the patio and encouraged the kids to go outside & play wiffle ball. It was at that time that the very rude front desk clerk, Haley, decided she would come in & kick the remaining children/families out of the pool area, citing that we were "too loud and hotel guests were complaining". As a paying guest, I of course was upset. I was not with the party that had just made that place a madhouse but "Haley" didn't even make the attempt to understand & speak to me as a guest. She referred to my children and I as "part of the problem". When I asked to speak to the manager, I was then told by Haley that everything we had done was on camera. I encouraged her to review the tapes so she could see my family & I were not to blame but she refused (of course). She called her manager on the speaker phone & in a snarky way told her manager that I was an angry customer & that I was refusing to leave the pool area. At no point in time was it acknowledged that I was a guest. THE ONLY REASON WE WERE STAYING THERE WAS TO HAVE A QUIET HOTEL STAY WITH A NICE SWIM AREA FOR OUR KIDS. Haley then started making the argument to me, but it was actually directed at her boss on the phone, that she had come in multiple times to ask everyone to quiet down and to oversee what was happening. She NEVER did. Not once. Had she come in & actually handled the issue, I wouldn't have been standing by the side of the pool with my shoes off, ready to jump in, playing offense to the kids near missing my 5 yr old as they dove into the 3'6" pool. She never once required drinks or food be removed from the pool area. She never came in until she decided to come in and kick everyone out. From all of my business & personal travel, I have never once been treated this way. Even when the manager was called, I was made to feel like I should be grateful they are letting me stay there. About an hour later, my husband quietly went down to get information so I could contact corporate. At that time, Haley decided to call her manager & they informed my husband that if we had any follow up questions or complaints, they would call the police. It is quite obvious that the staff & management have no business being in customer service. Thankfully, I too have videos, photos and witness reports that I will be filing with corporate. I don't want a dime back from this place or a free stay in the future. I just want to make it very clear how incredibly rude and disrespectful these people are that are occupying positions in the hospitality industry and working under the "Holiday Inn" name. I will never return to this hotel....

Problems with both rooms. I booked two accessible king jacuzzi suites. One upper unit for myself and one lower unit for my disabled mother. The upper floor room was better than the lower floor. Upper floor PROBLEMS: *Bathroom- Tile floor had visible sticky stuff, possible puke. Sink counter was dirty. Showered twice using the curtain properly- bathroom water was all over the bathroom- used all of the towels to soak it up and yet more water appeared and got our clothing wet when changing to leave the hotel. The second light turned on sometimes- possible electrical issues all over the hotel… *Bedroom- No fire detector where one visibly goes on the ceiling. TV did not get channels, only the DVD player worked. *Lighting behind the TV randomly flickered on and off the two nights we stayed in this room. *Window shades were open when we arrived and we could not use the tub for hours until we figured out how to close them by using YouTube. Maintenance was not available and the front desk girl assured us it worked if we pressed the remote. It did not. We couldn’t get it to open back up later.

Downstairs Suite Problems: *Missing light in living room on ceiling (upstairs room had one, same room) so the couch area you cannot visit with family/hang out or play a board game. *Missing trash can under desk (other room had one) *Both phones do not work. *Electrical on one side of bed does not work- cannot charge phone there. *Toilet paper holder is TAPED to the wall. *The shower curtain is hung too low- a 5ft 9 disabled woman was ducking under it. *Shower is missing a hook/shelf for putting soap and shampoo on. *Blinds will not open. The bedroom is too dark. *The door to bedroom is dusty/smudges gross. *The TV was on but not set to the proper setting so my mom could not access the TV guide on her own, she was flipping through channels manually because the “guide” button didn’t work how they had it set up.

Pros: The beds and pillows were comfortable. The fridge and microwave were nice. The lobby, remodeling of carpet/furniture is modern. Jacuzzi tub in room with jets was relaxing and had great pressure, and the size fits two large people. The pull out couch into a bed was easy to set up (springy thin mattress, okay for a kid… wouldn’t be great for adult comfort, met my needs). Charging ports in the UPPER room worked for charging electronics. Wi-Fi was free. The connection was medium NOT high speed, If you’re streaming or surfing the internet, expect lag. Staff was VERY friendly and happy to meet basic needs, from towels to keeping the coffee fresh!

So the beds are comfy- the staff is nice… the rooms I booked NEED to fixed, cleaned fully and checked for electrical and safety issues. Maintenance needs to look over everything thoroughly.

At checkout we were unhappy with the amount paid for the rooms due to them not being in proper working order. I hope management or corporate contacts me to make...

We stayed in room 1010. We stayed for two nights for a weekend staycation from downstate. The front desk informed us that the hotel is being renovated right now (which is kind of obvious from the moment you arrive). That in and of itself wasn’t all that disappointing. But we were sort of disappointed in our room.

The biggest issue I have with our room and our stay in general is the massive lack of attention to detail. As described on the IHG website, the suite was supposed to include a wet bar…it doesn’t. There is a bar, but it does not have a sink. Not a huge deal but sort of disappointing. Also our bathroom door doesn’t shut all the way. It appears the door doesn’t fit into the frame very well and rubs at the top. Again, not a huge issue but kind of disappointing, and definitely should have been fixed prior to putting us in there. There were also multiple small cleaning things: Writing on the back of the bedroom door, fingerprints all up and down the back of that door, fingerprints and dust on wine glasses left in our room, dust on coffee maker (from no one using it, I get why it happens, but it only take a second and a rag to fix it), a few small stains on the bed skirt of one of the beds (looked like marker or maybe food? Nothing sinister like bodily fluids or anything). All of these things are just inattention to the small things, but in my opinion the small things add up. Our room worked for our two night stay, but if we had been booked to stay any longer, I likely would have requested to move after that first night when I noticed the cleanliness issues.

Another thing that was slightly frustrating was that the front desk staff did not seem interested in enforcing any COVID/mask guidelines. The contractors working throughout the hotel almost never had a mask on (we saw up to 8-10 of them one evening meeting in the lobby.) There were multiple guests moving through the hallways/public spaces without masks. I get that it can be awkward to confront guests, but it’s important to keep us all safe. That being said, the bagged breakfast that was offered because of COVID was great. A little bit of everything (oatmeal, water, an apple, a muffin, and a yogurt).

Overall, we enjoyed our stay and the location was great. For the price we paid, we did expect things to be as described and clean, but the room itself was worth it. We would love to return once renovations are finished to see if/how these things were addressed, this could easily be a 5 star review if these things were addressed. I took pictures of our room before we left, sorry for the unmade beds, usually I take them first thing but I...