Holiday Inn Express & Suites Baton Rouge East by IHG — Hotel in Baton Rouge

I have been an IHG rewards member for many years and an IHG patron for many more. My wife and I booked two rooms there, one for two nights which was for us and one for one night which was for a family member.

We arrived in the late afternoon The desk clerk was very polite and gave us the keys to our first room. Upon entering the room, we discovered the lighted mirror in the bathroom was not working. After determining we needed the light it would give, I went back to the desk and asked for another room. I was given the keys to a second room, and we made the trek to it. When we arrived, we discovered a wall lamp was missing. You could tell it had been there at one point, because there were two holes in the wall where it had been mounted. In this case, we needed the light that would have been offered as well, so my wife waited in that room, while I went to the desk and asked for another.

I was given the keys to a third room, and something was wrong with that one as well, but I was not taking notes at this point and, frankly, I don’t remember what it was. I was given the keys to a FOURTH room with my wife still waiting in the second room as we did not want to keep lugging our belongings from room-to-room.

When I got to the fourth room and opened the door, a large ball of hair was tumble-weeding out of the bathroom across the entrance-way floor. We were both frazzled by the experience but tired enough to gingerly pick up whomever’s hair, flush it and get checked in to rest. When fluffing the pillows, we found one pillow that looked as if someone had been sleeping on it. It was VERY wrinkled and clearly not wrinkled from being laundered. I suspect that an employee may have “taken a break” in the room. That was pretty gross, but we put the pillow aside and accepted that it just wasn’t going to get any better.

I feel that the housekeeping staff clearly isn’t informing management of issues in the rooms that need correcting. I’m assuming that part of their job is to look out for and report such matters.

The next morning, I arose to make coffee and discovered the in-room coffeemaker was not working. Upon calling the front desk, the clerk informed me that I would need to come pick up another from the desk, which I did. Upon getting the second coffeemaker to the room, I discovered it did not work either. I contacted the desk again, and the clerk said she would get one and bring it to the room. Finally, that one worked. I will add that this employee was genuinely nice and helpful in rectifying the problem.

When we were leaving the room for the day, I stopped and asked the clerk to make sure we received a full bed linen change. She also asked if we would like the entire room cleaned and we said yes. When we returned late in the day, we discovered the beds still had not been made, although housekeeping clearly had been in the room as the dirty towels were gone and the trash had been emptied.

But, remarkably, they had not restocked the coffee for the (thankfully) working coffeemaker, however they had left additional sugar and creamer. There was ONE coffee pod for two people. Go figure. So, I went back to the front desk to ask for more coffee and there was a sign saying something to the effect of “we’ll be back”. So, I waited. Along with another man who finally left. Another man drove up and came to the desk, walked around and down a couple of hallways looking for someone, then he left as well.

This was one of the most frustrating experiences I have ever had staying at ANY hotel. I have written a letter to the CEO of IHG Americas to see if there is anything that...

I stayed with my family in Baton Rouge for a weekend for a track meet. I did not notice the banner on the website that said it was under renovation and it turned out to be a big problem. I have stayed in many hotels under renovation but never had an experience close to being as bad as this one. We overlooked the mess in the lobby and the paint smell from the paint splattered all over the inside of the elevators due to the renovation. It was harder to overlook the fact that our room was not finished. We rented the Queen Suite to have the little office and desk but there was no office and desk in this room. Just a big empty space where it should have been. The extra counter space would have been nice. I had to work on the laptop on the bed. The lack of the office I assume is why the only available mirror in the room was in the bathroom which created a real problem with 4 people trying to get ready in the mornings. You could definitely tell the room was being renovated by the compacted construction dust mashed into almost every corner. The air conditioner could barely keep the room cool in the rain and 65 degree weather. This was compounded by the fan in the bathroom not working so it didn't pull any heat or condensation out of the bathroom. So when anyone took a shower then opened the bathroom door, the room was flooded with more heat that choked out the AC. I went down the first night to ask about a different room only to hear the desk agent tell someone on the phone he had no available rooms. The night guy at the desk was as nice as he could be. The bigger problem was with the morning guy. This is a major concern. I noticed the morning of the second day that you could pull the door open without turning the handle because it wouldn't latch. So I tried closing the door several times to make it latch and was able to push it open without using the room key every time. I immediately went to the front desk because this is a safety issue to inform the guy at the front desk. I told him we'd be leaving at 7:00 and that someone needed to be there to address the safety issue. He told me that maintenance wouldn't be there until 8:30 so he'd leave a note. I told him that if our room was robbed because the door wouldn't lock, it would be a problem and he said he understood and it would be fixed. So of course when we got back to the room around 5 pm, I pushed the door and it opened with no key. I went to the front desk to ask why it wasn't fixed and the guy said he did not have any information that there was a problem and he'd make a note to check it when we left. So basically our safety issue was ignored, the day guy at the front desk lied and it wasn't important enough to call maintenance early or even attempt to look at it while we were there. We dealt with the incomplete room, the bad AC, no fan in the bathroom, the mess and everything else but the lack of concern for our safety is something I can't overlook. I travel quite a lot for work and I don't have to stay in Holiday Inn hotels. I don't think I...

I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Baton Rouge for a wedding that I was in and I must say that my expectations weren't met for my stay. I checked in pretty late due to the Mardi Gras traffic having such a long delayed drive my check in was actually pretty smooth. I was greeted by the night person and given my keys, pretty tired I went up showered and went to bed. About 3 am my room seemed to get really cold and I had the heaters on. I called down and was informed that there were two units in the room and using them both should help. Being aware I told the clerk what I had the temperature set at. It was a sold out night due to Mardi Gras so it would be notated for maintenance to check in the morning. So I did what I could to keep warm for the night. I severely suffer with my sinuses so the temperature changes triggered them during my entire stay. The next day I left out for my event so I was gone most of the day. The temperature outside dropping I left the heaters on in hopes that it would be warm when I returned. I returned about 11 pm so with limited parking I had to park in the very back of the hotel. I get out only to discover the back entrance was out of order and had to enter through the pool side. I made it to my room and it felt like a sauna. I thought it was from the units still being on heat so I adjusted the heat and decided to go and grab a bite to eat. I returned about midnight and the temperature in my room still hadn't changed. So I went down and spoke to Aaron who was the night person. I inform him of my room and how my sinuses were through the roof from the heat in my room and decided to ask for a late check out. I was told that he couldn't give me that as an option and that I would need to call down about 9am to see if my late check out could be granted. I asked even for Elite members and was told the same thing. I shook my head and went back to my room. The discomfort from the heat was so bad that I ended up taking multiple cold showers and wrapped in a towel to try stay cool but it didn't help. I was so aggravated from no resting becoming congested from my allergies room temperature I checked out early. At check out I made my complaints to the morning person and was told that my issues would be passed on the management. A week and a half later and I still haven't heard a sound from management. I have stayed at a lot of IHG properties so my complaints are never heard unless it's within extreme measures. I guess being Elite means nothing when you've never stayed at their...