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

We flew to Bismarck from Costa Rica to surprise my family at a big reunion and this hotel blew me away. Forgive me, this will be long ;)||My daughter and I arrived and as we checked in we were VERY impressed with the cleanliness of the lobby (I’ll come back to that). The front desk staff was incredibly kind - not “this is my job so I have to be nice” but genuinely seemed happy be speaking with me. As we were checking in, it was down pouring. I asked if there was anywhere close I could walk to buy an umbrella, as the heavy rain ruined our plans to walk across the street to surprise my family. One man (who I later found out was the district manager) gave me a couple options, including a Walmart that was 2mi away. As I thanked him and prepared to go up to my room, he added, “I’d be happy to give you a ride! It’s not far - would you like to go now?” I was floored. Normally I’m not in the habit of accepting rides from strangers, but this was ND and everyone was so helpful and nice. I gratefully accepted his offer, but then asked if he would drop us off across the street instead of bringing us to Walmart because after we surprised my family we wouldn’t need an umbrella anymore. He was happy to do it, and we arranged to meet a couple hours later. ||We proceeded to go to the room. As we were walking there my daughter commented twice on how clean the hotel was. It wasn’t just “we’re going to slap a little paint on and not repair the cracked tiles or broken trim pieces and hope for the best”. This hotel was legit one of the cleanest I’ve ever stayed in (and we travel a lot)!! ||Literally everything was immaculate! The bed was very comfortable, the bathroom was spotless, and even the drawers were wiped clean and ready for use! It was very impressive, and a great start to our special weekend!||We freshened up and met our ride downstairs. Just as I approached the front desk he pulled up under the entryway, ready to chauffeur us to our party. ||Our surprise visit was awesome, and everyone was impressed to hear that the DM of our hotel delivered us to the party. We had a short three day visit and cannot express how much everything about this hotel and its staff contributed to our experience! We are in the process of relocating back to the USA and my daughter suggested more than once that we move to Bismarck because “everyone is SO nice here!” ||Big thanks and a grateful heart to everyone who made our stay better than I ever thought...

We flew to Bismarck from Costa Rica to surprise my family at a big reunion and this hotel blew me away. Forgive me, this will be long ;)

My daughter and I arrived and as we checked in we were VERY impressed with the cleanliness of the lobby (I’ll come back to that). The front desk staff was incredibly kind - not “this is my job so I have to be nice” but genuinely kind. As we were checking in, it was down pouring. I asked if there was anywhere close I could walk to buy an umbrella, as the heavy rain ruined our plans to walk across the street to surprise my family. One man (who I later found out was the district manager) gave me a couple options, including a Walmart that was 2mi away. As I thanked him and prepared to go up to my room, he added, “I’d be happy to give you a ride! It’s not far - would you like to go now?” I was floored. Normally I’m not in the habit of accepting rides from strangers, but this was ND and everyone was so helpful and nice. I gratefully accepted his offer, but then asked if he would drop us off across the street instead of bringing us to Walmart because after we surprised my family we wouldn’t need an umbrella anymore. He was happy to do it, and we arranged to meet a couple hours later.

We proceeded to go to the room. As we were walking there my daughter commented twice on how clean the hotel was. It wasn’t just “we’re going to slap a little paint on and not repair the cracked tiles or broken trim pieces and hope for the best”. This hotel was legit one of the cleanest I’ve ever stayed in (and we travel a lot)!!

Literally everything was immaculate! The bed was very comfortable, the bathroom was spotless, and even the drawers were wiped clean and ready for use! It was very impressive, and a great start to our special weekend!

We freshened up and met our ride downstairs. Just as I approached the front desk he pulled up under the port cochere, ready to chauffeur us to our party.

Our surprise visit was awesome, and everyone was impressed to hear that the DM of our hotel delivered us to the party. We had a short three day visit and cannot express how much everything about this hotel and its staff contributed to our experience! We are in the process of relocating back to the USA and my daughter suggested more than once that we move to Bismarck because “everyone is SO nice here!”

Big thanks and a grateful heart to everyone who made our stay better than I ever thought...

The hotel itself is fine. For some reason the staff has an obvious communication problem. We stayed for 2 nights at this hotel and honestly I wish we would have stayed somewhere else. Our first morning was met with disappointment since instead of the typical Holiday Inn breakfast we were greated with green signs apologizing that the hot breakfast items were unavailable. I asked the front desk what was going on and they said their oven broke down. I asked if our room rate would be reduced since we would now be paying for breakfast down the street. The staff assured me they would speak to the manager about it, and the oven technician would have everything fixed by morning. That afternoon we went to use the pool and were greated with a orange sign stating spa closed. Apparently the PH was off and they had to fix it. Ok. So the day didn't go well but everything will be taken care of the next day right? Nope. Same green signs apologizing for the lack of breakfast. When I went to check out I asked to have my rate reduced since the hotel did not deliver as advertised. I was informed that was not possible since the hotel Bill's in the middle of the night. As for breakfast the front desk had no clue the oven wasn't working. He actually went back to talk to the cooking staff to verify it and see the signs for himself. How could the front desk not know considering it was the second day of the the problem, and the signs were twenty feet away across a open lobby. The front desk did offer to give me some extra rewards points as compensation but for some reason he was having computer trouble and couldn't. After leaving the hotel I called Holiday Inn to speak to the manager. I was told they would be calling within 48 hours. Well here we are a week later and nothing. Obviously this hotel has a somewhat brilliant strategy. Advertise services they dont actually provide, charge you for it, and when you complain, develope a computer problem or just be unavailable to return...