Holiday Inn Express & Suites Carlsbad Beach by IHG — Hotel in Carlsbad

For the record, I have never left a bad review for any hotel in my life, but the experience I had with this hotel, coupled with the treatment I received by management, compounded by the frustrations on not being able to speak to any USA representative arrive drove me into a first class FURY.

•  DANIRA THE MANAGER AND THIS CHAIN'S ABILITY TO REACH ANYONE AT THE TOP ARE DEPLORABLE.  *

I can deal with the low quality breakfast and the annoying parking charges but what started out as the main concern of the NOISE was only escalated because of my REPEATED attempts to get my concerns addressed and resolved with management!

So on check in the first room they gave me had a little too much freeway noise so they offered me a top floor room 322 in what I thought seemed like a good location but the disturbance wasn’t  coming from outside it was THE VERY LOUD PLUMBING COMING FROM INSIDE THE WALLS/CEILING!!!

Plumbing noise wouldn’t normally seem like much of a big deal but when you get woken up at 6:50 in the morning and you sandwich your head between 2 pillows trying desperately to get back to sleep after over an hour of tossing and turning yeah it is a big deal!

From 6:50 AM throughout the morning, it seemed like every time anyone took a shower or turned on any water fixture that the loud noise reverberated through the walls or ceiling. I don’t know how this is possible, but it was loud and almost constant. On and off and on and off, it was crazy making.

Upon check out I filed a detailed complaint about the noise with nice receptionist Gabby.  She stood there by her keyboard for about five or 10 minutes typing in all of the notes in detail. The only thing she said she could offer me for an apology would be to comp my parking, which was $13.

I also played her the audio recording of the water coming through the walls and even she herself agreed yeah that’s pretty loud. I don’t blame you.

I pointed to my face which was not looking its best  and said do I look like someone that had a good night sleep in your hotel please be honest. She was honest enough to say yeah you do look a little bit tired which I at least appreciate her honesty. On top of that I had a first date that morning for brunch so a poorly rested face certainly did not help.

Sorry. No dice. I asked for a manager and she said one would be in after 3 o’clock That day and would call me back

No callback Sunday, Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. I finally had to take the initiative on Wednesday and got a hold of DANIRA THE WORST HOTEL MANAGER EVER! She said that was her first day back and didn’t know anything about it and apparently the report hadn’t gone to anyone, but she said she would look into it. Here we go again. No call back Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

No solutions offered. No apology for not calling back. No reason for not calling back. No personality. No answers. No compassion. Stone cold wall!

Now I'm disputing both nights for my misery!

No ability to EVER speak to anyone in the USA! I tried all their numbers! 800–621–0555. 877–424–2449. 888–211–9874. But they ALL GO OFFSHORE!

On top of that all of the time that I spent having the front desk, make the notes those notes, State internal and we never transferred to the corporate office so there’s not even a case number to explore

The bottom line is I now filed a dispute with my credit card company for both nights! The amount of time and energy and frustration I have invested is disgusting.

SHAME ON THIS HOTEL CHAIN.

She offered no real compassion for the problem. She offered no solution. She offered nothing. She didn’t even say one time hey I’m really sorry that you had such a horrible stay in our hotel. That’s not the experience we like our customers to have or any of the typical...

I will have to say that in the past 6 years of traveling that I have done...I have never found what I found in the Carlsbad Holiday Inn Express and suites. While the hotel is aesthetically pleasing and looks to have been remodeled in recent years. I can say for some certainty that there are some issues at least on the first floor. It will not stop me from staying here but I will not be on the first floor as it is rather musty.

When I showed up to the hotel the staff was nice and greeted me as a spire member. (I am a spire member because I stay in holiday inns more than any other...not just because of my credit card). They also upgraded me to a king which was room 117 which I was happy about. I spent the next couple of days in a musty room even after the housekeepers cleaned. The third day I was in the room, I returned from work and when I sat down on the toilet I was surprised to find a large bunch of something I could not believe...MUSHROOMS! They were growing out of the baseboard next to the shower! I hadn't paid much attention to the spot before but when I looked closer it seemed to me like there had been a leak there for some time. I immediately took a photo and went to the front desk to report it.

The girl at the front was as helpful as she could be and promptly called the maintenance supervisor and housekeeping. The removed the mushrooms and bleached the area as well as cleaned the rest of the room. Shortly thereafter I received a call from the front desk asking me to switch rooms. They upgraded me to a suite which was just a bigger room with a couch and said they had to do some deep cleaning. I agreed when they also told me that they were going to add extra points to my membership.

The points are not there yet but the ones accumulated during my stay are. Also, a few hrs after I had moved out of that room it looked as though they had already booked it for the night. I sure hope they fix whatever issue there is in there or someone may get sick. To top it off, the window in the suite they gave me was broken on the inside pane when I walked in.

I will still stay here again and again as long as I get the same rate but I hope the maintenance gets tightened up... This really is not what I have come to expect from a Holiday Inn. Especially one so near the coast of Carlsbad.

Oh...and the beds kind of suck compared to most of the holiday inns I...

The room, definitely needs an upgrade. a desk chair that is not ripped, a bathroom mirror that is hung straight and a TV unit that is not scratch, oh an a TV with more than about 10 digital channels would be nice. We didn’t get hand soap to wash our hands in the bathroom, I asked about this and apparently there was none. Very unhygienic of the hotel not to offer soap considering the last two years of life.

Breakfast is nice, they are all the same only I would like to just have staying guest attended breakfast. As on a few occasion people entered straight from the street one lady that helped herself too breakfast even had an ankle monitor on and was quite happy to tell everyone trying to eat breakfast. If breakfast is open to helping people that need it, I understanding only it would be nice for paying guest to know that breakfast is open to anyone that knows about it.

During our stay we had a group of school soccer players over two days, which means that more food is generally eaten and drunk. Two mornings we had to use milk that was not in the individual cartons, bananas were never seen after day 1, yogurt choices were down to one and no hot chocolate. Yes, it is hard to keep everyone happy with supply but this group of school kids would have booked in advance, maybe the hotel should prepare for this situation.

Room service, I did not put out the green sign and wanted my room cleaned, do you think it happened? No, I went to reception to ask why and was told that they are under staffed and had to clean a 5th of the rooms. I am glad that me as a guest is not seen as a priority to have a roomed clean, clearly my hard earned money is not worth the time. As a hotel guest you pay to have these services if the hotel can not offer these services, tell the guest or offer a discount for half the services of the hotel.

Pool, the morning of Sunday at my stay I went for a swim, around 10am. Firstly the pool was not open, it apparently opens at 9am. Once we got it open pool towels were not available as they were all over the ground from the day/night before. Yes, I know it is hard to get staff, if this is the case close half the hotel and let the guests know otherwise you are expecting these facilities to be functional and up to some sort of standard when paying full...