Holiday Inn Express & Suites Meadowlands Area by IHG — Hotel in Carlstadt

5-star disappointment, 1-star experience! 🏨😤

Welcome to the Holiday Inn Express of your nightmares! Prepare for a stay that'll make you question your life choices.

Culinary Catastrophe Ever wondered what disappointment tastes like? Look no further than their cinnamon rolls. These sad excuses for pastries are so far from the Holiday Inn Express standard, they might as well be serving cardboard circles with a sprinkle of cinnamon. And don't get me started on the rest of the food – it's an adventure in mediocrity.

Room with a Light Show Forget blackout curtains, we've got a gap-tastic light show! Our room came with its very own spotlight – a blinding LED parking lot lamp beaming directly at the bed. Who needs sleep when you can pretend you're being abducted by aliens all night?

Hydration Highway Robbery Thirsty? Hope you brought your wallet! $3 for a small bottle of water, $6 for a large. Because nothing says "valued IHG member" like price-gouging on H2O. Free water? That's for lesser hotel chains, darling.

Staff Charm School Dropouts Our front desk staff have perfected the art of indifference. They'll make you feel right at home – if your home is full of disinterested rocks. Customer satisfaction? Never heard of her.

Aquatic Adventures Cold showers are all the rage, right? On day two, you'll get to experience the exhilaration of an ice-cold wake-up call. It's like a polar plunge, minus the fun!

High-Tech Frustrations Our door key mechanism keeps you on your toes. Will it work this time? It's like playing a real-life game of chance every time you return to your room!

Symphonic Slumbers Who needs a sound machine when you can enjoy the live concert of your upstairs neighbor's footsteps? It's like a 24/7 tap dancing show, complete with surround sound!

Location, Location, Aggravation Sure, we're in a prime spot. But is it worth enduring all this? That's for you to decide (spoiler alert: it's not).

Housekeeping Heroes In a plot twist, our housekeeping staff are actually competent. They're the unsung heroes in this comedy of errors – give them a raise and send the rest packing!

Save yourself the trouble and book elsewhere. Unless, of course, you enjoy collecting material for your stand-up comedy routine. You've been...

After many years of loyalty and always staying at HIE and Crown Plaza hotels, we were very disappointed with the HIE at Meadowlands, NJ. Let's start from the beginning:

We booked way in advance and were not recognized and I had to ask for the points as Gold members, The reception person stroke has somewhat rude

My profile asks for top floor and away from the elevator. We got a room in the 2nd floor when the property has at least 2 more floors and 2hen I asked to change the room, again the receptionist was borderline angry we did. We receive the 3rd floor still not the top floor. Now we know from the previous time in that place there are better rooms above.

Now we were to busy to complain about the room but

a) The room was too hot and lowering the thermostat which looked ancient did not help and we were too hot during the night. The A/C was dead with no lights and any control so we were prevented from cooling the room.

b) Later when I wanted to use the TV for my grandson, it was dead and I couldn't find the power plug

c) Some of the beside small lights were coming apart

The room had an old look and feel as compared to the previous stay and it's my guess that the angry receptionist screwed us by allocating this terrible room.

Breakfast - I don't know if this is now a trend at HIE hotels but it had a feeling of trying to save money. There was only one condiment, the eggs were cold and not tasty and so was the turkey sausage. The yogurts were miniscule. In general it was not that clean not surprising as we saw only one person taking care of the place.

There is more but suffice for now, We will have to take a very serious look if to continue with IHG chain after years of not looking at other properties. Close to this place, there is a hotel similar to this one and two different families were very satisfied with it. Also the direct bus to New York is...

Partner and I stayed the weekend for a wedding. We had an OK experience though, truthfully, were it not for the wedding party discount, we probably would've opted for another hotel.

We got a pretty clear impression from the get-go that this place is geared towards lower-income people. Lots of big, noisy families running up and down the halls. On the morning we were scheduled to check out, we witnessed a loud argument between several of the housekeeping staff literally right outside our door. The surrounding area in general isn't so great (save for the trippin' Mexican restaurant next door). Lobby breakfast is a venerable feeding frenzy, and with nowhere near enough space for everyone.

The hotel has a tiny sundries shop and a serviceable indoor pool (4.9 ft deep). There's also a minimalist fitness room next to the pool. It only has some cardio equipment and a few light dumbbells, but at least it's open 24-hours.

Maybe the best thing this Holiday Inn Express has going for it is the fact that it has multiple entrances. Our room was literally feet from our parking spot, especially handy for transporting our luggage and keeping an eye on our vehicle. Normally, you're forced to stay at a Motel 6 for that kind of convenience. It would've been nice if there was more than one ice machine in the entire hotel, though, and that it wasn't located on the top floor.

As for our room, it was fine. King bed and most of the usual amenities. For some reason, we were given a handicapped room, which came with a walk-in shower and (for some reason) two showerheads. But it was clean and comfortable. It was a little hard to sleep the first night due to someone in the adjacent room blasting an old sitcom on their TV.

All in all, nice room, but we probably wouldn't stay at this Holiday Inn Express again unless we were on a shoestring budget and every other hotel in the...