Holiday Inn Express Charleston-Civic Center by IHG — Hotel in Charleston

We arrived to the hotel on Tuesday evening 11/2. Our stay was for two nights until 11/4. Check in was smooth. The first floor was very dusty and seemed unclean due to renovations. The 6th floor was very loud. Anytime someone walked by it sounded like they were walking into our room. The rooms were very nice and looked very clean! Everything worked well, the window was great for natural light, and the bathrooms were very nice. On our second day - 11/3 - we had trouble finding a parking spot. The hotel had booked more rooms than they had parking space for. We tried to find a parking space for 20 minutes before we finally pulled behind another car who was parked at the front of the hotel. We weren’t blocking anyone from getting out or getting past. We were out of the way of other guests, but it was the only option. When we went in, we asked the lady at the desk about parking and she said they had no alternative parking. We told her where we parked and she wanted to see. She left the desk while my husband showed her where he had parked. She immediately told him that wouldn’t work, they didn’t have anything to tell us, nor did she have any alternatives for parking. She told us that we needed to leave and find somewhere else to stay. WITHOUT trying to find any way to remedy the situation for us! It was 10:30pm at night, we were exhausted, my child was exhausted, and we had to completely pack up our room and search for another accommodation. I was and still am livid. We were refunded for the night of 11/3 since we were kicked out — but I feel that this treatment is unacceptable. Especially the fact that the situation wasn’t even attempted to be fixed. I would absolutely not recommend this hotel to anyone in the future - definitely not a until the parking issue is fixed - maybe...

We arrived to the hotel on Tuesday evening 11/2. Our stay was for two nights until 11/4. Check in was smooth. The first floor was very dusty and seemed unclean due to renovations. The 6th floor was very loud. Anytime someone walked by it sounded like they were walking into our room. The rooms were very nice and looked very clean! Everything worked well, the window was great for natural light, and the bathrooms were very nice. On our second day - 11/3 - we had trouble finding a parking spot. The hotel had booked more rooms than they had parking space for. We tried to find a parking space for 20 minutes before we finally pulled behind another car who was parked at the front of the hotel. We weren’t blocking anyone from getting out or getting past. We were out of the way of other guests, but it was the only option. When we went in, we asked the lady at the desk about parking and she said they had no alternative parking. We told her where we parked and she wanted to see. She left the desk while my husband showed her where he had parked. She immediately told him that wouldn’t work, they didn’t have anything to tell us, nor did she have any alternatives for parking. She told us that we needed to leave and find somewhere else to stay. WITHOUT trying to find any way to remedy the situation for us! It was 10:30pm at night, we were exhausted, my child was exhausted, and we had to completely pack up our room and search for another accommodation. I was and still am livid. We were refunded for the night of 11/3 since we were kicked out — but I feel that this treatment is unacceptable. Especially the fact that the situation wasn’t even attempted to be fixed. I would absolutely not recommend this hotel to anyone in the future - definitely not a until the parking issue is fixed - maybe...

We have stayed in this particular Holiday Inn Express often, about 8 times in the last 12 months. The facilities have been updated nicely in the past two years, but our opinion is that the quality of the stay has gone down.

On this stay, when we arrived at the front desk, the attendant was not friendly (not unfriendly, just not friendly), did not welcome us, and did not refer to amenity points or our Gold Elite status. We checked into our room (#329), to discover the beds were not made and the bathroom not cleaned. We went back to the lobby and the attendant gave us the key to a different room (#220) - without apology. We checked into our new room, and found it made up, but with just one wash cloth and one hand towel. I asked a housekeeping staff member for more, and she informed me that it was now policy to just put one in each room, because they were short of supplies. This has been an issue since at least February 2022, at which time I wrote an email to the hotel manager describing it. I picked up the phone to call the front desk to verify, but the clip holding the headset to the phone base was broken and wouldn't stay in. I held it in with my hand, and dialed the front desk, but nobody answered. When i went back down to the lobby again to verify the issue, there was nobody at the desk. I gave up; we made do, but not happily. Wash cloths and hand towels are not expensive. Considering what we pay for the room, it doesn't seem too much to ask to have at least one of each for each person in the room!

As a brand, we really have liked Holiday Inn Express over the years, in part because of the consistency of what we find in our rooms and in part because of the welcoming nature and friendly demeanor of staff. We will need to re-think staying at this...