Holiday Inn Express Clanton by IHG — Hotel in Clanton

I am a Spire Elite Member with almost 900,000 points. This means I spend more nights in a hotel than in my home. It also means I have to spend a fortune on hotels. Usually, hotels value the business, but not this one. In the 22 years I have been traveling for work, I have never encountered such a poor overall staff. Of course you get a difficult person here and there, which happens everywhere. In this hotel, ALL of the staff but one has been a nightmare. The front desk manager has been a pleasure and remained professional.

The breakfast woman, Linda, guards the door- literally stands in front of the door until 6:01 am. I was redirected and spoken to as though I was a child and scolded for trying to get a cup of coffee at 5:59 am. No food, just coffee that was already made.She was extremely condescending and implied I am incompetent stating "you must not know how to tell time". Then she opened 30 minutes late the following day.

I not only had a room here for myself but also rooms for the guys who are working with me. If it wasn't so much trouble to move everyone, I would have left. We were working 16 hour days and just cannot deal with the extra aggravation.

The most alarming event during the stay was for one of the other guys. They threw all of his food (that he just purchased) out. That claim that they "thought he checked out" but they left all of his clothing and only threw out all of his food. It may not seem like a big deal to some, but when you labor 16 hours all you want to do is get to the hotel- shower, eat, and go to sleep. Going out for food is less than ideal and adds additional costs. When he questioned them regarding the incident, they literally retrieved all his his food from the garbage (after sitting in there a full day) and handed it back to his in a plastic bag. Appalling......honestly disgusting and appalling...

Virginia gave my wife a difficult time making reservations, specifically telling her she was "not allowed to make a reservation". She was rude and unprofessional. Virginia prioritized smoking her cigarette over checking my identification and credit card.. she can "just say she saw it".

I am usually way too busy to write these reviews and I never really have had such a terrible experience that I deem them necessary. I do tip well and reward a positive experience and value a good staff. I have letters of recommendation and gratitude from other hotels that I have lived at for months. I am not the kind of guest that complains often. It would have been nice if the manager would have bothered to contact us after our request. This whole experience has left us ruling out Holiday Inn and probably going to work more with their competitor, who I have also have a high status reward membership with. Over the years, the competitor has proven they value my business...

Went to check in 09/07/13. Service was terrible from the start by Donna stating we were not allowed to park our boats in the parking lot and would have to park in the service road! Stated that she is not getting in trouble form the owners and Mgr and would not check us in. Asked to speak to the mgr and she basically said he would say the same thing! Told her I wanted him to tell us that himself. The mgr informed her that there are three spots for boats in the back so appearantly she does not know what they have in the lot. We also informed that this is not our first rodeo parking our boats and we always disconnect our boats so it won't take up extra spaces. We would have gone to another hotel but everything was full. Gave her my military iD and CC dropped in on the counter and stated I will not be disrespected and don't slam it on the counter! Told her I didn't do that and I dropped it on the counter. She then proceeded to say I need an ID card I said you have it. She wanted my DL and I said that's not what you asked for. I informed her that I wanted to speak to the mgr and to have him come down. She never informs him. I had to go to the hotel next door to speak to him and he stated that he would talk to her about the situation. Mgr was never informed that we wanted to talk to him. The maintenance person apologize for the situation and I said its not his fault. He said it makes us look bad. Checked out around 4 am and they don't have comp coffee and Hanna or Heather said we don't make coffee till 0530. I commented what happens when ppl check out or check in early. She said there is a gas station down the street.. Be advised that you have to enter thought the side doors! Front entrance does not have a key access to get in so its a waste of time parking in the front if your leaving early. Front desk did not recognize me as a priority club member, did not give me the Internet access code which I had to get it from the maintenance man because there was no one at the desk. Hotel is really nice looking but I think the staff (Donna) needs a crash education on hotel hospitality! Mgt she be on hand to deal with poor service when they have staff who does know how to deal with customers! Our room (3rd floor) as really hot when we went in. Took about an 1 1/2 hr for the room to cool off. Hotel should make it a habit to have the AC turned on if there is a reservation on their list. I wasted my points...

Great service from staff, very friendly and courteous. From booking to changing reservations twice ( the last one within hours of wanting to check in a day early,) to check in. I was very pleased with their attentiveness and the way they made me feel like i was not just a customer but truly a wanted guest. So many places today make people feel like they have inconvenienced them by changing reservations. Especially twice. But they were polite and very accomodating.

Clean room. Comfortable bed. Quiet on my floor. I think the staff went the extra mike to place all who were there for the same conference/class on the same floor. That was a plus. Of course i didnt realize they had done that until 2 days later. It was appreciated!

Our class room was freezing. Seriously! In the Summer. And thanks to tropical cyclone Cindy it was raining and windy 4 out 5 of the days of my stay. So for a couple of days, by the time I got to room in the evening, I had to turn the heat on just to get the chill out of my bones. Certainly was thankful that the air AND heat worked. As some hotels will " lock out" the heat in the summer months.

My key card stopped working twice. The 1st time it was because I put it in my wallet, even though it was not next to other credit cards, it still "erased" it. The 2nd time I must have accidentally got it too close to my phone while I was talking and juggling books and holding the key card to open door. Again... Absolutely no hassell or problems whatsoever to get a new one from the front desk.

The only 2 things i would recommend is 1) black out curtains. There black out curtains but they hang on each side of the double window and will not close to cover the windows. They are not installed to do so. So the patio lights were shining in my window. Just made it hard for me to get to sleep. My temporary solution was to use an angel tac pin to pin the curtains together in the middle so most of the bottom part of the windows were covered. That helped a lot and I knew it wouldn't damage the curtains.

2. the sheets were comfortable but made a swishy sound. There was a sheet, a very thin type of comforter (not really a comforter) with a sheet on top of it. Odd. They could be more comfortable but that's not a deal breaker.

I would stay again and I would recommend others...