Holiday Inn El Paso Airport by IHG — Hotel in El Paso

Dear Holiday Inn Management,

I am writing to formally express my concerns regarding my stay at the Holiday Inn El Paso Airport, located at 6351 Gateway West, El Paso, Texas 79925. I checked in on Monday, February 3rd, and my stay is scheduled to conclude on Friday, February 14th.

I chose this hotel because it offered the government per diem rate for my work-related trip. However, I was extremely disappointed by the condition of my room and the overall maintenance of the hotel. Below are the key issues I encountered during my stay:

Room Condition: Upon checking in, I noticed that my room was not well-kept. The bathroom appeared to be under renovation, with peeling paint on the walls. The lampshades were broken and inoperable, with one not working at all and another leaning over. The sofa and ottoman were covered in what appeared to be oil stains.

Refrigerator & Safe Issues: The refrigerator in my room was not functional, which I discovered after my food and fruit spoiled overnight. When I reported this to the front desk, they eventually replaced it with another refrigerator that had been cleaned with a strong chemical (possibly Pine-Sol), making it unusable for food storage. After further complaints, I received another refrigerator, but it had ice buildup in the freezer with no way to adjust the temperature, causing everything I stored to freeze solid. Additionally, the safe in my room was not working until maintenance later replaced the battery.

Fitness Center Malfunctions: When I visited the gym, I found that only one of the cardio machines was operational. The next day, all three electric machines, including the treadmill, were out of order, leaving only a stationary bike available for use. When I reported this to the front desk, the response was dismissive, with no effort to resolve the issue.

Elevator Outages: On multiple occasions, the elevators were not functioning, forcing guests to use the stairs. Signage was inconsistent, making it unclear which elevators were working.

Given these significant inconveniences and the subpar condition of my room, I strongly believe that rooms undergoing renovation should not be rented out at full price. The hotel was aware of these issues yet continued to book guests, knowing that many of us had limited options due to government per diem

I am attaching photos as evidence of the poor room conditions. While I remained at the hotel due to prior arrangements and the difficulty of finding another per diem-approved hotel, I can confidently say that I will not choose this location again in the future unless these issues are properly addressed.

I would appreciate a prompt response regarding this matter and the steps the hotel will take to resolve my concerns.

Thank you for your time and...

I needed a hotel for a red-eye flight out of El Paso Airport, so I booked with this hotel as it was 5 minutes away and just a doorstep from the airport and rental car return, which I'd have to navigate at 2 am in a city I'm not familiar with. The staff, upon entering, was very friendly and personable, but sadly, that's where the good things about the hotel started and ended. When I entered my room, I was struck by the odor of dust and slight mildew. As I entered, I realized that there were sunken parts of the floor under the carpet, with one spot close to the bed being weak enough that I feared I might fall through if I stepped on it, so I made a point to put my bag there to avoid accidentally walking on it. The bathroom was clean, but the bathtub was showing signs of damage and age, and there were several large chips and peeling in the ceramic. When I sat on the bed, I was affronted by how much dust was on the linens and was left with the impression that my bedding hadn't been laundered in a long time. I wasn't there to do much more than try to get a few hours of sleep before my flight, but it was difficult with the level of dust covering the sheets, and I had to take a shower before I left to rinse the hotel room off of my body. Sadly, the fridge was also unplugged when I entered, which I hadn't realized, so the food that I had put in the night before was lukewarm when I opened it the following morning. Sadly, that was where the mildew smell was coming from, as I had mentioned earlier. The stench left me not very motivated to use the contents of the fridge I had brought along, and so I wound up throwing most of it away. All in all, I left my visit tired, groggy, hungry, and freshly washed from needing to get the smell of the room off of me. I don't usually write negative reviews and really try to give every property and space the benefit of the doubt, but this stay left me a lot worse for wear than I intended, and a part of me wonders if I just should have slept on a bench in the airport and saved a few...

Firstly, I arrived at around 8 pm on a Wednesday. I was kindly greeted at the desk by the clerk whom gave me a run down of amenities (we'll get into that later) and handed me my card-key.

I then asked her when the bar closes and she said "normally it's open until 10pm, but it's closing early today". Huh? Closing "early"? How does an amenity "close early"?

It's closed early 5 of the 10 nights I've stayed and there's no excuse other than "it's slow".

She then claimed "we have breakfast in the morning from 6 o'clock until 9 o'clock (or something like that). I went to eat breakfast and discovered that it's was breakfast from the restraunt, and was indeed something they charged for. They make it sound like it's a free continental breakfast, but it's indeed not.

The fitness center should just be closed. Most all of the the equipment is broken and there's no water cooler available in there, or anywhere else in the building. They used to have a water cooler next to the coffee, but that's disappeared.

The pool is nice, except for the fact that they allowed guests to put the lawn furniture in it to sit on and play music so loudly that it could be heard in the parking lot in the early hours of the night.

I stayed in room 220 and 216. Avoid room 220 at all costs. It's positioned directly above the restraunt/bar kitchen and their exhaust fan shakes the entire room.

The hot water is barely warm. A like warm shower after a long day of work is hardly enjoyable, much less effective at cleaning. It's just barely warmer than room temperature.

When checking out the first time @ 0500 on a Saturday, I waited at the counter for more than 20 minutes waiting for the clerk. I repetitively called the desk with no answer. After going behind the counter and knocking twice, the clerk came from the back room, claiming "I was on an important call". Huh? Don't lie, honey. Just say you were sleeping. I wouldn't hate in that.

Lastly, OMG the highway noise. It's like the windows are OPEN if you're...