Holiday Inn Express & Suites St. Louis West - Fenton by IHG — Hotel in Fenton

We stayed at this location with my husband while he was working and part of spring break. We chose it based on location, price, pool, and express breakfast. I really liked the staff members at the front desk and express breakfast that we talked with daily. They were probably the only reason I would suggest this hotel for our situation.They were extremely helpful and nice to talk to. The only one I didn't care for was the front desk manager. As I tried to compliment all the other staff, she kept cutting me off to talk about the original question I had which had already been solved. It was like she didn't want to hear compliments about them. The first thing I didn't like is the set up. The pool is directly in front of the front desk as you walk in with no privacy. That means every guest and staff member sees you. I have never had a pool directly in the lobby. And the food area was right to the right of that with NO separation. It was very cramped. The fitness center is right there too and the machines were awful. They have 1 bike, 1 treadmill, and 1 elliptical in a very small room that again everyone can see you as you work out right in front of the front desk. The express breakfast is great. My only issue is 9:30 is way to early to end it. Not everyone is there on business trip. We wanted to come to just sleep in late every day but we were forced to be up at 8:30 everyday to eat. Why can't it go until maybe 11? Again not everyone is gonna get up early in MO. Its not a place like FL where you want to go to Disney or beaches. My next complaint is the cleaning staff. Starting early every morning as they cleaned the rooms they banged the door closed every 5 seconds. People are trying to sleep. Prop something against the door so it doesn't close and make so much noise. I talked to the front staff about this and I was told there has been many complaints about this and one of the staff members had experienced it themselves and hates it also. Hotel is a place to sleep and relax. We didn't want any staff members in our room during our stay because we have our laptops and personals in there. I asked the front desk or cleaning staff for towels and things that needed replacing. I specifically asked the front desk to keep the items at the front desk and I would pick them up after dinner that night. When I returned I was told that the items were in our room, even though we had the sign on the door. I didn't appreciate that. The pool is very basic with no hot tub that we are used to having. The room is very boring and really could be updated to look and feel tropical. We continually had problems with the WI-FI and had to call every day several times and they would reboot the router and it would be fixed but then go back awhile later. We had 4 people in the room on laptops and smartphones and needed WI-FI. My daughters 13 and 16 years old went to the computer room and when approaching the computer a inappropriate site was there that really disgusted them. The staff member went and turned it off, but there should be protection to not allow inappropriate stuff on the computers. I tried calling the hotel manager about all this but he is on vacation this week. I hope there will be some changes made to this hotel, but this will not be our hotel of choice in the future. My husband travels to MO a lot but had never stayed at this hotel prior. Again, this has nothing to do with the hotel staff Christine, Dave, Dee, or Shelly that were the best part...

I called at 12:30pm. Before I was even able to ask for the appliance I have just bought and left here the man working on duty, Allen, came off bothered and rude. When I asked for someone to check if I left my item there three days prior, he told me to call back tomorrow when housekeeping was in.

How is housekeeping not coming everyday? With a manager? I called back to ask him if there was a manager on duty who had access to the lost and found which he previously told me was "vast" (maybe because they make it difficult for people visiting to retrieve their lost items in the first place) and this is when he was very smug about himself being the manager.

I don't have an issue with policy but I do have an issue with miserable people being overly eager to shut their customers down. There are some people you run into doing their jobs you can tell just can't wait to say no, can't wait for any hint of confrontation and invite negativity and that was Allen.

Be so happy to keep a $50 appliance from someone. I would rather take the path of staying places that have the same or higher quality (this place is truly nothing special) for the same price WITH normal workers who are just doing their jobs than support a place with rude, snarky management.

Moral of story - it's not worth bringing yourself or loved ones here who may have valuables and then be treated like I was. There's no reason at noon on a weekday someone can't check for that so the person can grab the item while they're still in town, but more so there's even less reason for a so called manager to be soooo happy and excited about shutting someone down which was a strong attitude in this convo. I kept bracing myself for it as soon as it started as I'm someone who avoids people like that completely.

Lastly,, the pool was small and dirty, didn't have that fresh smell most do. There was a bug in the breakfast room (did not see any any other times), and honestly the whole facility was clean at a glance but there were tiny blood stains on our top blanket and we almost asked for a room change then. The rest of the stay was fine just things you notice in the public bathrooms, like someone left a SYRINGE out on top of the "sharps" container they're supposed to be disposed in. I was really surprised to see that, I'd never seen a sharps container outside a hospital but to see a needle just laying there was a little disturbing.

You can check my profile and see I have almost never ever left a bad review but I will let others know when...

To start, the only upside to this property was the manager on duty, I believe her name was Lucy. Her name badge had her shortened name but the sign on the wall had her "government name". She was friendly, knew that I was an IHG member and even wrote my rewards points on the check in card! Then my family and I entered room 106... Disgusting! The room smelled like cigarettes as soon as the air was put on, ever change the filter? We needed to leave the air off the whole night. Why this hotel allows smokers to smoke at the back of the property where the air intakes are is beyond me. Then let's talk about the tub (see pic). I was needing to give my 3 year old son a bath since we were on the road for two days, but I wouldn't allow anyone to set foot in this mildew nastiness. Ever hear of Mr Clean magic eraser? Clorox? Scrubbing bubbles? The lighting in the bathroom was even dingier, perhaps to hide the fact that no one cleaned it! If I looked up, there was only one bulb where there is supposed to be two (see pic). Last the carpet was stained and I would not let anyone walk around barefoot, as I couldn't imagine how many dirty boots, shoes and crusty toes made its way in this room. If they didn't clean the bathroom, I am highly doubtful they carpet clean anything in their rooms. Perhaps overall this added to the stench. Needless to say, my family and I woke up super early to get out quickly! If there is a question why I didn't change rooms... We were driving for 12 hours and I just lugged in a cart full of bags and suitcases, along with a sleeping three year old and a pet dog. We were all tired and just dealt with it since we just wanted to sleep and get back on the road for our next 12 hour drive. However, I want to be sure that others get a full synopsis of our experience to ensure that they don't have to endure this...