Holiday Inn Express & Suites Galveston Beach by IHG — Hotel in Galveston

Lied to and laughed at by staff, including the manager. All bad happened prior to check-in, but led me to avoid further contact with no complaint avenue at the site.

There were about 30 people desiring an early check-in from cruise ships. I arrived prior to lunch. I knew I would not get in before noon, but wanted first on the list and it was my debarking time that led to that. A list was started and others joined as they arrived. I went to lunch and came back knowing I usually can get in about 1 pm with my status and experience with other IHG locations over the years.

Around 1 pm I went to ask status and was rudely told they had no rooms cleaned and “we got you, we’ll let you know”. I had seen the manager assign rooms and put in the file about 20 min before that. It is a very obvious process. She also got the sheet listing reservations out, the same paper used to write our phone numbers down, and looked it over while doing it. I began to notice how the desk clerk who was rude would look at all of us in the lobby and laugh. This happened frequently and it was apparent she was enjoying the show. Shortly after my inquiry, a worker with room attendant clothes left for the day so there were likely rooms clean if she was going home. I saw many of the others waiting getting the same treatment I had received being told there were no rooms clean over the next couple hours (I heard each one).

Shortly before 3 pm, I got in a conversation with the lady next to me about the situation. She informed me she had just looked at reviews and saw recent reviews with this complaint. Bad reviews started about a month or so prior, but not before then. We had both booked a couple months back before all the bad reviews. She checked into canceling at that point, but she would have been charged so she waited it out.

At 3 pm exactly they started calling people on the phone. The manager came out and told her to just call everybody because she just wanted to get it over with. So, the rooms were obviously ready well prior to 3 pm and they made us all wait anyway. The manager was in control and 1 of the desk clerks was rude and found the process funny. I have never been treated this way at IHG or anywhere else for that matter. When I am early I almost always get an early check-in. Everyone should, but I also have a loyalty membership which gives me benefits so I often am treated nicely. My membership was never mentioned.

If they would have told me their location policy was not to check anyone in prior to 3 pm I still would not have been happy, but it would have been better. Not only was this unnecessary, they lied about it and got pleasure watching us suffer by sitting in the lobby (some were sleeping) rather than in our empty rooms. This is a cruise port so early check-ins should be welcomed, when available. It costs them nothing and buys 5 star reviews. This bought 1 star because the behavior is completely unacceptable. If IHG does the right thing and cleans house this will be a nice location (the behavior observed does not deserve a second chance). The room was nice. I did not try the breakfast due to avoiding the people from the day before.

Earlier the rude lady left people in the locked luggage room to go through their stuff. I am sure they were honest, but there is a reason that is not supposed to happen. They were in there nearly 5 min before the nicer lady opened it and found them in there. She informed them that was not allowed and they would have to go through stuff elsewhere then come back. More problems with the rude lady and corrected by the nicer lady. The manager was nowhere to be seen at this point.

Hopefully others write reviews and call to complain. I will seek someone above the hotel as the manager was part of the problem. IHG can call everyone who checked-in about 3 pm on that day and will get the same story. None of us were happy and it was undeniable when we were all called up at once.

I usually do not write bad reviews and you can check that, but this was deserved.

I waited for my charges to post before...

I took my family to this hotel this past weekend for a vacation. First off, the positives, because it was not ALL horrible. 1) The breakfast was REALLY good. This is one of the best continental breakfasts I've had at a hotel in Galveston. 2) The hotel is a GREAT distance from the beach. 3) The shower had great water pressure. Weird pro, but a pro none the less!

Now the cons,1) the staff was very rude before and during my stay. I don't think I did anything to provoke anyone. From the start, everyone who answered the phone seemed annoyed that I was calling. This was unfortunate since I booked 3 rooms and spent well over $1000 for my stay. I booked a vacation in May for my family to stay in October and we were underwhelmed with the friendliness of the staff. Not everyone was bad, but alot of people were to the point that I just avoided them as much as possible. Along with the staff being rude, when I booked in may, I asked for my mom to have a front-facing balcony and for the other two rooms to be close by. They told me that was fine in May. I called the day before the trip and they said, we will see what we can do. (again, very rudely). When we get there, they said that wasn't possible. My mom was on the second floor and everyone else was on the 5th floor. 2) I was unaware that you had to pay for parking. I've stayed in many hotels in Galveston and have NEVER paid for parking. I will put this on me, because I do see now that parking is on the website. That alone would most likely be the reason I would not stay here again. Even the Holiday Inn Resort up the road doesn't charge for parking. Since my family brought 3 cars and stayed for 2 nights, this was an added expense I wasn't expecting. Had we known, we would have consolidated. Also, there is construction next to the hotel, which was definitely never mentioned. We saw people having to carry luggage from the garage to the hotel thru mud because it was rainy. Also, the garage ONLY has stairs, no working elevator. (NEVER mentioned anywhere) The people staying at this hotel seemed to be older, so this is definitely something to mention. 3) Another issue was cleanliness. The rooms were ok, my mom did have one roach on the ceiling of her restoom, but no issues after that. It was clear that the staff cleans VERY well. We saw people on ladders dusting lamp fixtures. But bigger areas like the pool, were unattended. When we went to the pool on day 1, there was a peeled banana inside the pool. We just grabbed a towel and took it out. But that wet banana was on the side of our pool the entire stay. Also while we were swimming, a kid hopped the fence with jeans and a t-shirt on and dived into the pool. I'm not sure if that happens often, but i will say the pool is EXTREMELY cloudy. If you put your hand in 6 inches deep, you couldn' t see it. It could be that kids are diving in fully clothed. 4) The last issue was pest control. The lobby was FILLED with bugs. I mentioned the bug in my mom's room, but the real bug issue was the lobby. As we were checking in, there was a beetle on the table. When we were leaving, we saw some other bug on the wall. And as we ate breakfast, we were SURROUNDED by flies. This could be fixed if they got some type of blowers on the front doors so that bugs didnt get in a easily. Like most people, im not a huge fan of bugs, so this was also a pretty big turn off.

All in all, this place seems WAY overpriced for what you get. There are cleaner rooms and pools with friendlier staff at a MUCH cheaper price. May I suggest La Quita or Best Western Plus. Both are on or near the seawall. And for breakfast, I highly recommend just eating at Sunflower Cafe or LoLo Kai. Again, I would have gladly told the staff of these issues, but they were sooo rude. I did complete a survey and hope to hear back and hopefully get some sort of refund. I just hope no one has to waste as much money as I did. Happy...

The pros are that the checkin was seamless, they have a no party/noise policy, the room was clean and spacious, the bed and pillows were comfortable, the light blocking curtains work, the in-room lighting was generous, there is a fridge and a microwave in the room, the shower water pressure was fine and the grab and go breakfast was adequate.

The cons were that parking was $15/night and shared with a restaurant for which the hotel is not liable for, the quality of the front desk staff is rather hit and miss, the wifi is slow at 3-5mps (enough for one device), breakfast is the same selection everyday including the hot items, the complimentary items in the bathroom were minimalistic and not replaced daily, and the cable selection on tv was quite limited.

Overall the cons aren’t that bad, so why did I give a 3 star rating? As it turns out, I specifically chose this hotel in order to take a virtual exam (the high-stress high-stakes kind). The exam required “wired internet” which is essentially not available in most hotels these days, so I called nearly every hotel on the island and this place said they had wired internet... they actually promised they had it three separate times! Each time I had the staff go to the room and check. As you can guess I was in for a rude shock on checkin day when I found out there was in fact no wired internet. Mind you I only “needed it” because the exam said so and I only chose THIS hotel because they said they had it and confirmed (falsely)... multiple times.

The second issue was parking. They charge $15/night but there is street parking in front of the hotel that clearly many of the guests use. At 10pm at night the staff refused to give us any information about the street parking for which there is no sign on the side of the street that the hotel is located. We were even told vaguely that ”cars have been towed” in a rather unprofessional effort to scare us into paying for parking. When I insisted on at least some information about street parking (which clearly other guests were using) we were told to look up the city website. Mind you I’m talking about the street directly IN FRONT of the hotel lobby. Honestly it was some of the worst customer service I’ve received in some time. I even went to talk to the manger in person the day after I checked out and her response to me being misled and bullied by her staff was that she would “retrain the staff.“

Summary: The facilities and location are nice, but the customer service and the value of human capital is rather subpar. Basically a good place to stay as long as you don’t need anything or have...