Holiday Inn Express & Suites Galveston West-Seawall, an IHG Hotel — Hotel in Galveston

All of the ladies we encountered at the front desk were exemplary! They were very personable and are absolutely the best part of this hotel and have the customer service skills of a higher class hotel. Unfortunately, the rest falls short. I really hate to give a negative review because we've stayed at this location in the past and you can tell that they've put effort into updating the hotel and rooms with a more modern aesthetic, but the workmanship of the contractor was without a doubt subpar.

Even if we weren't in the middle of a pandemic, the cleanliness of the common areas should have been significantly better. The "IHG Clean Promise" was not fulfilled. The tile floors in the lobby area were dirty and in need of a cleaning that consists of more than just a mop. They need to invest in commercial equipment for housekeeping to scrub and buff the hard surfaced floors. The carpeted and laminate floors on the way to the elevators were also grimy, unvacuumed and significantly stained with paint from the contractor. The elevators themselves were a mess and looked as though someone had blown their nose and wiped it on the doors and walls because they didn't appear to have been wiped in weeks. Also, they need to invest in a commercial robotic vacuum, like a "Whiz" because the halls were never vacuumed even once while we were there. The room was mostly clean enough except for a few surfaces and the light switches but, I brought wipes to clean with just in case this happened. The electrical outlets and USB port were numerous but, we noticed that several were unusable because the covers were not aligned with the outlets (again, contractor issue). The temperature in the room was very comfortable and I enjoyed the ocean view from the balcony and even though it was over the pool, it was never loud despite the Labor Day weekend. The bed wasn't comfortable enough for me and it had indentations on both sides which made sleeping difficult.

When we went down for breakfast around 8AM, they were out of eggs which were never replaced the entire time we were eating. Everything else was pretty standard for this type of breakfast. The only real problem was the cleanliness. The glass doors to enter were dirty and some of the surfaces in the dining area were not wiped down sufficiently.

Overall, I was disappointed that our stay wasn't any better. On one hand I'm glad that we used points and didn't really have any out of pocket expenses, but I also feel as though we wasted our points on a hotel that's not up to our previous experience with IHG especially considering the issues with COVID. However, if this location were to hire a professional company to come in, give it a QUALITY white glove deep clean, which would shine and polish everything up, and then hire enough staff that is trained to maintain the results, this would absolutely be a place that we would frequent again. Unfortunately, as it stands, my husband and I are in agreement that we wouldn't return to this location. We'll spend the extra money or points and go to the east side of the island to the IHG...

The staff was excellent and did everything they could. With that said, highly disappointed that I spent $300 a night for two nights at this hotel. It was advertised that you could walk to the beach since it’s on the sea wall. However, there’s no cross walk within a mile and we were forced to cross 5 lanes of traffic with little kids without a safe place to cross. After we did that once, we said never again. We ended up having to pay an additional $45 to park on the sea wall. We had to get in our car and drive across the street from our “beach front” hotel. We chose to stay on the sea wall because we were traveling with two little kids and we wanted to walk across to the beach. We could have spent $400 less and stayed somewhere else since we still had to drive. Then there was the condition of the hotel. It was under construction. I would not have booked if I knew it was under construction. Do not claim it was storm damage. We live in the Houston area and I know that Galveston has not been affected by a major storm from the time I booked late May to now. Both sides of the front was having stucco work done. Then the pool was closed. We also booked because of the pool. Now to the condition of the building and room. It seems recently renovated but everything was extremely poorly done and obviously had corners cut everywhere. Carpets did not meet the walls, paint lines were everywhere, trim missing everywhere, poorly done patch jobs on dry wall, cracked tiles, missing grout, mildew…I could keep going. The floor in our room had major rolling slops. It was truly a safety hazard. I managed to get a picture of the floor where you can see it dip down, go up, and dip down again. The doors don’t go all the way to the floor so you can also hear everything in the rooms or in the hall. We were also given a crib with some type of fabric that was absolutely not a crib sheet. It was lose and a safety hazard for my baby. We also passed a giant dumpster with a dirty mattress hanging out around 8 or so times. The pull out sofa also had stains that looked like pee and blood on it.

Positives: staff was excellent, great view, good breakfast (especially the breakfast staff)

Cons: false advertising to walk to the beach, under construction, closed pool, poorly renovated, safety concerns with...

Be prepared this is going to be a long review. To start off I booked our hotel several months in advance and called two times to confirm that would could get a room with the view of the ocean. My boys had never seen the ocean so I thought it would be a great experience for them to see the ocean every day. Well when we checked in it was like pulling teeth to get a room with a view. The room we got was at an angle so it wasn't a great view. The room had an awful smell to it. I called the front desk several times and she didn't offer much help - well except to use some room freshener?? That issue never got resolved. One night the microwave stopped working and William who was working that night was very helpful and got us another one right away. He was a very good front desk person. The second to last night we were there my kids found a baby pacifier and an employee flashlight under the bed skirt. So I wonder how often it's cleaned good. The hotel itself stunk. The hallways were horrible. The hotel has such potential. They were replacing the flooring in the lobby and breakfast area which made it look much better but the company that was putting the floor in were so rude and annoying. There were also several problems with the pool and hot tub. The thing that bothers me is that I ended up leaving a brand new outfit in the closet of our room and I called the night we got home and the person working said they couldn't get to the lost and found and to call in the morning. I called over several days and no one ever answered the phone and when I finally got a hold of someone she said she would talk to housekeeping and call me back. Well I never got a call back - not surprised I guess. The only thing that saves this review is that the breakfast was very good. A good selection and the staff was great. They were so nice and they were very professional even when there were some very obviously rude guests there. Kudos to them for being great at their job. So - obviously I would not recommend this hotel to anyone. It's to bad because we were on a family vacation and the hotel stay made it less than perfect. It is for sure not worth the high...