Holiday Inn Resort Galveston-on the Beach by IHG — Hotel in Galveston

The people I traveled with would give this hotel 1-star, but I think that would be unfair. If it weren’t for the major confusion around the shuttle from the hotel staff, I would give it 4 stars. I gave 3 stars, since not everyone would stay here for the shuttle to the cruise terminal.

For the hotel, it was fine. View from the room to the ocean was great! The only complaint for the hotel itself is the band or music playing in the bar was loud as we heard it in our 7th floor room. We turned the fan on to constantly run, which muffled the music. The people we were traveling with were on the 2nd floor said they had a hard time sleeping due to the music from the bar being loud and playing late (midnight or 1am). If the band is playing the night you are staying, may be worth asking for a room on the opposite side of the building from the bar. The downside would be your window would be facing the parking lot instead of the beach. If wanting a view of the beach, maybe get a room higher than the 7th floor and furthest away from the bar on that side.

Now for our biggest complaint. We stayed here the night before our cruise, because parking for the week was cheaper than parking at the cruise terminal and they offered a shuttle to/from the cruise terminal. Unfortunately, either the shuttle is unreliable or the hotel staff are not familiar with the shuttle schedule or not able to relay the schedule correctly. We tried to ask about the shuttle schedule prior to our arrival so we could use that to set our onboarding time for the ship, but were told more than once we would need to ask about the shuttle after we check-in. We didn’t think too much of it, but unfortunately the shuttle times are very broad as in they only run every few hours. The shuttle leaves this hotel to hit 3 other hotels before arriving at the cruise terminal, which is about 40 minutes after leaving. Not too big of a deal if you plan for it, but it’s hard to plan the onboarding time for your ship if you don’t know when the shuttle runs. Our biggest issue though was our return from the cruise. We called the hotel at 9:30am the morning of our return and were told the shuttle would be there in 10-15 minutes. We asked what bus we are looking for and was told “the same one you took when you left.” We said we didn’t take the shuttle when we left (we took an Uber due to the shuttle timing) and after a couple of minutes the person gave us the name of the shuttle service. We waited 20-25 minutes looking for the name of the shuttle company on every bus and van the entire time and never saw it. We called back a 2nd time and were told the shuttle would be there in about 15 minutes. We waited about 20-25 minutes again and called a 3rd time to hear the shuttle was still at the hotel. We asked when would it arrive and they said it was leaving and would be there in about 10-15 minutes. We waited another 20-25 minutes and called a 4th time and were finally told the shuttle had left about 20 minutes ago and it would take about 40 minutes to get to the cruise terminal, because it had to go to 3 other hotels first. This would put the shuttle arriving in about 20 minutes. We finally got the information we needed (to include a bus number), but it took 4 calls. During the 4th call, the person said the shuttle was there at 9:30am, which is when we made our first call and was told it would be there in 10-15 minutes. We waited a total of an hour and a half and called 4 times before we finally got detailed information. We ended up taking a taxi from the cruise terminal instead of waiting another 20 minutes to see if the shuttle would actually arrive (at this point we had no faith in the information we were given). In the future we will stay at another hotel and just park at the cruise terminal to avoid all of this confusion. Only way we would stay here again is if we called prior to booking our room and were given detailed information about the shuttle such as when it departs the hotel and when it would arrive at the...

Our trip started out amazing. I traveled with my best friend. She is a retired disabled vet in a wheelchair due to her MS. Upon arrival John got us checked in and someone to help get our bags to our room. Something went wrong on my friends wheelchair and the maintenance man Logan came and spent quite a bit of time fixing it he was amazing. The next morning we left for our cruise. They helped us get our bags downstairs and let us know when the wheelchair accessible van was their to pick us up to take us to the port to depart for our 1 week cruise. John even made sure before we left that he had the van reserved for our return the following Saturday at 10am. Service was spectacular. Our return was a different story. We got back to Galveston the following Saturday and the weather was bad. It was raining extremely hard with very few places to stand under while waiting for the van. We had also called the hotel before we got off the ship to make sure the van would be there. We ended up standing in the pouring rain for 2 and a half hours. We called the hotel numerous times and kept being told that they would have the van company call us. We just wanted an ETA. We never received one. We kept calling the hotel looking for answers. We were desperate my friends MS makes it difficult to regulate her body temperature so being in the pouring rain for so long was really bad for her but we were literally stuck. Eventually the hotel stopped taking our calls and started forwarding us to the reservation line where we were told that it was time for check in at the hotel so they were too busy to answer our calls which is why they forwarded the call but reservations could not help us either. Our clothes were completely soaked through and our clothes in our suitcases were soaked. The company that we were told we were waiting for came and went numerous times but always told us they weren't there for us. My friend was shivering and we were both soaked with no idea what to do. You can't call an Uber with her heavy duty electric wheelchair. 2 and a half hours later a van showed up for us and took us back to the hotel where our vehicle was. When we arrived I ran inside and asked someone behind the desk if they could help with our luggage and that we were the girls that had been waiting for the van with the wheelchair. I was told by the man behind the counter they didn't do that and I could get the thing to move my own bags. Soaking wet clothes dripping I just shook my head and said ok. I grabbed the luggage holder and steered it outside. I heard the gentleman yelling behind me oh mam I will get someone to help you. I was so frustrated and worried about my friends health I just kept going and started getting the luggage on my own. A worker showed up a few minutes later and helped me. My friend and I are not from the area we had a 5 hour drive ahead of us back to Dallas where I would drop her off at home and then catch my flight. At this point I wasn't sure if we would make it in time. Because we were so behind there really wasn't time to change into dry clothes plus when we opened our suitcases we found our clothes were soaked. So we had to make the 5 hour drive in wet clothes. I asked to speak to a manager just to let them know what happened and try to get some clarification. I was told a GM would reach out to me or my friend. That was March 29th today is April 17th. I have called and left a message with the manager asking for a call back to no avail. We still haven't heard from them. Cruises are the easiest vacation for my friend because of her wheelchair she has been on 3 this year so far and always stayed at this hotel, we just wanted some answers as to what happened. My friend was not well for days after and I barely made my flight. I too was sick after. If this is how this hotel treats its guests and won't even contact them afterwards we won't be back and I say disabled people and disabled...

I could literally write about 20 books on this location😁… I am a natural born BOI so I know the ups and downs of this island. And I can say with honor I am so glad for the people that work at this location, I will be the first to admit I’m not the easiest to deal with, And no matter my situation when I have come to stay here, I have always been met with the biggest smiles and the most unmatched professional customer service EVER! It’s rare anymore that I feel comfortable spending my money anywhere because of horrible customer service! but when I come here it is worth All the blood sweat and tears that I have to go through to make my money!

The beds here feel like clouds! So comfortable! The rooms are immaculately clean! Every room has an ocean view! The food is very decent and this location is close to everything.

They have a cool Bar with karaoke and the staff there is amazing as well! I do want to give an extra shout out in this review from this last time that I came to a new member to the team that i met Her name is Egypt On this particular trip i was at the pool for a bit and she was serving drinks to a few people who had ordered drinks & instead of just taking them their drinks and walking off even though I had not ordered anything. she did not leave without checking to see if I needed anything, even though she was the only one working at that moment she still took the time to ask. That is the customer service that I grew up with, and that I miss in this world! Great job keep up the amazing work. I’m so glad this island has you here❤️ I also want to give a shout out to Joey Who is the manager of the bar who is always full of energy and smiles!

At last, but not least an extra HUGE SHOUT OUT To this whole amazing team at this location! Everyone I have Met that works here has always been so kind so professional, and always with a smile on their face.

I cannot describe enough how much it means to me knowing that I can come back home from time to time on this island And get a much-needed mental break from it all because of you guys!

I wish you guys could be the training team for the rest of the world‘s Businesses to learn how customer service truly goes!

If the world could learn the style of The professionalism that you guys have in customer service, we would all be in a better place❤️

Keep up the amazing work and know that you are so...