Holiday Inn Club Vacations Smoky Mountain Resort, an IHG Hotel — Hotel in Gatlinburg

I was called by a holiday inn club vacations with a “special offer”. We all know what that means. However it seemed so good put $200 down and get $200 back in cash for a three night stay in Gatlinburg in the holiday club vacation hotel. Wow I love to hike with my wife so let’s take a free hotel stay. There is just one catch you need to go to a two hour presentation during your stay. But it will be at a convenient time for you. No big deal I thought a little work for a free hotel stay.||Well then I tried to book the stay. Oh your don’t stay in the Holiday inn club vacation. That is just where the tour is. Well okay and also you will have to stay in Sevierville which is like a half hour from the Holiday inn with the tour. I was able to finally get a hotel closer. Does the hotel have cribs for my baby? I asked. And the agent replied they do.||Time to book the tour. Oh not really at your convenience the only available time we have is 2pm which is horrible if you want to spend the day in the Smokey mountains as it is smack in the middle of the day.|| Okay but when arrive it’s not the nicest hotel in the world but okay it’s free. They don’t have a crib and the check in staff is nasty about it. I have to go buy a crib on top of paying the “fees” of the hotel so much for it being free. They told me it was in the fine print to which I say they ain’t no fine print on a telephone call which is where they sold this to me. Now for the tour in the middle of my day of hiking. We have to sit one on one with a guy who is trying really hard to sell you something that is not worth what he says it is for two whole hours. Than when he can’t sell you on it he brings his manager to sell you as well. When that doesn’t work they bring a third salesman to sell you on a “come back and hear it again” retreat. What a waste of time. They did in the end reimburse me the original $200 but in no way was this free. Monetarily emotionally or any other way.||Bottom line the package is totally not worth while unless you plan on staying in the 20 holiday inn club vacation hotels. Even if you do they are not free stays as you pay over $2000 a year just to have 200,000 points a year plus a booking fee every time you book a room plus a membership fee and another fee. Which in simple terms means your points are worth about 2 to 2.5 cents per point and if on average a room is 6500 points per night you are paying at least $65 a night per room. (This math is done by dividing the amount you spend a year to have the points by how many points you get). This is very far from free. Not only that the $2000 is subject to change with inflation obviously. Now you might think $65 a night doesn’t sound to bad. But add this in if you transfer the points out of ihg club vacations which has 20 hotels now your points aren’t necessarily worth the same amount. It may now cost you $200 a night. Also your hotel stay is $65 a night only if you use all your points because you pay $2000 regardless. On top of all tilhis the initial charge to join the program is $50,000 or if you get a deal $40,000. But don’t worry you don’t have to pay that all up front they can give you a loan and you’ll end up paying $100,000. This is all to “own” your vacation and make it free.||Don’t buy in it’s a scam. And don’t even take the free stay because you need to take the tour. And salesmen are salesmen for a reason. They are very good at stealing your wallet (and sometimes your pants with it.) As always lying, cheating, and stealing remain the most profitable forms of business. And they seem to be doing very well....

My husband was offered a four day, three night stay through IHG vacation club Smokey Mountain resort for $199 in exchange for a 2-hour presentation that we as a couple had to attend. Knowing that we were going to that area to see family we were happy to attend. It is a five hour drive and I travel with a ESA (emotional support animal) when I travel due to anxiety and PTSD. I had called the Holiday Inn Express that we were to stay in (not the facility we were to tour) and made sure that a room for a pet would be available. I was told yes, so we started our trip with our cat and my medications only to arrive and be told we could not have a cat there. I explained that I had called and spoke to a woman and was told that there were rooms for pets available. I offered his paperwork and was told it was not necessary. Our reservation was notated that I had called and was brining a support animal. We were allowed to check in, we were given our paperwork for our tour, we unloaded our truck, and went to get a bite to eat. We received a call almost two hours later to say that we had to leave the hotel. The Holiday Inn Express had contacted the vacation club and stated that we had brought a pet and that we would need to leave with the ESA pet because they were a pet free facility? Why on earth did they let us check in then???||We had a few phone calls and was told that Holiday Inn would not even assist us to find another place to stay. We had to find another place to stay and now it was out of our pocket. We called and we were able to stay at another hotel that we had stayed at before with our pet. The issue was the extremely poor service that was offered by everyone on the phone. No assistance with finding accommodations at 10pm at night, the only offer of our $199 and taxes paid at the IHG express were refunded timely. However we know in Gatlinburg that did not even begin to cover the expenses of another hotel.||We were released of our tour while we were there so we were not even given the chance to discuss the pet policies of ADA service pets and ESA pets of the IGH facilities in the area.||We have contacted the ADA regarding service animals and ESA pets. We know that the state polices would be followed. We have contacted the TN government level for ADA and ESA rights of patrons and how this is executed even in a pet free facility. Given that service dogs are accommodated, could not one night be offered in order to find other accommodations in the morning? The entire situation was very upsetting. So much for bringing an ESA pet for travel anxiety, I had to have him with me for the entire trip just to manage my emotions due to our experience...

Staying here now. I paid extra to get a second bedroom since I was already getting the sales pitch deal, why not, right?

Front desk people are very nice and seemed very concerned when I called about the disgusting shower. Backtrack to walking in… knife on the counter (who knows if it was used), apartment dark, hot and dingy feeling. But whatever, right? Took care of all that and went to eat. Great location, walking distance from lots of restaurants and things to do.

Came back to check out the indoor pool, don’t even bother, it looks shady and the room reeks of chlorine, you can’t even breathe in there. It’s ok, we aren’t here to go swimming, but still. We were given an accessible room which I usually don’t mind, but literally no room in the bathroom to keep your items except a tiny sink area.

Our family was tired and ready for showers and bed… I went and got my shower started in the master bathroom, and if it wasn’t for the fact that I was already undressed, I would have headed downstairs to get someone to clean it. There is mold, other people’s hair 🤮, and the water pressure is abysmal. Not to mention that the sprayer cannot be fully disabled and the water pressure caused it to pop off the hook and almost hit me on the head, scared the living daylights out of me. I put it back and it slammed out again. Hair in the shower is prob the grossest thing to me in any hotel aside from bed bugs. Add the gross shower, terrible water pressure and the mold… ugh!!!!I’m already super grossed out!!!

I called down to request housekeeping and was told they don’t offer it but due to the circumstances, they will send someone down in the morning. So now while we are at the sales presentation in the morning (which we are already not impressed in the slightest), with plans to leave our teens in the room, now I have to worry about strangers coming in to fix things and clean.

Then to add insult to injury… my son just took the comforter off the bed to use on the couch and it’s filthy with bodily fluids and what looks like a booger. I’m beyond disgusted. Guess we will need to inspect every single part of this apartment before bed. For trying to attract new members to their timeshare program, they didn’t try very hard with us. First night, not impressed!

1star updated to 2 stars due to the housekeeping supervisor coming today and making it right. She is absolutely wonderful and was very professional and sweet. Thank...