Holiday Inn Express Hilton Head Island by IHG — Hotel in Hilton Head Island

We stayed at this location July 21st - 26th 2019. There was mold on the ceiling, behind short dresser and under the desk. Started out with black dots on the ceiling that we thought was dirt but the spots got larger as the week went on. It was when my wife needed the hair drier and our daughter was in the shower that we pulled the dresser out to use the outlet by the desk and found lots of mold. My wife had to use her inhaler that day and the next and our daughter had respiratory issues when in the room that improved once leaving. When we told the front desk staff about the mold, they said several other complaints came in from other guests about the mold problem. We were told by the front desk Manager Kathy that they had maintenance issues with the fire suppression head that blew black stuff all over the room and it must not have been cleaned up completely. After calling the General Manager Anita and leaving a message the follow up phone call was from the maintenance guy, he said the black was from something spilled behind the dresser and the ceiling was probably an exploded soda can. We received two different stories not addressing our respiratory issues, I was promised 10,000 points on my rewards from front desk manager Kathy that didn't happen and no return phone call from the General Manager Anita. We left several message and couldn’t get through at other times. Additional Cons - Registration and Breakfast are in a separate building from the hotel a block down the street, phone systems not working in the hotel for the whole week, hassle getting towels for the pool (waited 15 minutes after calling before leaving pool area without them) uncontrollable was the fire alarm being pulled at 1:30Am. There are no security cameras in the hallways, so person pulling the alarm was never caught. I booked this hotel after staying at the Holiday Inn Express and Suites at Sea World in Orlando in May 2018, We were so impressed with that stay that we wanted to repeat the experience on Hilton Head. We were severely let down by our experience at this location and will not return. The staff was friendly and helpful but management gives the impression customer service isn't important by not resolving issues or taking a few minutes to follow up. The major mold issue makes the smaller problems stand out even more giving the impression this is the norm not a one off situation. The map shows the hotel is a block from the ocean adjacent to beach parking a great location except the hotel is at 11 Tanglewood Dr not 2 Tanglewood Dr a block further away from the beach making the walk to the beach with all our stuff difficult, we still drove to closer parking. High hopes that were not fulfilled this trip. We booked through Priceline so no price adjustment was made and they still charged us the $50 resort fee at checkout. We will not stay at this...

Upon checking into the room at 4:11PM there were a group of young people next door partying very loud and apparently sliding the furniture back and forth across the room which was not much of a bother until it started to get late.

After 10PM we reported the incidents more than three time via the phone to the workers at the front desk. But the noise continued consistently. At that point we decided to just go to the front desk upon arrival there was a young black female employee at the front desk who was ignorant from the beginning. As we explained the issue to her she repeated told tell us that maintenance went over there but they could not hear anything.

I responded by saying because maintenance claimed not to hear the noise does not mean that it's not present. I then asked why would we continuously call and then make the effort to walk over here to complain if the noise was not happening. Of course she didn't have a response to that question.

We asked the attendant for another room so that we could go to sleep that's all we were trying to do from the start. She told us that there were no rooms available so I responded by saying are you trying to tell me that we just have to deal with the noise? She even went as far as to say that I was cursing at her.

My wife and I responded when did you hear any curse words uttered at you? Of course once again no response so we told her just for the recorded this incident is being recorded.

She then threatened to have us removed from the property and I told her you better have a refund ready if you want to play those types of games.

All in all the manager was called onsite so we explained to him that there was a ruckus next door so he tried calling and then he went over to the noisy neighbors room but they would not answer the door.

When he came back to the office he asked what could be done to rectify the situation and we said that we asked for an refund or another room but the the attendant in question told us there wasn't any rooms available.

He then exchanged rooms for us and after doing so we were able to sleep peacefully which was all we were trying to do in the first place. Once we entered the the door of the replacement room it wreaked of Maruajana.

Just to re-cap when when we first arrived at the hotel the young female in question interrupted the clerk during our check in process so that she could to complete a task for her. We attached a purposely blurred photo of this young rude female...

Not what we expected. I felt mislead when we checked in – I was expecting accommodations that were a short walk to the beach. In actuality, the hotel rooms were at least ½ mile away from the most crowded beach on the Island. I was also surprised to see that the reception desk and breakfast area was in a separate location about 2 tenths of a mile from the rooms. This is not made clear in the hotel information when booking, and advertising walking distance to the beach is misleading for most people. During our stay – I spoke to several other guests who felt the same – so I know we were not the only guests who felt this way. I listed items that were positive and items than need improvement. Need Improvement: On a Friday evening around 9PM – the front desk line went to voice mail. Ice machines did not work. There were no writing pads available – even from the front desk, No TV listings – the staff blamed covid, but they could have used throw away photocopies or a laminated copy that could be sanitized. The Hallways need freshen up. The pool water was cloudy, which raised questions on the water quality. The hotel had some good points: There was adequate parking – including covered parking. The rooms were clean. Beds were comfortable. Showers worked with hot water most of the time. The breakfast was great – it was like the breakfasts I remember. The WIFI worked great, and the room had plenty of electric and USB outlets. The staff was polite and tried to be helpful. Bottom line is that I do not believe that the value was there. Given the points above – combined with an annoying $18 per day resort fee for a cloudy pool – the value was not there. At almost $1300 for 4 nights, I felt we paid 4-star rates for 2-star accommodations, even if it is Hilton Head in July. We will not return to this property. While there, I spoke to other guests who felt the same way. There are nicer places in Hilton Head for the same...