Candlewood Suites Birmingham - Inverness by IHG — Hotel in Hoover

Upon arrival, we entered the room to a horrible smell. We began looking around and discovered that, although the beds were clean, the rest of the room was not. There were crumbs, animal hair, and human hair on the counters, in the drawers, on the dishes, on the floors, and on the furniture. There were no towels in the bathroom. There was no silverware in the drawers (but there were empty to go pack wrappings in there), not enough dishes for all four of us to have a meal, etc. We searched for the source of the smell and discovered an overfilled trash can under the kitchen sink that had not been emptied for who knows how long. (I truly wish I could put a sample of that on here just so readers could know how bad it was.) We looked for the phone to call the front desk and finally found it under a table, unplugged. We attempted to plug it in, only to find that someone had broken off something in the receptacle, but it had not been fixed. (This is something I know, for a fact, would not take much time or effort, because I've had to do it at home.) We also noted significant fraying of the carpet by the door, which had many loops that could have presented a tripping hazard. We walked downstairs to request that someone come to empty the trash, freshen the room, bring towels, and wipe up the crumbs and hair. We were assured someone would come up immediately. They did not. We also requested silverware and were told we would have to use to go packs because "people steal the silverware." We left to grab a bite to eat and, upon our return, discovered that the trash was still there. We asked again and were told someone would be right up. We grabbed our laundry and brought it down to the laundry room. After an hour, we went back up, but the trash was still there, as were the crumbs and hair, and we still had no towels. We made a third request, as well as requesting sheets, blanket, and pillows for the sofa bed, because one of my grandsons wanted to sleep there, plus towels. We got everything but the towels, which we were told were being laundered. (How does a hotel this big not have extra towels and why did it take that long to launder them ???) We returned to the room and decided to place the trash can in the hall. We were tired and wanted to go to sleep. Four requests to remove the trash had not worked. Same for getting towels. The next morning, we told the kids to make sure they hadn't left/lost anything in the room because we were leaving to continue our trip. Since we couldn't cook breakfast there, as we had planned, we would need to stop somewhere for food. They began checking their area for any items they may have dropped and such. Suddenly, one exclaims, "What's this?!" and pulls out someone's WEAVE from the sofa. We told him not to touch it. He said, "But there's more! A lot more." We had him wash his hands, gathered our things, and went downstairs to check out. Mind you, I paid almost $200 for a suite that we should have been able to cook both dinner and breakfast, should have had a clean trash can, and should have had towels, for ONE NIGHT. At check out, there was a different lady at the desk, but the lady from the night before was still there. When I told the morning lady about (she acted like she may have been a manager, as she said she was submitting her reports), she said she was sorry to hear it and would include it in her report. The night clerk, standing across from the desk, seemed like she was angry I was telling the morning clerk about the issues. I'm upset it even happened at all at an IHG property, let alone that I asked four times for it to be remedied and it wasn't! I am an IHG member and I did report it to them, so they are aware. This property needs to be managed and run better....

We were in town for a wedding several hours from home. Upon arrival, we were met by a wall of construction in the lobby of the hotel where we checked in at a makeshift front desk where the employee simply stated that the construction was contained to the lobby but that she understood if we wanted to cancel our stay. Mind you, we had no heads up of this inconvenience and had made no other arrangements for a place to stay for the night so we couldn't simply just cancel our reservation. I had used an anniversary night for the stay as well so I did not feel confident that any other IHG hotel in the area would have any nights available. So once we had checked in, we made our way to the room which was dated but fully comfortable for our stay. I made a trip to the gas station located adjacent to the property and on my way back through the parking lot noticed an individual in the parking lot in a lounge chair and grill (i.e. tailgating) on our end of the building. I did not think much of it at the time and made my way past the pool filed with black water and sunken in tarp to our room. Once we got back to the hotel after the wedding, we were greeted to loud music and more people in the parking lot tailgating, drinking and partying right beside our hotel room. I approached the front desk attendant to address my concerns where I was rudely greeted and was made to feel as if I were an inconvenience. He sheepishly put away the chicken wings he was in the middle of eating to ask me if "I needed to check in or something". I told him about the ruckus going on in the parking lot to which he replied that "he knows" and "has already told them to stop". He continued to ask me what I wanted him to do about it and that he could go tell them again but they probably wouldn't stop again this time. At this point I was appalled at the response to my concerns and retreated to our room where we were forced to put in headphones to block out the noise from the commotion outside our window.

The property as a whole is a dump and to be completely honest, a safety concern given there were missing door handles in the stairwells (i.e. the fire escape routes), pool conditions were treacherous, overall safety concerns of other guests activities being present and lack of action on behalf of the staff when confronted with...

Okay, okay, let me explain. When you first come into your room, you're not warned or told anything by the check-in desk about the functions of this place. We spent two days and nights hot as heck. We told the front desk they didn't do anything. So, on our third and last night's stay, we finally found the plug insert for the unplugged ac unit. It wasn't plugged in! We didn't know until the 3rd day that it was under the unit until we looked at the ones in the hallways. That's what gave us a hint where to plug it in at. I was going to leave a bad detailed review until we finally had figured everything out on our own because the front desk was told everything but they have done absolutely nothing to help so we had to figure things out on our own. So the ac unit is controlled on the wall by the door you enter and exit from. But it won't work if it isn't plugged in, which sits under the unit. The shower is understandable and simple. The water gets hot beyond fast from what I've experienced from other places that heats slowly. So be quick to shower, but it is a good thing. It also lasts a very long time too for people who need to shave. Be careful, though. The floor in the shower is slippery. I had to put a towel down to shower in. They do have dove soaps in bottles in the showers and the sinks, but they are protected, so you can't take them down or open the tops. There are plenty of towels, so no worry of lack of towels. The beds are hard, like sleeping on the floor but with a pillow beneath you. There aren't many parking spots at all. This place does allow pets, but we didn't bring ours with us. The carpets are very dirty shampoo wise, so don't leave anything on the floor you won't put your face on. The trash cans are small, so try not to save food or eat too much in here. Other than the beginning problems, this place isn't too bad to stay when you figure things out. They don't do refunds for any reason that you make up, so don't ask. No hotel gives refunds. From my experiences. You book your pay period. Because that money goes towards preparing your stay here so you basically paid them already to do what they need to do for your stay here. So don't expect something back if you have already...