Holiday Inn Express Houghton-Keweenaw by IHG — Hotel in Houghton

I booked a rewards stay and also paid $150 to use and clean the conference space for my daughters 2nd Birthday Party! We had it booked about a month in advance, and were very clear about the fact that it would not be a pool party. I also mentioned that the conference room right off of the lobby was the perfect size for the amount of people we had coming (many of them from out of town). We checked into our room at around 4, and brought some of the party stuff up to the room, came back about an hour later, to start setting up the room, Carol at the front desk was very nice and accommodating. As I was setting a few bags down in the conference room another employee of the hotel (who had stopped by for another reason other than working, as she hadn’t worked that day and didn’t work at all the rest of the day) yelled “you can’t bring that in there!” I tried to explain that we had paid to rent the room but the off duty employee (Kaiden) started screaming at us that we had to have our “pool party” (which it specifically wasn’t) in a tiny room off of the pool which can hold at most 15-20 people comfortably, and we had about 50 people coming. I tried to explain that it wasn’t a pool party and we booked here specifically because we knew what we were getting when it came to the amount of space and the atmosphere of the staff and the hotel. Once again, while I was attempting to explain she verbally plowed over what I was saying and still screaming at us (in front of some of our family an friends who had arrived early to help set up) that it’s Danielle (the GM’s) rules, and that we know her why aren’t we listening? I asked her how I would fit that many people into the side room and she said that we could use some of the pool room. (Food in the pool room is a violation of health code) I asked her about how to handle food in there, and she said the food would just have to stay in the side room. So they are asking my group of people to eat in shifts and nobody be able to even be in the same room to watch my daughter open her gifts? I was so frustrated, this was never mentioned to me, and the GM was there is her office and could hear me when I checked in and paid for the conference room, in which I confirmed which room I was renting. Kaiden continued to scream at me saying and I quote “you all don’t run the place anymore” (my husband and I worked there about 2 years ago before we moved to lower Michigan). I am appalled at the complete lack of respect from Kaiden. Never has that ever happened to me and I refused to stay in the room that night. We spent our last points (25,000) on the room that we ended up giving to some one else because we didn’t feel welcome at this hotel. This is a problem I have never encountered before and has made me so sad. This is the worst experience I have ever had at an IHG property. I will be reaching out further to IHG to address this issue.

On a positive note, they had some beautiful renovations! Carol working at the front desk later after Kaiden had left came and told us that we could use the space that we had paid to use. We cleaned the place from top to bottom before we left, and it looked better than when we got there with the exception of the garbage bag and some pizza boxes. We asked if we could haul it to the dumpster but were told to leave it there.

*This was an absolutely humiliating experience. If this is now the acceptable standard of service for IHG and/or Veridea properties then we will no longer frequent or...

This is a somewhat recently renovated Holiday Inn Express about 5 minutes from downtown Houghton near all the big-box stores.

The location isn't bad, although the parking area is small and shared with a big-box store. They could definitely do a better job with parking.

My room was a double-queen called a "suite." It was very clean (like spotless!) and mostly comfortable. I said mostly comfortable because the walls were really thin. We could hear the neighboring room having "adult fun" very late into the night. Let's just say we heard EVERYTHING they did. Also, we could hear conversations in the hallway. Speaking of the room, calling it a suite is not accurate. It's just a regular room -- maybe a little bigger than normal -- with a small sofa and coffee table. There was no separation of living and sitting areas. The room was also poorly designed because you couldn't really watch TV from sitting area due to where the TV was mounted on the wall. The bathroom is also designed with the sink in the entryway and the shower and toilet in a watercloset.

Daily housekeeping must be requested at check-in, even in "suites." But the daily housekeeping service is pathetically limited to just towel replacement and trash removal. That's just unacceptable. Front Desk tried claiming it was an IHG policy. That's just not true. I've stayed at plenty of IHG properties branded under Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express. They've all restored daily full housekeeping.

The property seems to be having supply issues because the soap and lotion in guest rooms is a cheaper, off-brand and not the usual Holiday Inn Express brand. The soap is pathetically small and thin. Likewise, the coffee cups and plates at breakfast are cheap styrofoam cups and plates. Not the usual cups you see.

The hotel provides a few copies of the local newspaper each day, which is great. They go fast. The sauna was excellent, although the door was poorly fitted and didn't close all the way. The pool and hot tub were very nice as well. The gym had newer Matrix equipment but the TVs on the treadmills weren't working. Also, the hand grips on the treadmills were missing.

IHG Diamond/Spire elite status recognition was nonexistent besides the suite upgrade. But I wouldn't have received the suite upgrade had I not asked for it upon arrival. The front desk never proactively upgraded me on day of arrival. I also wasn't addressed by name, wasn't thanked for staying, wasn't asked how my stay was at check-out, and didn't even get a free bottle of water. I purchased a few bottles of pop and snacks from the pantry, but these charges were never correctly posted to my room folio. As a result, I lost points on my stay. I was twice asked for a folio to be emailed but the property never emailed me a final folio.

Besides improving IHG elite recognition and basic customer service (like thanking guests for staying or addressing them by name), it would be nice if the hotel offered a shuttle to downtown bars and restaurants. It would also be nice if the hotel sold beer and wine in the pantry like other properties.

I would probably return and stay again if I was in the area because there aren't many good options in Houghton, but the hotel could definitely improve. Especially given its new...

We travelled to the area to celebrate my son’s 17th birthday. We stayed here two nights at a cost of $472 and we are very disappointed with this stay. I was unable to reach front desk staff on multiple occasions prior to arrival when I was trying to inform them of our anticipated late evening arrival. Upon arrival, check in was fairly quick. My kids were very much looking forward to using the pool and hot tub. Much to our disappointment, front desk staff told us after checking in “sorry it’s going to be closed for the duration of your stay due to maintenance.” No one from the hotel called to inform me of this issue prior to check in. Had we known in advance we would have booked elsewhere. I booked through Expedia and when they attempted to reach hotel staff to discuss this issue, as they had no knowledge of it either, they were unable to reach the front desk staff on 5 separate attempts to call them. On top of all this, the breakfast served was mediocre at best, barely warm and with no flavor. One morning the cinnamon roll I chose was ice cold, as if it was still in process of being thawed from a frozen state. The beds in room 305 had springs that were absolutely shot, I woke up multiple times during the night because I was so uncomfortable and had horrible back pain that persisted throughout the day. The manager at the site has been less than helpful and simply stated they will not offer any compensation because my stay was “non-refundable”. It’s absolutely appalling to pay this price for such terrible accommodations. I would not recommend this hotel especially with management that has zero regard for the satisfaction of their customers and is unwilling to provide any sort of discounted room rate in light of two of their major amenities being completely unavailable for guest use. I would suggest finding another hotel if you plan to visit the...