Holiday Inn Express & Suites Houston Memorial - City Centre, an IHG Hotel — Hotel in Houston

BED BUGS - BED BUGS - BED BUGS - BED BUGS - BED BUGS - BED BUGS - BED BUGS

UPDATE - the manager has never once contacted me to follow up or even apologize for this disaster of a stay, despite my reaching out multiple times. That is just really bad business. Honestly, there are too many options for people to give money to this mess.

We booked the Holiday Inn Express - Memorial City Centre through Hotels.com for 10/6-10/7 as we needed to come to town for a funeral. We checked in on 10/6 at about 4p, and the girl at the front desk, Abigail, was so sweet and kind and helpful. She was so lovely throughout our entire experience. At about 9p the night of the 6th, we discovered bed bugs in both of our beds. We called down to the front desk and Abigail came up to our room, saw the bugs, confirmed them in both beds, and saw that they were moving. She also took pictures with her phone, and trapped some physical bugs in some clear tape, and I have some, as well.

We told her that we obviously did not want to stay where we were. She offered to book us a room at the Holiday Inn on Westheimer, and we accepted. There were some issues getting in touch with the hotel, but we got the confirmation and headed over. When we arrived at the Holiday Inn on Westheimer, the front desk associate told us that her system was down and she could not put us in a room (side note - we were still charged for this room, despite multiple people ensuring we wouldn’t be, and I had to seek out a refund for this, as well, again, eating at more time I have had to spend rectifying this situation). We put our 2 young kids back into the car (since we were all in our pajamas), and called the corporate IHG number. We talked with multiple people, who were all incorrect (telling us our second reservation was through Expedia, which it was not, ensuring we would not be charged for the second hotel, which we were, and telling us there were no available rooms at any IHG properties for that night in their system), and very unhelpful. During our 3 calls, all lasting 15-25 minutes, we were hung up on/disconnected every time, and never received a call back, even though they confirmed the phone number on my reservation, so I know they had my number. Despite our efforts, we gave up booking a THIRD hotel for the night through IHG, and just found what was available through Hotels.com. The DoubleTree by Hilton was more than we desired to spend, but was the least expensive option left at that hour (it was 11:30p by the time we finally gave up on IHG).

Currently, I am seeking compensation from IHG for the room we had to book with the DoubleTree, to cover our severe inconvenience and frustration with this entire ordeal. Other than Abigail (who is absolutely lovely and extremely helpful), this entire situation has been handled poorly by IHG. I have had to spend hours on the phone with various people from IHG, including the calls to corporate, and to property managers and Hotels.com, seeking refunds for the rooms I was unable to use. I have also had to spend many hours cleaning every single item we packed and/or had in the car with us to ensure we did not bring bed bugs into our home.

Thus far I have emailed Diana and Andrea from this location, and called (multiple times) and left a vm with Brandon, I believe, and still have not heard one word of response from anyone. Even if they declined to provide any compensation for the more expensive room I had to book, i would think that a response would be the least a company could do after all this mess.

From 2014-2017 I travelled for work and have stayed at well over 150 hotels, with more than 200 stays, and I have never, ever seen a situation handled this poorly. Trust me, there are better hotels, with similar rates - just stay somewhere else. You do NOT want bed bugs, and you for sure don’t want to deal with the poorly run business should you...

BED BUGS - BED BUGS - BED BUGS - BED BUGS - BED BUGS - BED BUGS - BED BUGS

We booked the Holiday Inn Express - Memorial City Centre through a third party for 10/6-10/7 as we needed to come to town for a funeral. We checked in on 10/6 at about 4p, and the girl at the front desk, Abigail, was so sweet and kind and helpful. She was so lovely throughout our entire experience. At about 9p the night of the 6th, we discovered bed bugs in both of our beds. We called down to the front desk and Abigail came up to our room, saw the bugs, confirmed them in both beds, and saw that they were moving. She also took pictures with her phone, and trapped some physical bugs in some clear tape, and I have some, as well.

We told her that we obviously did not want to stay where we were. She offered to book us a room at a different IHG location, and we accepted. There were some issues getting in touch with the hotel, but we got the confirmation and headed over. When we arrived at the new hotel, the front desk associate told us that her system was down and she could not put us in a room (side note - we were still charged for this room, despite multiple people ensuring we wouldn’t be, and I had to seek out a refund for this, as well, again, eating at more time I have had to spend rectifying this situation). We put our 2 young kids back into the car (since we were all in our pajamas), and called the corporate IHG number. We talked with multiple people, who were all incorrect (telling us our second reservation was through a third party, which it was not, ensuring we would not be charged for the second hotel, which we were, and telling us there were no available rooms at any IHG properties for that night in their system), and very unhelpful. During our 3 calls, all lasting 15-25 minutes, we were hung up on/disconnected every time, and never received a call back, even though they confirmed the phone number on my reservation, so I know they had my number. Despite our efforts, we gave up booking a THIRD hotel for the night through IHG, and just found what was available through a different company. The hotel we ended at was more than we desired to spend, but was the least expensive option left at that hour (it was 11:30p by the time we finally gave up on IHG). 

Currently, I am seeking compensation from IHG for the room we had to book with the hotel we ended at, to cover our severe inconvenience and frustration with this entire ordeal. Other than Abigail (who is absolutely lovely and extremely helpful), this entire situation has been handled poorly by IHG. I have had to spend hours on the phone with various people from IHG, including the calls to corporate, and to property managers and the third party booking site, seeking refunds for the rooms I was unable to use. I have also had to spend many hours cleaning every single item we packed and/or had in the car with us to ensure we did not bring bed bugs into our home. 

Thus far I have emailed Diana and Andrea from this location, and called (multiple times) and left a vm with Brandon, I believe, and still have not heard one word of response from anyone. Even if they declined to provide any compensation for the more expensive room I had to book, i would think that a response would be the least a company could do after all this mess.

From 2014-2017 I travelled for work and have stayed at well over 150 hotels, with more than 200 stays, and I have never, ever seen a situation handled this poorly. Trust me, there are better hotels, with similar rates - just stay somewhere else. You do NOT want bed bugs, and you for sure don’t want to deal with the poorly run business should you...

This hotel has recently opened in the area and has the brand new feel to it. The rooms feel and are very clean. The beds and furniture are in new condition and very comfortable. The rooms are fairly spacious and have a large flatscreen TV mounted to the wall that easily pulls out and adjusts to any direction of the room. The bathrooms are spacious, bright, new and modern. The water temperature and pressure are very good. My only issue with the room and, this is nitpicking, is that the toilet is a small standard circular shaped toilet. I traveled extensively and it is my experience that most hotels have a spherical, larger shaped toilet. So if you are a plus size/bigger person I would keep that in mind. The towels and sheets are new and clean. The on-site complementary breakfast for this price point of hotel was very good. The coffee was surprisingly fresh and the food was pretty good. They do offer a very long period for breakfast which I thought was very nice especially if you are not traveling on business. Monday through Friday the breakfast stops at 9:30 AM and during the weekends, it goes until 10 AM. The staff at this hotel is very nice and super friendly. If you are an IHG member, they will definitely acknowledge that and accommodate all privileges according to your status, if available. The business center has two brand new computers, and a laser printer that were functional the entire time that we stayed. There are some reviews that complain about noise due to the fact it is located next to two major highways beltway 8 and IH-10. However, the hotel is pretty far back away from the highway that I could not hear a thing. Our room was located in the front of the building, facing the highway and had no problems hearing any external noise. Bottom line would highly recommend this hotel to business travelers and to vacationers as well. This is one of the best Holiday Inn, Express hotels, and other hotels at this level/price point we have...