Holiday Inn Houston NE - Bush Airport Area by IHG — Hotel in Houston

I am writing to request an immediate refund and apology and to make a strong complaint as to the service I received / did not receive on July 18th at the Holiday Inn Houston NE - Bush Airport Area, an IHG Hotel in Houston TX. My family of four (wife and two boys, 13 and 10) booked a two queen bed room through Expedia for $232.83. We arrived at 230am of the night of July 18th (early morning of the 19th) after a delayed flight. The person at the front desk informed us that the computer system was down. He tried to reach IT department unsuccessfully for almost an hour, and once he was able to contact them, they were unable to resolve the issue. He said that without the system he would be unable to check us in. We decided then to sleep on the couches in the lobby, at which point he offered that if we preferred he should give us the key to a used (dirty) room with a king bed that he knew was empty, which we accepted as a better alternative to the couches. (I let my wife and kids share the bed and I slept on the floor.) He told us that of course we would be receiving a refund, we just had to call later on once the systems were up. On July 27th after returning from our trip I contacted Orbitz/expedia via chat. The customer service agent was great, and explained he would need to call the hotel to request that they issue the refund. He then said they refused. I then called the hotel directly and talked to Tatiana at the front desk. She said they would not issue the refund. I asked to talk to her manager, and after an hour of waiting finally talked to Farwah Syeed, who after very poor treatment told me that they would have to investigate what happened. On July 28th I received a call from Trevor, who asked me to explain the situation to him, and who said he would investigate since he couldn't take my word for it "because otherwise they would not be a successful business." He called back several hours later and said they would not be issuing the refund because their system showed me as checked in and it was therefore a 'he said - he said' situation. To be clear: I never checked in, never signed anything, never left my card on file, etc. Both Trevor and Farwah were very rude and essentially accused me of fabricating the situation. I am frankly shocked and incensed that after providing such horrible service in the first place, I now have had to resort to this. The simple answer from the Holiday Inn should have been a sincere apology, an immediate refund, and some "make-up" gift to compensate me for not providing the service I paid for. Instead I got to waste hours of my time while being called a liar

Update: instead of just apologizing, the hotel manager decided to antagonize further through his reply to this review and fabricated an entire story where it was ME that decided that I wanted a room on a high floor and somehow then got angry and made up this whole story. This despite the fact that the holiday inn and IGH (parent company of holiday inn) customer service is already on the case and admitted that their system was down due to the crowd strike incident last week. Pathetic, pathetic work from the managers and staff at this place. I would suggest nobody stay there because they clearly have no idea what providing service means and are...

I'd like to start out with saying most of my experiences at holiday expresses and holiday inn's have been great. Except for this one thing my stay at this particular hotel was great. We were traveling to Hawaii. Because of weather delays we ended up in Houston I pulled out my app looked for a hotel that was close to the airport with the airport shuttle because we had no means of Transportation, and I found this one. I called the number for the shuttle. She told me it would be there between 6:30 and 6:45 . The shuttle arrived at 6:45 with the Holiday Inn logo on it I talked to the driver he didn't speak English. Showed him a picture of the hotel that we were going to and the address he said yes so, we got on the shuttle. The wrong shuttle. He got the hotel we found out we had the reservation at the other hotel. I've had things happen like this at Holiday Inns before and I called and asked them if I could just change the reservation to Holiday inn, we were at she said she couldn't do that because it was their police for 24-hour notice. I explained that i have made the revelation less than an hour ago. I explained the situation that we've been traveling all day I have my 4-year-old grandson with us, and we just wanted rest she said she could not do that she told me that I could take a shuttle back to the airport and that they would pick us up at the airport. When I've had this happen before at Holiday Inns, they've always helped me with the reservation I understand the policies and I told her that I would honor the reservation, so I spent $40 took an Uber with all of my kids and went to that hotel. The hotel was fine, but this could have all been solved by somebody being accommodating and understanding. It was my fault by getting on the wrong Holiday Inn Suttle. When I've had similar situations happen at other holiday inns, they'd been more accommodating. Once we got to the hotel everyone was nice, and everything was wonderful, but we were all worn out my 4-year-old grandson was crying it was not a fun evening for us. Sometimes there is exception to rules, and this should have been one of them. Both Hotles were Holiday...

I have stayed at this location for 6+ years and always enjoyed it until two experiences in 2024. One visit from early this year involved a beligerent intoxicated male banging on my door at 2am threatening me. I was terrified and called 911; 45 minutes later, the police still had not shown up. No one from the hotel tried to assist, but thankfully a fellow guest was able to calm the guy down and get him away from my room. I gathered my things and left due to the unsettling experience. I called the hotel later that day to share my concerns. All I got was "we are aware and sorry that happened." No offer to comp the night cut short, or even offer a meal on my next visit.

Last week I asked to check-in one hour early due to a power outage at the business I was in town to work with. I was told it would be $25, which I declined and waited the hour. I had never been charged for an early check-in the previous 6 years in the rare instances I needed it. The next morning, I discovered that there was not a hair dryer in the room. I called the front desk, and they told me they would send one up in 45 minutes to an hour, which didn't work for me. When I went through the lobby with wet hair on my way out for work, I witnessed 2 restaurant employees standing around doing nothing. The front desk associate just looked at me when I asked why someone other than housekeeping couldn't bring me a hair dryer.

They've also had a broken card reader on the door facing Kenswick Drive for over a year. If you go out that door, you can't get back in. Which isn't that big a deal unless it's raining sideways and your car is immediately outside a door that should limit your exposure to weather.

I will call out a great employee they do have....Rick in the restaurant/bar has been amazing for all the years I have stayed there.

In summary, this location's front desk staff has lost their focus on customer care. I will regretably have to find a new favorite hotel in the Houston...