Holiday Inn Express & Suites Indianapolis - East by IHG — Hotel in Indianapolis

The staff were fabulous! Some of the best hotel employees I've ever seen. However, the hotel itself did not meet our expectations of Holiday Inn Express or the IHG company. I had reserved a 2 bed suite, but when we arrived they had given our room away and all that was left was a king suite. With 4 of us staying, that wasn't going to work. We had to sit in the lobby for 45 minutes waiting for the manager to find a room for us. The room seemed clean and comfortable on our initial inspection, however, when we looked more closely there appeared to be blood spatter all over one wall and the ceiling. My husband kept joking that since they gave our room away they had to put us in the "murder room" and they had just took down the crime scene tape befoe we arrived. Honestly, it looked like cast off from someone getting stabbed and it gave us a creepy feeling. Other than that, the room was very clean. The bathroom was nice, but the tub did not drain properly. All four of us had to shower which meant if you weren't the first one, you had to stand in someone else's dirty water. (GROSS!!!) When you flushed the toilet it made a very loud "growling" sound and you had to do 4 or 5 flushes before it would stop. But the absolute WORST thing were the beds. I have never EVER been so uncomfortable!!! The matresses were very saggy in the middle and you could literally feel the springs. Plus they seemed like they were tilted because your head was higher than your feet and it felt like you were going to slide off the bed. My back was hurting so bad after laying there for an hour trying to sleep that I moved to the couch. That was a little better, but the cushions were so worn out and flat that it felt like you were laying across wooden boards. Eventually I ended up on the floor and didn't sleep at all the entire night. We couldn't wait to check out so we could go home and finally get some sleep! The pool was closed the entire time so we never got to use it. One of the employees told us that it was leaking so they closed it and never bothered fixing it. The breakfast selection was good but they never replenished anything so if you got down after 8 am you had minimal options. Someone had the backdoor of the hotel propped open the entire time we were there, which was not very safe. I think the staff go out of their way to try and make up for the worn out feel of this hotel and while I appreciate their efforts, there are many things that need to be done to improve this property before I would ever stay there again. After all, what's the point of staying in a hotel if you can't even get any sleep. We would have been better off...

We arrived at night during a storm. The only available parking was in the rear of the building. For security reasons, the doors in the back of the hotel were not permitted to be used. I had to walk around the building through the storm to get in. Worse, water pools on the side of the building, requiring me to walk through 4 inches of water for about 20 feet. They would not open the door for me to help me avoid this.

We traveled with our 7 month old daughter. The hotel was kind enough to offer a crib for the room, so we didn't bring ours. Upon arrival, we found the crib with a waterproof cover over the mattress, but no linens. I approached the young man at the desk to ask for some and he informed me that the hotel didn't provide them for the crib. I simply stared at him in disbelief (for about 30 awkward seconds) until he suggested that maybe he could provide us with regular linens that we could wrap around the mattress. I thanked him.

The bathroom was dirty. The toilet appeared to have been given an obligatory wipe, but still had a butt print. My teenage daughter took the first shower. She informed me that the water didn't drain well, and was dirty. She recommended wearing flip flops. I pulled a very large plug of gross looking hair out of the drain, and this seemed to take care of the issue. When I took my shower, I had enough time to lather up before the water pressure dropped to a small trickle. I had to use my hands to cup water to rinse off. My wife didn't have this issue, she didn't have any hot water.

I asked the young man at the front counter if any of the vending machines had anything other than soda or water, we were looking for some sort of juice. He informed me that the only vending machine in the building was just outside of the lobby, and if it didn't have it, they didn't offer it. I'm fine with the fact that they didn't offer it, but there are several other vending machines in the building.

The drawers on the desk and dresser continuously slid open as if the room was slanted. After banging my hip into them twice, I extended the handle on my suitcase and leaned it against them to keep them closed.

The elevators are in need of serious maintenance. Approaching the elevator bay, the one on the left's door opens and closes slowly, with a jerking motion, and a grinding sound. The one on the right's door would close about 90% of the way before reopening as though there was something in the way. Most of the time, after about 5 times, it would finally close. Once, I finally had to simply depart the elevator to find the stairs. Once I departed, the door immediately closed. I called the...

I look for Holiday Inn Express Hotels whenever I travel. There is a standard that most hotels seem to meet, and I have always enjoyed my stay... until I visited this East Indianapolis Holiday Inn Express. It was like staying at some cheap, scary, unclean, poorly staffed hotel.

Here was our stay timeline: Checked in - front desk lady was very kind, made conversation, warm greeting. grade: A+

Initial Room investigation - bedding looked VERY used, like they hadn't bought a new comforter for 10 years. Pulled back comforter to uncover about a 6" dark brown stain (I hope it was a stain, not that they didn't wash bedding from last person in there). We called front desk, they dropped off new sheets, didn't offer to put them on the bed (understandable). The new sheets looked very used too, no stains, but patches where the sheet was extremely thin, almost holes. Wet bar had cabinets that were falling apart, you couldn't open the doors without them falling off. Bathroom was VERY small for a "suite" room. grade: F

Room stay: Once we got new sheets on and learned not to touch the wet bar, we enjoyed a night of rest. Pillows were far and away the nicest, newest thing in the whole room. I did find an old slim jim wrapper on the floor, and when we moved the bed back there were two barbie dolls behind the bed. grade: D

Breakfast: I always look forward to the cinnamon rolls, and they did not disappoint. However, the rest of the breakfast and the staff putting out the breakfast were very disappointing. I had to ask for more cinnamon rolls, and was told by the staff member "Breakfast is almost over, I don't want to bring more out". This was at 9:03 am, breakfast went until 10am. I asked for more sausage, and was told "no, it's Turkey sausage" (this made no sense). He did bring out more cinnamon rolls, but did not bring out more sausage. Biscuits, no gravy, no sausage, eggs, green bananas, decent refrigerator selection, terrible juice (I don't know how you make a juice machine bad, but they did it, my near 2 year old wouldn't even drink the apple juice which is a juice he has never refused before). grade: D

In summary: great greeting, great pillows, great cinnamon rolls after asking for them, and terrible everything else. Don't expect to receive the value of service you pay for. They are nickle and dimming what should be a...