Holiday Inn Express Jacksonville East by IHG — Hotel in Jacksonville

I do not make it a point to complain, because I understand that sometimes things don't always go as planned and I can forgive "mishaps". However, most of the issues I had at this hotel were not things that would typically occur on a one-time or every once in a while basis. First, there are no vending machines on the premises. Although the signs in the hallways indicate rooms for "vending and ice", there are only ice machines located in them. You have to buy all snacks and drinks from the front desk. The selection of sodas, energy drinks, and water seemed great, except that there were only sugary drinks. I am diabetic, so that posed a problem when I wanted some caffeine and they had no diet soda available at all. When I finally got settled and went to lie down in the bed, the sheets and comforter were damp. They felt as though they weren't dried all the way when cleaned. When I informed the front desk, I was told there were no more comforters, but we could double up on sheets "but it would be a little bit" before they could brought to the room...and they never were. The next morning, I went down for breakfast at 9:15, because I was told it ended at 9:30, but there were no hot foods left. There was a sign on a couple of the items that said they were being prepared and more would be out shortly. After waiting for 5 more minutes, the staff started coming out and clearing everything off. I asked when the items would be out and they told me that they weren't putting anything out because breakfast was almost over. I told them I got there 15 minutes before the end time and there was still nothing there, but they just apologized and continued cleaning up. Later, we had a do not disturb sign on the door, but at 11AM housekeeping started banging on the door, as the phone started to ring too. I opened the door and was asked if we planned on checking out. I told them yes, we would be down by check-out time at 12. She informed me that their check-out time was 11, however, my reservation confirmation said that checkout was noon. I showed it to her and she said she would let the front desk know and it wouldn't be a problem. As I closed the door, a roach came running down the wall (no joke), we were on the second floor. Then to top off the entire experience, I couldn't reach the phone in time, but it didn't matter because after a couple minutes, it started ringing again. It was the front desk, asking if we were checking out. I told her the same thing I told the housekeeper and she said that usually people "request" a late checkout when they check-in. I told her I didn't think I was checking out "late" because, as I just told her, my confirmation said normal checkout was noon. I only stay at Holiday Inns because I have always had exceptional experiences. This experience was terrible, and looking back, almost not even believable because of all the things that just went wrong! I will never stay at this...

I will not stay here with my family again. Our stay was 7 nights. The area around the front desk appeared clean. We get to the elevator and it was noisy and jarring. Felt as though it was going to break. We get inside our room on 4th floor, we take our shoes off and the carpet felt as though we were walking on chewing gum. It was dirty and sticky. We had to put socks on and our brand new, white socks, were black in no time. The bathroom floor was dirty. There was hardly any water pressure in the shower, more than likely due to lime build up. There were only 3 towels. We had 6 people in our room. We asked for 3 more towels from house keeping and I was told we are only allowed 3 towels. I told her we had 6 people and she responded with, 3 only. The hallway continously smelled of marijuana. We had to put a rolled up towel down in front of our door because the marijuana smell came in under our door. The pull out mattress was disgustingly stained. The underside spring part of the pull out hed was molded. No mattress cover nor a protector on the pull out mattress. We didn't use the pull out bed, after seeing how bad it was. We made a pallet on the floor for 2 people with our own blankets. The sheets on one of the beds were stained. The air conditioning unit filters were sticking up out of the air unit. The phone was covered in old dust and hair. The walls under the desk areas were dripping with old, spilled liquid and covered in dirt. Every time we wanted to use the pool, we had to check for pool towels and there never once were towels so I had to ask the desk clerk and he said to check the pool towel cart, I responded with, "we did but it's empty". We hung the do not disturb sign on the door. So we cleaned our own room every day. When we asked house keeping for toilet paper, towels, or trash bags, it seemed to be a problem and they were annoyed by it. So, we bought our own trash bags and toilet paper and paid to rewash the towels in the washer area. Both elevators sounded like they are on their last legs. Jerking and creeking, making all kinds of strange noises. The pool was full of debris most days. I have photos of things that can be viewed. Obviously, I can't photograph odors but the marajuana was a huge issue for me as this was a family vaction and I had my 4 children with me. I very much dislike giving bad reviews but this hotel needs some serious help. We will not be staying at this...

Holiday Inn must have purchased an old, poorly constructed hotel and is attempting to bring it up to par. Unfortunately, the condition of hotel was overall very shabby, even the remodeled parts were clearly just some lipstick slapped on a pig. They were tiling a hallway during our whole stay which resulted in the gym being unavailable which three adults in our group planned to use daily - no substitute options given. Noxious fumes in hallways during some of the days of our stay. Tile floors in rooms and spring doors that slam led to very little sleep due to noise from other rooms and people talking in hallway with nothing to absorb sound. Walls must not be well insulated as we could hear cars screeching around all night. Only way we got any sleep was leaving bathroom fan on and turning the air conditioning fan to continuous all night to try and block out the noise. Garbage dumpster overflowing and large mess visible in parking lot. Our first room had what appeared to be sewage backed up into the tub. We were given two separate rooms to compensate because we needed 2 beds and there were no other double rooms available. Kept hassling one of our rooms to "pay the bill" and turning off the keys to their room because they did not note our room change correctly in their system. Did not inform us of any breakfast procedures or hours. Did not tell us about housekeeping changes. When we later inquired as to why housekeeping wasn't cleaning our rooms, we were told we had to request housekeeping. Housekeeping requested daily after that but still not received over the next 4 days. Had to make extreme efforts to get clean linens. Had to empty our one tiny garbage can ourselves every day and hunt someone down for a new garbage bag so we wouldn't leave our room a pigsty. Microwave missing in one of our rooms. Fridge missing a leg and tilting over in another room. Shampoo/body wash dispenser falling off wall in our tub. Had to dig mess out of our tub drain to prevent wading in calf high water during a shower. We had two other families rent rooms in this same hotel and had to apologize to them the whole trip for the terrible conditions. My in-laws kept telling me the only reason they put up with this is to stay in the same hotel with the rest of us or they would have left immediately - SO...