Holiday Inn Express & Suites Jersey City North - Hoboken by IHG — Hotel in Jersey City

Just a horrible experience! Here is how it went down… 1. check-in started off with me walking in the main entrance to check in at approximately 7:20pm. There was no one at the front desk. I waited for approximately five minutes then proceeded to call the hotel number twice to see if someone would pick up. After about 10 minutes or so, the front desk agent appears and we proceed to complete checkin.

At approximately 7:40pm, I walked into the room provided (412). Immediately upon inspection of the room, we recognized the room was not clean. The floor had not been vacuumed, the bed spread had a bunch of short hairs on it and was stained. I took a couple pictures and proceeded downstairs to the front desk to advise her of the room conditions. The front desk rep switched us to a different room after explaining she could not inspect the room to confirm what we saw.

At approximately 7:50pm, I proceeded to room 301, where upon immediate entry smelled like cigarette smoke and had a bit of a musty smell. My husband has bad allergies and asthma, so we can identify tobacco and there is no denying that odor. Again, I immediately proceeded back to the front desk and shared that the room smelled like smoke and had an odor. She then switched us to room 210.

Upon entry into room 210, the room appeared in better condition. We were exhausted from the travel and needed to get food. We set our stuff down and headed out. Upon return, I went into the bathroom, where I saw the floor and the bathroom counter were not clean. As well, the floor had not been vacuumed. The HVAC unit has a bunch of dust built up, which is not good for air quality. Luckily, I had Clorox wipes and proceeded to clean to floor and sink because I was told housekeeping staff was unavailable at that hour.

We had to leave the next morning (3/22) for an event, but upon return, I asked the gentlemen at the front desk for a manager and he said one was not available. I expressed the concern again, and he said no one was available.

Morning check (3/23), I proceeded to the front desk to express the concern and the representative provided a card with an email address and managers name. Which i sent an email to detailing our experience and disappointment.

We have stayed at many IHG properties, specifically Holiday Inn Express and Suites. However, this by far has been one of the worse experiences. From the lack of cleanliness, and attention to detail when preparing rooms for guest, to the noise control and monitoring of guest, this really put a damper on our trip. My husband couldn’t even sleep through the banging, stomping and pipe noise when neighboring rooms used their bathrooms, he had to go sit in the car at 3am to get some peace. I called the front desk twice by the way, with no response.

I declined housekeeping service during our stay because we did not think we would need it for our short stay. That was before we experienced the rooms. However, that has no barring on the fact that the room was not appropriately cleaned for arrival of guest upon checkin. Those floors had not been cleaned for sometime for the amount of build up we saw.

We are so disappointed in our stay at this property.

A manager called me after checkout and offered a $69 refund as compensation. When I expressed I was not satisfied with that response, the manager then offered a refund of $79.99. An absolute joke after we paid almost $500.00 and had to clean the room ourselves. The compensation amounts offered were so random. Especially, when they only actually processed a refund for $74.99. Also, they did not apply any point to my IHG account. I also called corporate, which was another joke as they left me on hold for over an hour. I called back and was disconnected. At this point, I’ve given up trying to resolve this and will dispute with my credit...

Stayed here with free IHG points for 5 nights to bring my family to visit NYC. This is 10 minutes from the PATH station, which costs about $10 each way. ||||When we first checked in, the carpet had crumbs and had not been thoroughly vacuumed. The beds were made up real fine. The room description said Suite but my understanding of a Suite was there might be a separate room but no, that was not the case. It was just a bigger room with 2 Queen Beds and a sofa bed.||||HI Express and HI are not service hotels i.e. no bellman or service people will come to your room if you need towels or a sheet set etc. There were not enough towels for 3 people in our room, so we had to ask for it. The sofa bed sheet set wasn't made available, so we had to ask for it. Every time you need something, you have to go down to get it. So go in with the expectations aligned. The sofa bed wasn't comfortable, so we just chose to sleep as a family of 3 on our 2 Queen beds.||||We told them twice that the carpets need to be cleaned, never happened throughout our 5 day stay. At least the bathroom floors were clean and we just cleaned up our own mess over the days. The beds, however were made every other day just fine. So, the house keeping in charge of the beds was different than the house keeping in charge of the floors, one did a swell job and the other one just didn't get the memo. ||||The hotel is in Jersey City, it is a truck route, you walk outside and there are train tracks behind the hotel and plenty of litter behind the parking lot closer to the train tracks. You take an Uber, you will drive through what would feel like a run down town, that is what some parts of Jersey City looked like. However, the PATH station had a 24 hour deli and Walgreens, and was well lit, so taking an Uber at 11 pm felt safe for my family and never bothered us.||||This is not your upscale hotel, will feel adequate but nothing more than that. If you want that upscale feeling, go stay by the Hoboken Waterfront and try Residence Inn by Marriott (Jersey City, walking distance to train station), Courtyard by Marriott (Newport, by Newport Train station) or Hyatt Regency by Hoboken Waterfront (by Exchange Place train station). All of those will give you better vibes.||||Having said that, my family never felt unsafe whatsoever. You have to understand that the farther you go away from big cities (away from NYC to Jersey City, away from Michigan Avenue in Chicago etc.), you WILL run into rundown parts of the city inevitably but have to refrain from judging a book by its cover. ||||||The positives:||||1. The beds were comfortable and after every tiring night in NYC, my family slept well.||2. The cinnamon rolls (not typical in all HI Express) at the free breakfast was yummy every morning. ||3. The hotel did have a safe to store my passports.||||The negatives:||||1. Not the most clean hotel and part of the city around the hotel (a truck route like I mentioned). Lots of litter in the back of parking lot and train tracks, all giving a run down feeling for that part of town.||2. Housekeeping was a hit and miss, service was a hit and miss.||3. Only 2 laundry machines, one was broken.||4. Service was poor. Ice machine on our floor didn't work but worked on other floors.||||Ultimately, it worked out fine but knowing what I know now, I would choose one of the other 3 options I mentioned above for a stay in the future. However I was told that once you do NYC once, you probably have gotten the taste of what it will be for the future too, from the subways to the skyscrapers to the busy streets, will be a LONG time before I go back. Never say...

Stayed here with free IHG points for 5 nights to bring my family to visit NYC. This is 10 minutes from the PATH station, which costs about $10 each way. ||||When we first checked in, the carpet had crumbs and had not been thoroughly vacuumed. The beds were made up real fine. The room description said Suite but my understanding of a Suite was there might be a separate room but no, that was not the case. It was just a bigger room with 2 Queen Beds and a sofa bed.||||HI Express and HI are not service hotels i.e. no bellman or service people will come to your room if you need towels or a sheet set etc. There were not enough towels for 3 people in our room, so we had to ask for it. The sofa bed sheet set wasn't made available, so we had to ask for it. Every time you need something, you have to go down to get it. So go in with the expectations aligned. The sofa bed wasn't comfortable, so we just chose to sleep as a family of 3 on our 2 Queen beds.||||We told them twice that the carpets need to be cleaned, never happened throughout our 5 day stay. At least the bathroom floors were clean and we just cleaned up our own mess over the days. The beds, however were made every other day just fine. So, the house keeping in charge of the beds was different than the house keeping in charge of the floors, one did a swell job and the other one just didn't get the memo. ||||The hotel is in Jersey City, it is a truck route, you walk outside and there are train tracks behind the hotel and plenty of litter behind the parking lot closer to the train tracks. You take an Uber, you will drive through what would feel like a run down town, that is what some parts of Jersey City looked like. However, the PATH station had a 24 hour deli and Walgreens, and was well lit, so taking an Uber at 11 pm felt safe for my family and never bothered us.||||This is not your upscale hotel, will feel adequate but nothing more than that. If you want that upscale feeling, go stay by the Hoboken Waterfront and try Residence Inn by Marriott (Jersey City, walking distance to train station), Courtyard by Marriott (Newport, by Newport Train station) or Hyatt Regency by Hoboken Waterfront (by Exchange Place train station). All of those will give you better vibes.||||Having said that, my family never felt unsafe whatsoever. You have to understand that the farther you go away from big cities (away from NYC to Jersey City, away from Michigan Avenue in Chicago etc.), you WILL run into rundown parts of the city inevitably but have to refrain from judging a book by its cover. ||||||The positives:||||1. The beds were comfortable and after every tiring night in NYC, my family slept well.||2. The cinnamon rolls (not typical in all HI Express) at the free breakfast was yummy every morning. ||3. The hotel did have a safe to store my passports.||||The negatives:||||1. Not the most clean hotel and part of the city around the hotel (a truck route like I mentioned). Lots of litter in the back of parking lot and train tracks, all giving a run down feeling for that part of town.||2. Housekeeping was a hit and miss, service was a hit and miss.||3. Only 2 laundry machines, one was broken.||4. Service was poor. Ice machine on our floor didn't work but worked on other floors.||||Ultimately, it worked out fine but knowing what I know now, I would choose one of the other 3 options I mentioned above for a stay in the future. However I was told that once you do NYC once, you probably have gotten the taste of what it will be for the future too, from the subways to the skyscrapers to the busy streets, will be a LONG time before I go back. Never say...