Holiday Inn Express & Suites Ashland by IHG — Hotel in Kenova

I seriously doubt this review will be published, but I’m going to write it on the off chance that it may prevent another family from dealing with a similar weekend of aggravation. Reserved two rooms via phone with the property, one for myself and my husband and another for our boys, with the understanding that they would be adjacent or adjoining. Preferably the latter. I was told it would be absolutely no problem. We had to cancel one night of our reservation earlier in the week prior to arrival, which I also did via phone so I could re-confirm the adjacent or adjoining King and Double Queen request. Two days prior to arrival we had another family member join us, so I added a third King room. Staff was friendly at check-in. Rooms issued were NOT adjacent or adjoining, but across the hall. Annoying, but we could work with it. I entered the room to check it prior to our boys entering and were hit with an overwhelming odor of dog urine. I returned to the desk, informed them of the issue, and requested another room. I inquired if they accepted pets and they stated they “do have some pet friendly rooms.” We clearly found them. The desk clerk also said he was going to “go take care of the first room he’d put us in. We later observed him going in that room with a spray bottle of industrial strength deodorizer. The only options available were a room that was four doors down or one at the other end of the hotel hallway. We took the closer one and planned to put one parent/one kid in each. I entered that room and it also had a strong urine odor, but not as bad as the original.

Considering we were in a non-refundable reservation and also unable to obtain a room in any other hotel within 20 miles due to a baseball tournament, we had to stay here.
That evening, we discovered the double queen room had a damp, sticky spot beside the bed (dog urine from the looks of the socks that stepped in it) as well as another damp spot on the arm chair. We moved the ottoman and found a pile of dog kibble, crushed potato chips, and a hair tie. It was too late to do anything other than wear our shoes from the bed to the bathroom. The king suite we’d reserved was also ridiculously odoriferous, but wasn’t as noticeable until the A/C wasn’t on frigid. When the room warmed up a bit, it was overwhelming. The bed sheets had some sort of fine grit in them that made it feel dirty, so we kept sweeping the grit out of the bed.
I will give them kudos on the pillows. They were comfortable and nicely labeled so you knew which was soft and which was firm. Our room, like the 2 Queens room, needed a good vacuuming because we observed m&m’s under the desk that had been there so long they were discolored. The third room, also a king, was adequate other than the odor that was also present.

Quick summary: Pleasant staff. They moved rooms without fuss, though there were few options and they were booked up. Pool was clean and well maintained, though the door that opened to the parking lot was also the “smokers lounge.” Bathrooms were well stocked and acceptably clean, as were the bath towels and cloths they provided. Be prepared to sign a statement of understanding re: noise policy, but it didn’t seem to be enforced, as evidenced by the barking dog at 3:41am-4:15ish. Rooms desperately need carpet and chair replacement, or better yet, laminate flooring in the pet friendly rooms.
Take an air freshener, or purchase one from the local Dollar Tree, it’s just down the road. Take your own breakfast unless you want cereal. The pancake machine is out of order, the bread selections have been individually wrapped in Saran, which means someone’s hands have touched them all. The beverage selection is limited to coffee and bottled water.

Corporate Holiday Inn / IHG was contacted re: the unacceptable condition of the rooms and they refused to issue a partial refund. I’m clearly disgusted by the rooms we had to sleep in and am livid we are out $406 for this misery. I finally did accept the maximum offer of 20,000 reward points to our IHG account, though that won’t even cover a room for one night in most places...

This place gave us one of the worst experiences we've ever had. We have never been denied an early check in anywhere we stay. Even for a fee, it's an expense worth it for our family. This trip we traveled over 12 hours with 4 kids, a disabled husband and myself, and made it here early. We popped in prior to stopping for breakfast to see if we could check in early the reply was 'no,check in is at 3pm'. My husband asked again if there was any chance of early at all, even willing to pay for it and they flat out said no. We had to putz around for 6 hours before our room was ready. All in all, didn't ruin our trip. Once we got to the room, it got worse. The kids feet were black from the dirty carpet, we put there were 6 of us, we got 3 towels. Since there were house keeping carts and trash cans through out the hallway, we went looking but there were no house keeping staff around them. So to the front desk we went.... then there was nothing for the pull out couch anywhere. trip 2 to the front desk. The toilet broke after one flush and we had to take the lid off it so we could pull the handle inside the tank to flush it. Then the pool was closed for no reason, but that was okay because the shower had this nifty feature that flooded the whole bathroom with 3 inches of water. Not exactly sure the purpose of 2 holes in the wall that shoot water EVERYWHERE is, but my 2yr old had fun. It also randomly shot water out of the faucet when it wasn't in use. The bathroom fan didn't go off and the air hardly cooled much. The staff we did see after check in were friendly and the breakfast was good. Though all the same house keeping carts and FULL trash cans were still in the hall and it STANK. They served breakfast for you and in to go containers and had real bacon, not that microwaved stuff. My kids were super excited about that part.

Honestly, I will never stay in a Holiday Inn again though. Good bacon or not, everytime I stay at a Holiday Inn it's trash. So I'll pay the same price and get a...

This was an absolute horrible hotel and stay. Unfortunately it was our first night on our annual family vacation. They said it was recently renovated but doesn't look like they ever finished. Was warned by other guests that they've been having random fire alarms at night... we didn't have that. Pool was out of service (would have been nice to know since I kept my child happy during our 6 hr drive telling him we would play in the pool, part of the reason we chose this hotel). This is not a "suites" hotel.. unless you count adding a sofa as a suite (this I don't blame the hotel as much as I do the industry as this has become the new norm). They turned off the key access to enter the hotel from the back of the building. That would have been good information since it lets you exit that way. This meant for us that we left for diner came back in the pouring rain and had to carry my child around the building (not a short walk by any means) because they locked the rear entrance even for guests with keys. When I asked about it I was told that since the pool was out of service they shut down the lock. Air-conditioning didn't work. I brought this up to the front desk.. was told it was a known issue, something about a humidity issue they've been trying to resolve (which also explains the "wet" musty feeling in the room).. Electric outlet broken from the wall... No elevator permit on display (this concerned me a lot since everything felt like it was just painted over). The good news is the manager will call me.. that never happened. Avoid this place...