Holiday Inn Killeen - Fort Hood Area by IHG — Hotel in Killeen

I usually do not give out 1-stars or bother mentioning negative situations, especially when zero-stars is not an option, but when management lacks a standard level of detail with communication and accountability, then I'm going to use all the ammo at my disposal and empty the clip. I'm not expecting anything special in return. As an IHG rewards member, I find this ordeal beyond disappointing.

Most of the front line staff I encountered during my hotel visit were nice and accommodating. Maintenance was prompt to fix any immediate room issues, Housekeeping quickly replenished bathroom supplies, and the Front Desk associates were pleasantly helpful with my questions and requests in a professional and hospitable manner both in person and on the phone. Ok, I've been fair and balanced with my review. Time to change gears.

There's nothing quite like a significant billing error to really bring one's financial situation to a grinding halt. I could blast on about finding a cockroach (photo in Yelp Tips#, the non-functioning ice machine, the elevator buttons that fell out, the out-of-order exercise machine, the unavailable printer in the business center, the dingy old carpet, the intermittent Wi-Fi signal, the lack of window drapes to block out heat & sunlight, or the malfunctioning door lock to my room after a local power outage, but I'd rather focus on the hotel billing mistake.

I take no pleasure in this rant, well maybe a little, but when the Wifey goes to pay bills online after a holiday weekend and finds out our account has a hotel charge mistake in excess of $1800...Le Sigh. Someone needs to answer for this major screw up.

Allow me to elaborate for all you hard working people: I fly in for a temporary work assignment and our travel department makes arrangements to pre-authorize the hotel billing directly to our business account. Our travel manager sends the approval to Holiday Inn on 5/02/2014. I check-in 5/06 and give my ID and a debit card to cover incidentals, of which there were none during the entire stay. I check-out and return home to spend Memorial weekend with my family.

The following Tuesday 5/27 we receive alerts and Wifey finds out why she can't pay online bills. Our account is now overdrawn. Not to mention, there are other automatic billpay items scheduled to hit the books. I'm calling & emailing Holiday Inn to straighten out this mess because Holiday Inn charged the bill to my debit card instead of the company travel account. I have initiated all of the phone calls and emails to Holiday Inn Killeen to get an update. Funny how it takes a day for a merchant to take your money, but much longer to return it.

After leaving voicemails and sending an email, I am waiting to hear back from the hotel general manager about reversing the charges and addressing the number of subsequent overdraft fees that occurred through the holiday weekend. The bank penalty fees never would have happened if Holiday Inn handled the billing correctly. I spoke to him once on 5/27/14. He offered no apology, nor did he reassure me that he was personally working on a correction and would see it through to make it right. In fact, he was leaving early for the day and sounded all too busy to take charge of the matter. The general tone I received was, "We need your company credit card info so we can switch the billing and maybe there was a miscommunication between your company and Holiday Inn."

Wait, didn't you have this information before I arrived in order to reserve the room?

I will also look for other review and travel sites to share my horrible experience and help others to avoid a...

This hotel was extremely incompetent. I was traveling with VIPs from my work organization. We arrived to check in with 4 reservations under a name. When we went to check in, the person at the front desk was friendly, but had only been working there for 7 days. Her manager left her on the schedule to work a Saturday by herself. She did not know how to let us pay individually and we were stuck in the lobby for an hour and a half. She attempted to call her manager who was of no help. Additionally, I attempted to get help through the call center to see if they could walk this person through the process and they said only the hotel could do it. I asked them if we could cancel the original reservation, since she wasn't able to split them and each make a separate reservation and the person on the phone told me we would be charged for the 4 rooms if we did that. I explained that we were still planning on staying in the 4 rooms, but due to the front desk person not being able to split them into 4 separate credit cards we weren't able to check in that way. They still stated we would be charged for the 4 rooms and then be charged again for a separate reservation. Finally, we were able to split the rooms up only for the front desk person to not be able to give me the government rate because she didn't know how. I was over charged for my room. Then the next morning at breakfast we were told we would have a voucher for a free breakfast due to us being military. I informed the waitress that I would like to be charged for my orange juice, so I could ensure I was able to leave her a tip since I had no cash on me. She took my credit card and then came back and said there was something wrong with the machine and not to worry about it. I coordinated with another peer to just leave extra for me in the form of a cash tip to ensure we took care of her. 30 minutes after leaving the hotel, I then get an additional charge on my credit card from the Holiday Inn-Killeen that I did not authorize nor make a purchase for. I called my credit card and put an alert on my card. They called the hotel and were told there was nothing they could do about it until Monday when the manager was in. I personally called the manager who assured me they would reimburse me for the over charge and the additional charge I never made. The manager took my number and never called me back again and I am still waiting on the money to be returned to me. I have never had an experience this frustrating and unprofessional. Not to mention that I didn't get my IHG points for the stay because no one knew how to do that either. Very disappointed with the stay and Holiday Inn and considering going with another hotel chain for rewards and stays. I was embarrassed for our VIPs as it was such a...

I specifically booked this hotel vs. the Holiday Inn Express nearby because of the cooked-to-order breakfast offered. Paid for the breakfast as part of room package. Guest room has the typical menu telling you what is available. Front desk has a little plastic holder with menu. However, the next morning I was told that they were ONLY offering the buffet. I was OK with this as I looked and there was nicely cooked ham and scrambled eggs so I ate that. Next morning however they had the SAME ham except this time it was nuked instead of grilled, so I asked if I could get an Omelet and was told very sternly that I could not as the staff had gotten in trouble for doing so for another guest and that the buffet was all that was available. Third morning was the same story, so I asked to speak to the management. The woman sat down and I expressed my concerns, which she addressed with the following;

#1 They had a government contract and during those times they only had the buffet for the soldiers.

#2 The breakfast voucher "CLEARLY" says buffet only.

Bull... I pulled the next mornings voucher from my pocket and carefully examined it and offered her to do the same. NO WHERE does it say anything of the sort, so caught in a lie on the spot and all she could say is "well they should have"

PLUS, what you have contracted for soldiers staying there has NOTHING to do with me or my expectations. If you are only having a buffet (with 3 hot items, poorly cooked) then have HUGE signs saying so and PULL the menus from the rooms! This is not hard.

This hotel suffers from severe lack of professional management. There are many other small details I could go into such as staff eating at the front desk while checking in, that point to this lack of direction.

The breakfast was not the worst part either. 2 of the mornings there was NO HOT WATER. This is inexcusable, I can see one morning something broke but then you do anything you can to make sure it does not happen the next morning. I checked out a day earlier than I had booked the stay was so bad.

Also was NOT recognized as a Spire Elite at checkin, when I mentioned that was she said well you must have removed it from your reservation. Umm, no, see the IHG app here, it shows the reservation, you removed it when you switched the credit card, NOT me. Ahhh, I could go on but until they change their ways will not be staying...