Holiday Inn Express & Suites Livermore by IHG — Hotel in Livermore

My wife and I were attending the Little League 50/70 World Series and a few extra days to visit the Livermore and Tri-Valley area. In general the staff was very professional and assisted w\our groups many requests as we had attendees from around the world in our group. Washer and dryers issues were resolved quickly(odd that the staff did not have the coin box key to clear coin jams which I think this needs to be improved), extra cloths hangers were provided and excellent assistance was offered to our many questions during our groups extended stay. Three (3) issues I would like to bring to the attention of management are listed below:

1)This is the 1st hotel that I have stayed at in my lifetime where coffee was not available in the downstairs breakfast area by the night front desks personal 1 hour before the breakfast was open. Keurig coffee makers were in our room but I'm an early raiser and don't really care for coffee from Keurig. Using the Keurig would have disrupted my wife while sleeping which I found out the one morning I used it. Generally speaking all hotels I have stayed at pre and post COVID the night front desk would have coffee prepared about an hour before the breakfast area opened. When I ask I was informed the breakfast person would be in about 5:30 am for the 6:30 am opening M-F and 6am for the 7am opening. I was lucky that a gas station was on the corner that shared the hotel parking lot which had very good coffee I could purchase. When the breakfast employee did arrive it seemed coffee was not a priority. I find this also odd as daily I watched business guests leave the hotel before coffee was available or walk with me to the gas station to purchase coffee. This seems like a small change that can add to my overall comfort as well as anyone staying in my room as well as other guests which does not seem to be of great cost to the hotel. I would suggest the night front desk make a pot of coffee by 5am for 6:30 am breakfast opening M-F and 5:30am for 7am opening Sat-Sun. Of the 2 breakfast employee's the female employee was much more in tune w\making coffee earlier and anticipating needed refills of hot breakfast items.

2)Several evenings post our baseball games we would gather in the hotel lobby\breakfast area which the staff allowed us to do so for our post game activities\wind down while discussing the days activities and watching TV. We were very thankful and only one evening were ask to shut it down before guest complained by 11:30pm. Several nights the windows were open in the lobby when the front desk zone ac was on. We ask if the windows could be shut and the ac zone in the lobby\breakfast area could be turned on. The night front desk did not have access to the temperature controls as they were locked by the owner(as we were told). Even with the beautiful Livermore weather\night temps it was stuffy and uncomfortable.

3)Being an extended stay we found the breakfast variety a little lacking. It would have been nice to have regular bacon more often versus a few times during our 11 morning stay versus 2 or 3 times as well as breakfast potatoes. In general the breakfast was good but adding these 2 items would have...

My husband and I and our dogs have been staying here the past few years, as it's about halfway along our drive between Oregon and Arizona. We stay here twice a year on our way from one to the other. Although we originally found the hotel acceptable, the rooms and hotel have declined. On our last stay, there were issues with cleanliness, no hot water, lights that didn't work, etc. We chalked it up to bad luck and decided to give the hotel one more try.||We made our reservation for two adults and three dogs, and we booked two rooms to accommodate the dogs. I called ahead of arrival, as I always do, to let them know the dogs were coming and to ask for adjoining rooms. I confirmed the pet policy of $75 PER STAY to have the dogs in the room, the same policy on the hotel's website and on IHG's website. The same rate we've been charged for years.||After traveling 700 miles and arriving in the late evening exhausted, the clerk informed me that they were going to charge us $75 per dog per night, totally contrary to the numerous other times we'd stayed at the hotel and contrary to what is stated on the website. So for two nights, we'd have to pay $450 for our three dogs to stay, in addition to the regular cost of the rooms. Who in their right mind would pay this?? Especially for such a substandard hotel?? The fee they wanted for the dogs was more than the rooms!||We told them we were canceling our reservation, and they assured us they understood and there would be no charge. They apologized for all of the other times we'd stayed at the hotel and had been undercharged for the dogs. (Yeah, right.) We ended up at a neighboring hotel, which turned out to be nicer and less expensive, and of course with a $75 pet fee per stay. So we paid a total of $75 to have our dogs with us rather than the $450 Holiday Inn Express Livermore wanted to charge.||Lo and behold, upon arriving home, we checked the credit card bill and we were charged for one night's stay plus an additional $50 (what for? who knows!) by Holiday Inn for a room we didn't use and which we had been told would not be charged. ||This hotel has lost our business. With the LA fires and so many refugees leaving the city in search of accommodation, we have to wonder why the cost went up so much and...

This hotel was great! Staff was super friendly. Check in was a snap (and we were 2 hours early). Check out was a breeze. There are TONS of outlets in the room, even USB ports right in the walls next to both sides of the bed. You won't need to go digging around behind cabinets or dressers to get to outlets in this room! Breakfast was great, TONS of choices! Room was clean, didn't have any issues with noisy guests.

My only niggles are:

the hotel room doors close super loud, so you do hear the doors slamming from time to time as guests enter/exit their room. I purposely tried to slow my door down as to not disturb other guests, but not everyone had that courtesy. The hotel should install some sort of damper on the doors so they close quietly. Minor issue.

The bed is a FIRM bed. I do not mind a firm bed, but my partner did. There was an extra thick quilt that wasn't on the bed, but we put it down and used it as a pseudo mattress pad.

The WiFi, while it has a strong connection, is so slow. Seems to be limited to 1.5mbps per device. And heavily monitored for streaming. The minute you start streaming some video content online, the speed starts to crawl to 10kb/s. Useless! It also blocked me from the internet a few times while trying to download some work related ZIP files (with PDFs inside). I gave up and used my cell phone hotspot. There didn't appear to be a "paid" unrestricted version of the internet either. It was free since I was a IHG member and there didn't seem to be any gateway to pay for a better/faster connection.

Other than that, awesome hotel. Friendly staff. Parking lot was big, well lit. There is a gas station and a Wendy's in the same parking lot as the hotel, so convenience factor is there for that. Cost of room was very reasonable. Will stay here again if ever...