Holiday Inn Allentown-Bethlehem by IHG — Hotel in Lower Macungie Township

Our Church reserved an event room for 3 days, and on the 3rd day, as we were beginning our services, we were told to vacate the event room because THE HOTEL HAD DOUBLE BOOKED the room and we had to leave. Most of our participants had checked out of their hotel rooms and had their baggage in the event room along with all the paraphernalia we had set up for our entire weekend of INTERNATIONAL PARTICIPANTS IN AUDIO VIDEO meetings and services! We RUSHED THROUGH THE SERVICE WE'D BEGUN and had to pack up everything and leave... and finish our meeting in the lobby. Class act on management's part!

We were then charged for the daily rate of the room+tax, even though the other religious group had a contract for the room, and we agreed with them we'd pack and leave.

This was on top of a voice mail I'd received from the manager a month prior to our reservations saying that we'd reserved 77 rooms which were not booked so we risked losing our weekend reservation for our event!!! She was wrong. We actually had reserved 23 rooms and those we needed were booked and participants already had their airline tickets. I received NO return call from the manager when I left 10 messages for her, and sent an email to her to clear up HER confusion. After I saw the charge for the room we were evicted from I called the hotel and the manager FINALLY called me back regarding the charges, and she placed the financial responsibility on us, while saying the hotel and booking service made the mistake of double booking the event room. We were not told in advance, and our meeting and religious service was INTERRUPTEDto tell us to vacate. After talking with staff and the other group (who'd also paid for the room) we agreed to finish up rapidly, take our stuff out of the room and vacate. THEN WE WERE CHARGED FOR THE ENTIRE DAY. As of this moment we were reimbursed $25. according to bank records!

The customer service is nil, other than the EXCELLENT efforts of the front desk personnel who tried their very best to make amends for the poor management of reservations, from check-in to check-out. They deserve raises!

There are other hotels in Allentown, PA which may have better customer relations and...

The person checking us in was far from friendly. She barely spoke and when she did it was so quiet she was hard to hear. When she handed us our keys, she said, "This is yours". No "your room # is XXX", "elevators are down the hall to the right", "breakfast is served from ...". NOTHING. When we got to the room, we discovered that one of the two key cards didn't work. The room was very nice, and clean. But the AC unit was located only inches from one of the beds and there was no way to adjust the air direction so it didn't blow directly on the bed. There was no book in the room detailing area attractions, restaurants, pool hours, information on the restaurant, room service. Nothing. We tried to get breakfast in the restaurant but there was only one person working. A fellow traveler waited in line for over 10 minutes just to purchase a container of yogurt! After waiting in line for quite some time just to order our food, we left and went elsewhere. We were only there for two nights, so we put out the "Do Not DIsturb" sign, as we didn't need any service. When we got back to our room after our first day, the beds had been turned down, trash emptied, and a new bar or soap was on the sink. First, no one should have been in our room AT ALL with the sign on the door! Second, if they did come in the room, why wasn't a full service done (cleaning of sink and tub, replacement of coffee cups and pods)? On the morning we were checking out, housekeeping knocked on the door asking if we wanted any service that day. Again, the Do Not Disturb sign was STILL out!!! Further, they should have known we were checking out! Again, the rooms were nice, although placement of the AC unit was not optimal. The service left a lot to be desired. But my largest complaint is the violation of privacy by ignoring the Do Not Disturb sign. IF I ever stay there again, I will make a point of letting the front desk know that if my sign is out, they are to honor that and RESPECT...

The room we were initially provided had an air conditioner that made a horrible sound when running, which necessitated my requesting a new room. It should also be noted that the bathroom was not clean and hairs were observed in the shower;

The carpeting in the hallways on the third and fourth floors were dirty and appeared not to have been vacuumed in days;

We left our room at 10:30 am on the morning of May 24, 2021 to attend our daughter's graduation. Upon returning to the room briefly at around 6:00 pm we found that housekeeping had not been to the room in our absence...the beds weren't made, the garbage cans were still full, and the towels had not been replaced. I called the front desk and was told that because we left the room so late (I don't consider 10:30 am late), housekeeping didn't clean our room and now they were gone for the day. I asked for three sets of new towels and was told that I could pick them up at the front desk later in the day;

When I stopped by the front desk later that evening, I was only given two sets of towels. I was told that another set could be brought to the room at 8 am the next morning. Those towels were not brought to the room as promised;

The room only had a half a roll of toilet paper. I went to the front desk again to get more and was only given one roll;

The coffee in the lobby each morning was rarely refilled, necessitating numerous trips from my room to see if more had been made;

At check out, the person at the front desk said that we didn't need to actually check out and gestured towards a garbage can when asked what we should do with the room keys; and,

Overall, I found the front desk staff to be unfriendly, standoffish, and unhelpful. Not once were we thanked, or apologized to for the issues we...