Holiday Inn & Suites Madison West - Middleton by IHG — Hotel in Madison

We had high hopes but were left a bit disappointed, so hopefully this review can help management identify opportunities for improvement, and help other families manage their expectations and plan ahead to avoid disappointment.

I think our first mistake was coming on a weekend. If you plan to come for the waterpark, come during the week if you can. We had hoped to buy a guest pass so a friend could join our two children to play, but were told that guest passes are not available on weekends, despite the front desk having literally just handed me a printout that said guest passes were available for purchase for $20 each. So beware, they claim to have guest passes available, but they wanted our guests to purchase a hotel room. The rooms also have separate rates if you want breakfast included or not. I don't think it was very clear when booking our room that some rooms included breakfast and some didn't. We chose not to pay for the breakfast, and we just went to a local diner, but something to be aware of if you are accustomed to continental breakfast being included with your room.

The room: we found the king size bed to be very uncomfortable, way too firm, we did not get very good sleep on it. The children slept fine on the pull out sofa bed, there were extra pillows, sheets, and a blanket in the closet which was very convenient. The room itself was "surface clean" but was very clearly in need of a deep clean. There was visible dirt, grime, and stains, especially in the bathroom. The cushions on the sofa-bed had large visible stains, it looked like they had just flipped the cushions over to give the illusion that it was clean. There was a Keurig coffee machine in the room, but no actual K-Cups. We inquired at the front desk and were told the hotel had run out of K-Cups. We also only has 3 bath towels in the room, despite checking in with 4 humans. Minor issues, but still annoying.

The waterpark: What the actual f is happing with this water park. First and foremost, it is WAY overdue for a deep clean. There was hair, chunks of food, and just grime buildup everywhere. It needs a thorough powerwashing. We found a literal toenail stuck to the bottom of one of our feet. There are signs everywhere that says no food/beverage allowed, but the lifeguards were eating non-stop at their seats, and there was no one enforcing the rule for guests, so there were people holding open plastic cups of beer while in the pool, one woman was literally standing in the pool eating a large bag of doritos. No wonder they can't keep the place clean. They must make good money off of people hosting birthday parties in the waterpark, because that seems to be their priority, and there was a constant stream of people coming thru the waterpark area in their street clothes and shoes, on the pool deck where swimmers are walking with bare feet. We found the lifeguards very friendly and helpful, but they are young (high school/college age) people and I think they need a bit more support from management to keep guests following the rules. The number of parents we watched strap their small non-swimming children into a life jacket and then just turn them loose was both ASTONISHING and TERRIFYING. The lifeguards are NOT there to babysit your children, folks, especially if your child doesn't know how to swim! In the evening, there is no doubt in my mind that the facility was over capacity, it was absolutely packed, again, with people in the pool with food and drinks. The bathrooms were not well planned either, with only one stall in each restroom, plus an open shower stall. This was woefully insufficient for the amount of people they had in there, and the bathrooms were disgusting to boot. Bring your own beach towels if you can.

Overall, it was closer and cheaper than the dells, and the kids had a good time, but I think they are doing the bare minimum because they know they are the only one in the Madison area and they have no...

I wanted to leave this review as a warning and heads up to any potential future guests. |We stayed here last week and had a very poor experience start to finish. |We booked the hotel because of the pool area for our 3 small kids. Thought it would be fun after a long day in the car. I will say- that was the only positive of the stay- it was perfect entertainment for 2 hours of play. The staff was far from friendly and welcoming when we checked in and when we got to the room it was pretty run down and definitely in need of a refresh- pieces held in place by scotch tape on the side tables, etc. We decided, whatever, it’d be fine for one night for the sake of fun for the kids. We enjoyed the pool and then came up to bathe and there was no hot water. I ran the water for a solid 5 minutes on full-heat with only ice cold water. I called down to ask if there was an issue with the water and the front desk told me that rooms on the top floor needed to run the water for at least 15 minutes for it to heat up. Seemed very odd to me but I left it running to try. Still nothing. I called and updated them and they told me I was the only one experiencing this and they could move me to another room. At this point we were unpacked and our kids were headed toward bed (and I doubted it would be any better in another room) so we decided to stay and try again later that night or in the morning. |Went to take a shower/wash face, etc in the morning and still nothing but ice cold water. When my husband enquired at the front desk about they said it was a hotel-wide issue and they were taking room numbers so they could reach out with a resolution. He left our info and we checked out.|Later that night we checked into another hotel and still had heard nothing from the Holiday Inn so I sent an email to address it. I was told by Nick that they would be discussing the issue as a management staff over the weekend (this was Friday) and I would hear back with their solution no later than Monday.|Unsurprisingly, by Monday night I had heard nothing so I sent a follow up email. |The reply the next day was essentially a “sorry you had this problem, we’ll handle it better in the future but we won’t be compensating anyone for the inconvenience since it was out of our control”. |This communicates to me the value of their bottom line very clearly over their guests and the money we are choosing to spend with them when we could be (and will certainly in the future) staying anywhere else.|So word of warning- this hotel clearly does not care about you as the customer and your experience or comfort during your time with them, they care about getting your money and seeing you off. ||On top of this, I filled out a survey sent from IHG with our experience and all they did was reach out to say “sorry for your experience”, offering no resolution. I then reached out via another measure and have yet to hear anything in response. ||Through this whole mess we were led to believe a solution and compensation would be offered only to be hit with the “sorry, not sorry” in the end. IHG and Holiday Inn had an easy opportunity to make us (with zero current loyalty to their brand) very loyal returning customers by handling this situation with a swift, caring response and instead have left us with an experience that has us telling everyone of how poorly we were treated and avoiding their brands for ones that we know will take care of us...

I traveled to Madison for work and my company booked my hotel for me. A shuttle picked me up from the airport which was great. My driver was really nice, helpful with luggage and we had a nice conversation on the way to the hotel. I can’t remember his name unfortunately. Check in went well and my room was pretty nice. The bed was really comfortable (which is important) and it was clean. I was only there for 3 nights so I ordered in twice and ate at the hotel restaurant one evening. I had leftovers and went to out them in the fridge and noticed that the freezer had so much ice build up on it that the door wouldn’t stay closed. I went to the desk to notify them and he was appreciative that I let him know. He came to remove it from the room so it could defrost but didn’t bring a replacement.

My biggest complaint was with the shuttle service, not the drivers(they were all fantastic) but just the flexibility of it. I was transported to Epic two mornings and the times were set for 7:30 pickup and return to hotel at 5. Unless you needed to go to the airport from Epic, they didn’t come back to get you. Both days I was done early and just felt stuck. Don’t get me wrong, there is a ton to do at Epic , but I saw many other hotel shuttles picking guests up and making multiple trips while I waited a couple hours for ours to return. The shuttle to the airport is where I felt like no one really cared about my comcern. My flight departed at 7:10. The shuttle was already arranged by another guest for 5:30 pickup which would put us at the airport by 6 as long as everything went well. It’s not a big airport, but that gave me 30 min to get in, go thru security, find my gate and grab a coffee. I had looked online at average security wait times for that time of day and it said it could be 30-45 min. I expressed this to three front desk employees and got the same answer-it’s already been scheduled. One told me they could reach out to the other person to see if they were willing to change it, but I don’t think they ever did that. I left for my class and when I returned, there was another employee who had no idea what I was talking about. I ended up getting an Uber who picked me up at 4:40 and was wonderful. I was there early enough and thank goodness for that bc I ran into a couple hiccups that took time and security was about 20 min as well. The gentleman at the front desk this morning was the only one who apologized and understood why I canceled the shuttle. He even said he always arranged the shuttle to get guests to the airport at least 90 min before their flight. I know it doesn’t matter to them if I missed my flight, but it sure did to me.

Overall the hotel was fine but just don’t bank on the shuttle being available when or if you need it. Thankfully I can reimbursed for my Uber-but I just don’t feel I should have had to get one in the...