Holiday Inn & Suites Memphis - Wolfchase Galleria by IHG — Hotel in Memphis

My party arrived about a half-hour before check-in time and was able to get immediately to a room – a plus. The hotel has recently remodeled rooms and is still working on the lobby and other infrastructure. (Expected completion date less than a week after our stay.) The room was nice, overall, as you would expect after a remodel, but there were some questionable choices made – more on that below.

Our sole reason for the stay was for my party (four family members) to get ready for a Saturday evening wedding and to sleep afterward. Unfortunately, we quickly found that the sole outlet in the bathroom was not working, making it difficult for my wife to do makeup and hair. Lighting in the room was inadequate, so while there were mirrors in the room, it was far from an ideal backup.

I attempted to call to report the problem with the outlet. (It appeared that the GFI was tripped and it would not reset – indicating a wiring issue.) I pressed the button on the phone for “Guest Services”, expecting a direct connection – instead I got twenty rings and no answer. I dialed 0, hoping to get the front desk – twenty rings and no answer. I tried the “Guest Services” button again with twenty rings and no answer again.

I walked to the front desk to report the problem. (I had a small margin of time before I needed to get ready.) I was told by front desk personnel “I will report that to maintenance.” I was met with blank stares and no explanation when I told them that the “Guest Services” button gave no answer. I was told that “due to the renovations” dialing 0 did not lead directly to the front desk – but was not offered any help on how to reach the front desk.

I returned to the room to prepare for the wedding and (hopefully) receive a visit from maintenance. (The outlet was still not working when we checked out on Sunday. As far as I know maintenance did not visit while we were away from the room Saturday evening.)

There were some other issues with the stay that were less serious. The in-room coffee maker was a Kuerig-style but was missing an internal piece, the part that punctures the K-cup, and thus would not make coffee. I am not even sure how you manage to put such in a room unless it was an unsuccessfully refurbished unit and the hotel just has poor or no Quality Assurance.

There were some questionable choices in the remodel of the room that was otherwise nice. The furniture in the room did not match. There was no holder (rack) for hand towels so a towel had to be laid across the vanity. There was no soap dish on the vanity so the provided hand soap bar had to be placed directly on the vanity. The bath towels were racked inside the shower. (I know that this is a design choice that some hotels make, but it has never seemed like a good one to me, since splashes always mean that the third or fourth person to take a shower has a damp towel, at best, unless someone moves the towels elsewhere – and if they are going to be put elsewhere, shouldn’t the hotel have planned for that?)

There were some other issues. When we checked in, we didn’t inquire about breakfast choices. Early Sunday morning when I returned from exercise, I asked and was given vouchers for the hotel restaurant. The desk personnel checked our room information but apparently didn’t look to see how many were registered for the room – he gave me just two vouchers. When I asked for vouchers for the two children staying with me, I was met with a blank stare, but I did receive the other vouchers. (The blank stare was a recurring theme. Hotel personnel were not actively rude, but with few exceptions they seemed totally uninterested in us as guests.)

There were two coffee dispensers in the lobby, just off the hotel restaurant, stocked (as far as I know) 24 hours. That is good. But neither one was decaf. When we inquired in the early morning about it, we were told to see the server in the hotel restaurant about decaf. When we did, she was mildly hostile to the idea (the only instance actually approaching rudeness in our stay). Surely we were not the first guests to ever seek decaf – the hotel needs a system to handle such requests.

The hotel Wi-Fi was spotty at best. Strangely, three in my party (myself and my two children) experienced frequent drop-outs (usually no more than four minutes of service without a disconnection, which is annoying when reading the news but worse for the kids playing games), but my wife had excellent Wi-Fi connectivity throughout. I can’t explain the discrepancy.

At the time of checkout, I had notes written on my copy of the bill (slipped under the door in the night, a service I appreciate). Mostly I had written these down so that I could use them to provide feedback when I returned home. But when I was asked “How was your stay?” during check-out, I referred to my notes about the coffee maker, the outlet (which I had already reported of course, but to make sure that maintenance got the request before the next guest took the room) and the problem with reaching the desk (or anyone!) on the phone. Desk personnel (#1) took this copy of the bill – I asked to get it back (or take a photo of it) when they were finished so that I could consult the notes later. I was passed off to another person (#2) at the desk (the desk was not busy – I guessed that #2 was more experienced in handling guest issues, but I wasn’t told) and my bill (and notes) were also passed to her. I repeated that I wanted it back when they were done. She then passed the bill along to another person (#3) who appeared from somewhere else (and I took to be an assistant manager or the manager on duty, though he did not speak to me and I did not see his name tag), who took the bill into a back room. I assumed that I was going to be given partial credit on the bill for my troubles, so I was patient, though I really wanted to get on the road. No explanation or timetable was offered. After about eight minutes employee #2 printed a new bill and handed it to me – it was exactly the same as what I had before and had no discount. I then reminded her that I wanted the original back or to take a photo of it to capture my notes. She disappeared and returned about three minutes later with a photocopy. As far as I know I gained nothing from waiting for those eleven minutes. #3 never reappeared or...

Our stay at this hotel was top notch. the hotel staff was friendly and helpful. The room was very clean. We had a King bed suite and it was VERY spacious.Two rooms, a wet bar area (would be even better if there was some minimal glass-ware). The suites have a microwave and a small fridge with freezer (that effectively freezes ice packs). The toilet and shower have a separate door so someone can get ready at the wide sink simultaneously.

After 6 days in the hotel, there are two areas that dropped it down to 4 stars.

The first is hard to resolve, it’s the heating/cooling. It was a cool spring break week, but we needed a little air to keep the room comfortable. The a/c units can’t easily keep a steady temp. It warms up 2 degrees, cooling kicks in and blasts super cold air for a minute or two. I run hot but felt freezing cold whenever the unit ran. We only set the temp to 71 at night and had to raise it to 75 during the day. Bring a light sweater to keep comfy.

Breakfast – this is fixable. We paid for breakfast with our stay. Many commented they were surprised it wasn’t free. The “with breakfast” options are an offering when you make a reservation. It’s $12+ per person on-site, but much cheaper if you purchase it in advance. If I was eating for 2 days, I might have been happy. After 6 days, I found there was zero variety.

a. Standard hot offering was french toast sticks, potatoes, sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs and biscuits/gravy.

b. Coffee was bitter (pro tip it’s much better in the lobby and free)

c. French toast sticks were chewy almost like beef jerky, except the morning we went down at 7 am.

d. The first day the bacon was almost raw (see pic) - the complaint isnt a chewy vs crispy debate, it’s a would I get stick from eating question? We wrapped it in a napkin to cook in the microwave upstairs, but it was too unappetizing to eat. Fortunately the rest of the week was better.

e. I tried the plain oatmeal one day, but quickly realized there were NO fixings for it. I used a raw sugar packet and honey. Even free breakfast hotels usually have brown sugar and cinnamon.

f. The people working were pleasant, with the exception of one (she had maroon hair highlights)r. The 4th morning our son was still sleeping. I brought down his breakfast coupon and asked if I could get it to go. The lady behind the bar provided me a container. I started to bring the container to the food area and that lady stopped me and scolded me, “You can’t bring that to load food”. I was confused and asked why (I had clearly established my intent with the first person). She said only they can load containers from the food area – I offered her my container. The reply, “well we don’t do that”. Bewildered I responded, “what do I need to do to get breakfast for my son?”. The response, you have to put it on a regular plate and bring it to the bar to load the container”. Okay, I did that, and returned to the bar with my food. She proceed to show me a paper from under the bar and pointed to the policy, as if to justify. Mind you – no patron will no the policy if not explained. I was only told the policy after I was reprimanded. I finished up my own breakfast and before leaving approached and explained in a friendly tone that it was uncomfortable being accused of doing something wrong when the policy wasn’t communicated. It would have been better to stop me and explain what to do first. Her response was a glaring side eye. I have zero problem with the policy – I was getting very little food. I think her natural demeanor is negative and she doesn’t realize how harsh she comes off. It puts people on the defensive and really ruined breakfast for the remainder of the week. She was...

My family and I stayed at Holiday Inn Express Memphis - Wolfchase Galleria, on June 28-30, 2021. I have been an IHG club member for 6 years and our most recent stay Was the most disappointing and disgusting stays ever. From the lack of cleaning in our room and the poor customer service from the evening front desk representative, Lavon, I decided never to stay at that Holiday Inn again. It was our second time staying there and the most unsatisfactory. Mr Lavon was the evening front desk representative for both visits. He don’t greet you when you walk in nor tries to resolve any room issues. Our very first stay, which was April 3-4, 2021, I requested a tub prior to arriving. After we checked in, I noticed our room had no tub. I inform Mr Lavon that I requested a tub and he told me that this hotel no longer have tubs in any rooms. It was very difficult giving my 5 year old a shower. During our July 28-30 stay, the room we were in had gum stuck to one of our nightstand, food crumbs under the bed, and the shower repairs was unprofessional. Because of the pandemic, I expected for our room to at least feel clean. In addition, I felt like the carpet was filthy and covered by the dark color. We had to thoroughly clean our room because it just didn’t feel clean. The next evening, we noticed our room wasn’t cleaned by housekeeping. Noted: We didn’t have a “do not disturbed” sign on our door. We had no clean towels and our dirty towels were where we left them. My husband went to the front desk to inform Mr Lavon that we needed towels and he told him, there wasn’t any clean towels available. He said housekeeping only cleans every other day. They will clean our room the next day. My husband told him, we check out, tomorrow and we needed towels. He said to give him 30 minutes and he’ll have some clean. I was honestly afraid we would be given dirty towels because it usually take longer to clean towels. We waited over 30 minutes and it was late. This was such an inconvenience because my 5 year old needed to have a bathe/shower then rest from a very long day. I also express to Mr Lavon my concerns about the lack of cleaning in our room and he just said he would write it down for the housekeeping crew. He never offered moving us to another room. Check out day was better, Ms Lolita listen to my concerns, apologized, and insured me she would pass my concerns to the general manager. She also offered to give me 15,000 points towards our club account. She was wonderful but I was still very disappointed with our stay. To better my next service, I asked that IHG Memphis - Wolfchase Galleria update some of their rooms to give guest options for a shower only room or a tub with shower, go back to cleaning rooms every day and have the manager on duty to inspect rooms prior to check ins, enroll Mr Lavon in a customer service training class, and hire professionals to repair all damages caused to their rooms. I also ask that Ms Lolita be recognized for her great...