Holiday Inn Express & Suites Seattle-Everett, an IHG Hotel — Hotel in Mill Creek

Never again. This was actually the first hotel I have ever stayed in where I was worried about our safety. The neighborhood is very sketchy with persons begging on every street corner. There was someone living in their car parked near ours one night. The noise from the freeway was loud and constant. While this is a non-smoking property, night 1 was met with the intense cloud of weed in the hallway right outside our room, other guests were fighting and screaming at each other directly across the hall, then another person doing the same nearby for the next two nights. We asked if we could check out early, but were told we paid in advance and there was no refund (I learned later they assumed we booked through an outside 2nd party business). I called the main number for Holiday Inn and my call kept getting bumped up to another person to whom I explained we didn't feel safe and wanted to know the early check-out rules only to eventually be told to just talk to the guy at the front desk. We just gave up, went to dinner where we got an email saying we had been checked out. Went back to the hotel and asked what they heck, cleared it up and remained thinking we could just tolerate it for a couple more nights. It was a new experience to have everyone we encountered warn us not be walk alone at any time. We took an Uber to a restaurant a block away and the driver urged us not to walk anywhere because it wasn't safe. We got the same advice from a waitress in the restaurant and later other guests at the hotel were chatting about how they also were shocked at the conditions around us and wouldn't come back. We went to the grocery store across the street where a staff member checks bag contents and receipt because of the shoplifting problems. Housekeeping was hit or miss regarding quality and consistency. We had a pizza delivered, put the box on the trash can, the box was put on the desk and left and the rest of the trash taken. Hmmm. Toward the end of our stay, we decided to leave a day early and just suck up the loss. The (different) person at the front desk told us no problem, we are only billed for the nights we stay. Sigh. The fighters eventually left and the craziness inside the hotel stopped. The beds were really very comfortable and the breakfast spread was decent. However, we did leave as soon as we realized we wouldn't be paying...

One of the worst, if not the worst, HIE experiences I've had in my travels.

Prices were quite high for the quality of the room

The room smelled like dirty feet. I had to go buy a plug in air freshener to make it tolerable.

I was "upgraded" due to my IHG status but the suite I was given was at the end of the hall on the first floor and the stairwell went above my room. I had to listen to the seeming non-stop stomping of people climbing the stairs at all hours of the night plus the slamming of the exterior door and stairwell doors.

I was woken up almost every morning around 5am by a loud beeping outside, which I assume was the backup alarm on a vehicle but it seemed to last far longer than it should have.

The TVs are old and small, plus the one in the living area took about 5 minutes to go through some sort of update every time that I turned it on before you could watch anything.

The parking lot is too small and it could be challenging to find a spot depending on when you got in.

The curved shower rod in the bathroom prevents the bathroom door from opening as far as it should and forces you to close the door which I have no reason to do when I'm there by myself.

I received 3 emails, one each day after my initial check in, from the general manager asking about why I was in the area and pushing to offer discounted rates for return trips or groups. One is fine, MAYBE two, but if those get ignored then take the hint...

LASTLY, AND POSSIBLY THE MOST OFFENSIVE OF ALL - At check-in when given the paperwork to sign about your room rates and policies, they always highlight the spots for you to sign or initial. One of the highlighted spots was giving consent for them to add your info to some sort of marketing list! The "opt-out" box was a checkbox hidden way up at the top right of the form where you had no real reason to look for anything. Nothing was said about any of it, just handed the form and asked to sign and initial the highlighted spots. ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING and they should be ashamed...

This hotel was good. I would stay here or another holiday inn again. The rooms were normal. Nothing extra or fancy. They were clean. I did find some crumbs, I do a full inspection for bed bugs before staying. I found none. Only one spider. No other insects. But I remove mattresses off the frame. I usually take the head boards off but they were fastened together. Move furniture around. Breakfast was good but not too much selection. I pick hotels for The breakfast. It was pancakes(machine) biscuits gravy , cheese and veg omelettes, sausage, bacon or sausage patty, scrambled eggs one of 3 days. Oatmeal , yogurt packages, toast, bagels , English muffins, bananas, apples, jam and cream cheese. Three types of cereal. Coffee and tea, juice machine. The breakfast serving area was small . about a 12x 10 cubby. Which with more than three people inside is crowded. Line ups were normal. Coffee was still available after breakfast hours. The pool was small and also easily crowds, ranges from 3ft to 5ft. Like many places in 2023 the seemed understaffed. But every employee was wonderful and did more than there regular duties. My rooms safe was still locked and I had no body wash on arrival. Plus the tv did not work. The hand sanitizers on the wall only 2 of the six I tried had sanitizer. Parking was included and easy. The area seemed safe. I would not walk to Safeway at night. Saw two groups of strange people at that parking lot. But the hotel parking lot was good. Lots of blackberries in the hotel parking lot. Be careful of thorns when backing in and reaching in your trunk. Over all this place was good. I really think the need to setup the breakfast area to be out side the box they put it in. If the re arranged the table and put the food along the rails it would really help. Also a lot of the feet on the table need adjustment to...