Holiday Inn Express Minden by IHG — Hotel in Minden

I would not recommend this hotel to anyone. We were in town for a funeral and our experience got off to a bad start when my credit card company notified me of a "card not present" transaction for the full amount of our stay...and we had not checked in. It was 7:48pm and we were with the family at the funeral home and the front desk clerk decides to run my card. Having been a front desk clerk and a night auditor I know that this is not something that is common to the hotel industry.

In our room the room darkening curtains didn't darken the room because they did not meet in the middle. There is a huge 4-inch gap that lets in ALL light. Makes it hard to fall asleep. The next morning was not that great with housekeeping knocking on our door before 8:30am. We had been up late with the family the night before and it was not pleasant to have housekeeping at our door at that time. As I got out of bed, I noted the time, 8:25am.

The wake up call from housekeeping was followed by lukewarm showers. I had a warmer shower in Romania. I had the water cranked all the way it would go for hot and still barely had warm water at the end of my shower.

To top it all off, I stopped by the front desk to ask for a late checkout because of the funeral. The front desk clerk asked if noon was late enough; she was very short with me when I informed her that the funeral was at noon in town. She asked me if we could be out of the room by 2pm. Let's think this through: it's a noon funeral which will last about 45 minutes, then we have to go to the Cemetary for graveside services (which were held in Seftin, south of Minden), and this lady is giving me grief for wanting to come back after the funeral and change. Her excuse: "Well, I'll have to call the customer waiting to check in that his room won't be available until 3pm." Isn't the check in time 3pm? That's fairly standard.

I don't recommend this hotel at all. Minden is not that big, but if we have to stay over again, we'll pick someplace in...

I stayed at this hotel while working the St.Jude Auction this year and had a wonderful stay. No complaints. I was planning on staying again. After this issue with the GoldStar Wall. I will never stay here again. HOW DARE THEY DO THIS TO THEM?!?! Apparently not everyone in Minden is as patriotic as I thought. We have our own Gold Star families that live there too! This has got to be the biggest disrespect. To turn him away and tell him he was not welcomed.....

Update: Hotel owner may be patriotic, a good neighbor, a good person, etc but the driver was turned away and rudely spoken to. Untrained staff, poor communication within holiday inn lead to him being refused. This post was not intended to harm anyone but for local patriotic people to be aware. I provide services to Veterans and GoldStarFamilies year round and don’t like my people being mistreated in any way. This wall is FREE to visit so please do. The guy Samuel is an unpaid volunteer from out of state, a Veteran, who travels across the country 50 weeks a year. This is the first time that La got the privilege of the tribute wall so come on out and see it. Let’s make it better with a strong showing at the wall! Minden, La people: Get ahold of your people over there at Holiday Inn for denying this truck and trailer from parking even though reservations were done months ago! They stated he was not welcome and “didn’t care if it was for Veterans that died in combat or their Gold Star Families”. And the irony of this is that there is a Minden Soldier who died in Iraq on there! This is the first time that the wall has been to Louisiana so it looks bad for us all. Hook them up on yelp, trip advisor, travel, etc… #minden #yallscrewedupminden #goldstarfamilies #GoldStarTributeWall #mindenIsisCell #HolidayInn...

The staff here goes above and beyond and I noticed it the minute the lady from the front desk spoke to me. Without going into details I’ll say, the house keepers, the kitchen worker Michelle, the 2 Jennifer’s from front desk and Adovan one of the managers were hands down the best crew I have ever met not just at Holiday Inn but anywhere. These people are amazing!!! They are helpful even when they don’t know it. They’re friendly, they’re professional, and down to earth! I see it starts at the top here and filters down the whole crew. I stayed a couple of nights and Lord willing I’ll be back. This is my “go to” place not only from when I’m running from a hurricane but anytime I’m going in that direction. They also have the best food and a lady named Michelle that knows how to prepare it. Housekeepers are awesome. I couldn’t tell which one was the supervisor with the way they all took pride in making sure everything was well with me and wanted me to know if I needed anything just let them known and they meant it. I had a little problem that I created and it was something that really had to go through Holiday Inn Guest Relations and in short, even the manager on the phone was rude, unprofessional and flat not willing to help. After talking to Adovan at the hotel, he called IHG and was able to do what 3 people from guest relations would not do for me. Adovan is the best! He did not have to help, it wasn’t his job but he went above and beyond to help and he accomplished what I couldn’t. My overall experience was already the best and Adovan...