Holiday Inn Express & Suites Morrilton by IHG — Hotel in Morrilton

My review is a mixed bag with an overall positive experience. Please don't just take the bad and leave the good, as any issues I experienced will probably be resolved quickly.

The rooms are recently updated, and updates are still ongoing across the hotel, but our tub had a chip in it, and the surface was so slick that it was dangerous when wet. The elevator has chunks out of the floor and long cracks. There is only one elevator that I know of, which is odd for a hotel of that size. They have an indoor pool! Which we didn't use due to time constraints but I wish we had. The new hand carts are great, and navigate more easily, but they dont have a hanging rack for clothing. All the bedding was clean (a wonderful surprise) and the room layout was more sparse but more effecient and relaxing than I've seen in the past. The ac units work, though the wall control hasn't been connected to anything yet (as of the date of this review) so I had to use the manual controls at the window unit. The water gets increasingly hotter the longer you shower, so I suggest setting it a little cooler than planned to begin with. This will probably get fixed with time, so I didn't take offense. On the third floor, one of the rooms I passed by smelled like septic. I imagine they had a plumbing issue of some kind there, as the room did not seem to be inhabited. But still the smell leaked through the door into the hall and smelled like rotting eggs.

The breakfast servers were overly chatty with coworkers, and some food was set out cold as a result. Some food didn't make it to the serving area until almost everyone had eaten. The manager seemed to arrest that issue quickly, but it shouldn't have occurred to begin with.

As far as breakfast, the standard fare is eggs, sausage patties or links, biscuits, gravy(white), Oatmeal, doughnuts, toast, muffins, juice, milk, apples. They had butter, cream cheese, salt and pepper, but no jelly. The servings are the same on weekends are they are on weekdays. The trash receptacle for the eating area is on the far side, away from the food serving area. I understand the logic, but another trash can should be provided nearer to the serving area, so folks going back for a second round dont have to circle the entire room to do so.

The floor above us had children that ran up and down the hallway all night long. I was still hearing the stomping noises at 2 am. The beds are comfortable enough, as are the pillows. I don't know about the security camera situation, but the hotel only had one entrance/exit, and there was only one entrance to the hotel without having a key card. The hotel is in an out of the way place, away from the interstate but still within reasonable distance. Overall good experience. Will likely...

I really hate being misled or just flat out lied to. The hotel website clearly states that guests and staff are required to be wearing masks while indoors. This location is clearly displaying signs that masks are required by all guests and staff imagine the building. Sadly, not a single member of this staff is wearing a mask. I walked in to the lobby to check in and there was some church group of 40 plus people standing in a crowd right in front of the desk, right in front of the door, not a single mask in sight. I mentioned the fact that though it states clearly posted on the front door that masks are required while indoors there doesn't seem to be a single mask on any of the 50 people standing around me staff and patrons alike aside from mine. The desk agent basically told me that the new owners just took over. That's well and good but this is a franchise for a chain brand, IHG, and as such is still held to the requirements of the brand standards. Meaning that the mask mandate is in place and should be enforced regardless of who is the new owner.

On top of all of that the room was filthy. There were coffee stains on the table the handle the bathroom counter. There are cookie crumbs in the desk chair. I had to go to the store to buy sanitary wipes so that I could clean the room myself. This place is a filthy pigsty. Had I known that it was going to be this bad I would never have chosen this location.

I chose this location specifically because it's a brand I'm familiar with, they have a mask mandate, and they have a promise to clean the room intensely between visitors. It's pretty obvious that they have thrown the mask mandate out the window entirely. They've also given up on any form of actual cleaning of the rooms. So my trust in this brand is no longer valid and I will not be choosing to stay...

I was disappointed in this hotel. We stay often with Holiday Inn because they are always clean, comfortable and have a great breakfast. In this case, our room was comfortable and reasonably clean, however, the sheer curtains in our room were shredded and badly needed to be replaced, there was a stain on the chair and the air conditioner blew out junk (dust balls?) when we turned it on - the vents and everything were not clean. The room overall needed a deep cleaning. The biggest disappointment, however, was the breakfast. Hot breakfast is often a deciding factor on where we stay and one of the reasons we often stay at Holiday Inn Express. This one was terrible. We came down for breakfast at 9:20 AM. The sign said Cheese Omelet but it was empty. There was 1 Cinnamon Roll left (which I took), there were 4 biscuits and very little gravy, the hard boiled egg container was empty and sitting on the counter top, the orange juice was out, the oatmeal (which I normally LOVE at Holiday Inn) was not cooked - it was a pile of whole oats with hot water surrounding it. There was lots of turkey sausage, but unless you wanted that, toast or cold cereal - there was no food to eat. I understand that during rushes, they run out of food and get behind, but, we were there for 40 MINUTES and not a single hotel employee came and checked on anything. Not a single bit of food was put out during that time and the dining room was full. A customer got a pancake stuck in the pancake machine and it was burning and could not find anyone to help - another guest came and took the machine apart and got the burning pancake out. It was terrible. On the positive side of our visit, our bed was very comfortable, they had a nice pool, the desk clerk that checked us in was nice and the common areas...