Holiday Inn Express Myrtle Beach-Broadway@The Beach by IHG — Hotel in Myrtle Beach

My friend and I booked a two-night stay, Friday to Sunday. I originally made the reservation as a guest online because I didn’t realize I had an account. Fast forward to when we checked in on Friday, November 22, at around 12:30 pm, the receptionist (forget her name) said since I’m a member I received a 5% discount. I thought that statement to be odd since I didn’t log into my account to make the reservation. We finished checking in and we had walked up to my room. Upon settling in, her comment didn’t pass the sniff test. I went back down to the front desk to ask more questions. I had told the same receptionist that the 5% didn’t make sense to me as I had made and paid for the reservation as a guest and therefore didn’t recall a discount applied to the total. Additionally, I asked how the system would know to apply the discount to my account if I had not signed in. She looks into it more, said things I didn’t fully understand and sounded more like prevarications, and ultimately said that the original price on the room was $129.99 a night. I had paid $90.25 a night. I therefore asked if that was actually a 5% discount. She said “I don’t know I can’t do the math right now”. At that time, I clearly knew it wasn’t 5%. When I mentioned that the delta doesn’t sound like 5%, she went to a back room to discuss with her co-workers. She came back out and said it was actually a 25% discount. Well that still wasn’t correct, so I had asked for a copy of my receipt. She said I could have it when I checked out. I didn’t challenge it, and ended the conversation there and walked away. When we left Sunday morning, around 8:30, a different receptionist had checked us out. I had asked her basically the same questions as above, and after going to the back room to discuss with her co-workers, she also came back out and said it wasn’t a 5% discount but rather a 25% one. I had a nice laugh, got a copy of my receipt, and walked out. Upon exiting, I looked at it and, lo and behold, noticed no discounts were applied. Shocker. So here’s what ultimately happened. Not knowing I was a member, I made the reservation as a guest at the current off season rate of $90.25 a night. When I checked in, the receptionist didn't realize this and made the comment about my being a member and therefore getting a 5% discount. Upon further questioning, she realized she made an error and tries to backtrack and spin the conversation as if I was actually getting a better discount. In reality, the $129.99 rate is probably the rate during the summer or other high traffic time period, but it wasn’t an “original” rate used to a apply a so- called discount. In fact, that 25% discount doesn’t even exist. That’s pathetic. In summary, I believe I was owed a 5% discount because of my membership and by the statements of your staff, but never received it. This whole situation was made even worse by lies of the staff. Simple answers to questions didn’t pass the sniff test. Therefore, as compensation for the lies and prevarications over what should have been a simple matter, I’d like a free two-night stay at future date, to be used at a time and place of my convenience. I would have let this go since I originally did not make the reservation within my account, but the astounding and at-times comical nature of my interactions with your staff...

The front desk staff was friendly. Other than that the rest of the hotel stay was not pleasant. The rooms were not clean. The bathroom had hair on the floor and spiderwebs around the ceiling. The carpet around the bed was not vacuumed and the vinyl floor throughout the rest of the room was never scrubbed. I know this because, the fridge leaked the first night we were there and when we went to use a towel to clean up the water the towel was black from the dirty floor. The fridge never worked. I had to use my Clorox wipes to clean the sink and handles all around the room. I even cleaned the remote which was filthy. I cleaned other spots so we could use the areas for our stay, but will not bore you with those details. Housekeeping came in the room each day and took our dirty towels, but never left us any new ones. Each night we had to ask for new towels. To be fair to the hotel, at check in we were told that housekeeping would come in each day and take the old towels and leave new ones. Again, no new towels ever left. We also had to ask for toilet paper from the front desk. We stayed away from the hotel each day and night as long as we could. The pillows on the beds were horrible and the beds were hard. The sink vanity is too tall. I am only 5’3” tall so the sink was a challenge to just brush my teeth. The breakfast was given to you by an employee that stood at the front of a room and stared at you, when we asked what was available, we were told, apple juice, bananas and yogurt. If you wanted those options, they were put in a brown paper bag and handed to you. No list to tell you what would offered for breakfast any day we were there. Our teenage boys went in the pool and told us things were floating in the pool so they got out and showered and never enjoyed the pool at all. To top it off, I dropped my rental car keys down the storm drain one evening, and my son ran to the front desk to ask for assistance, but was told, there is nothing they could do until maintenance came in the next morning around 7:30 am. I had no way to go anywhere or lock the car up for the night. So, thankfully my son and I opened the man hole over and he climbed down to get the keys, which were sitting in water. If I had to wait until morning, the keys probably would not have worked properly and it was push button to start the car. So, we were eight hours from home and nine hours from the rental place. What would we have done. I was upset about the lack of concern and care for my misfortune. Also, each night in the parking lot seemed to be tailgating parties. The morning we turned in the hotel keys, I spoke to a gentlemen at the counter and told him other than friendly staff our stay was horrible. I told him about the lack of cleanliness and he apologized. But standing next to him was one of the housekeepers and she just had a cruddy smirk on her face, like she could have cared less. Needless to say, I would not recommend this...

While staying at another IHG hotel last year, we were offered a deal that if we attended a 2 hour presentation for a time share, we could get 3 nights free in an IHG hotel. We went ahead and accepted the deal, not realizing we would soon find out my wife would need open heart surgery.

Her surgery is scheduled for June of this year. Our anniversary is in May so we decided to take that time and go cash in on our deal.

Prior to our arrival, my wife read a lot of reviews and found out this hotel does not always get good reviews. That made us concerned - however, we went anyway.

We are so glad we did. Upon arrival, we were greeted warmly by the staff. They are beyond exceptional and determined to make your stay great. We were given keys to our room on the second floor. My wife had read about a poor smell in the hotel - we did not experience that at all. The hotel has no odor. When we got to our room, it was basic but clean and adequate. Everything was in working order. There was nothing wrong with the room. The air conditioning worked fine, the tv worked fine, there were adequate pillows and bedding, the bed was not overly comfortable - but there was also nothing wrong with it. It was quiet - not a lot of noise.

The pool was fine as well - we swam several times. It was clean and heated. The jacquizzi was also clean and nice.

The ONLY even slight negative was the cleanliness of the bathtub. It needed a more thorough cleaning. However, we didn't even bring it to the attention of the hotel staff, it was that minor. The hotel has some dated and worn furniture but it is our understanding they are planning a renovation early next year and we found this all to be insignificant and didn't affect our stay at all.

We had an excellent time. The location is GREAT - right next to Broadway at the Beach. For our anniversary we moved to another hotel in the area on the beach - the same hotel we stayed at for our honeymoon 24 years ago. At that time, it was a beautiful hotel. However - upon this visit - we found that the Holiday Inn Express was a much better hotel. The service was WAY better at the Holiday Inn than it was at the more upscale hotel on the beach.

If we ever go back to the area, we would not hesitate to stay at the Holiday Inn Express. It is about 1.4 miles to the beach so be aware of that - but this is a fun, quiet location with amazing hospitality. With renovations, this hotel will go from above average with excellent customer service to spectacular with excellent customer service.

PS - we did not get the time share so this review is honest based on...