Holiday Inn Express New York City Times Square by IHG — Hotel in New York

I stayed here for 2 nights with friends for the anime NYC convention in the Jatvis center. I appreciated the close proximity to the convention center, and also lots of food options within close walking distance, but that's about it. I work in hospitality, and was very disappointed in the service provided at the hotel for the $1000+ we spent for 2 nights, compared to where I work, a high-end 4 star hotel for ⅔ the price.

I'll start off with the issue that most people seem to talk about: the elevator situation. Especially during the morning hours, the wait for one of the TWO tiny elevators (6 person max capacity) to finally reach you was unbearable. 2 out of three times when the elevator does come, it's too full to safely fit inside. We stayed in a high-up floor, and for my friend, and myself, who have physical difficulties, taking the stairs was not an option. It took 25 minutes to secure us a ride down to the main floor. And when we did... too many people (12 people total, includidng us) ended up pushing their way into the elevator. There was a jolt, then a sudden stop, when the elevator was going down, it nearly knocked over the poor old lady next to me. We then got stuck in the elevator, and when we tried to hit the emergency button, the person on the other end couldn't hear us, kept saying "speak clearer please" for minutes and it was very hard to hear them. Very unsafe, because the emergency call connection should ALWAYS be well maintained, if there was a fire, medical emergency, dangerous person, or something, it would have been terrible. We yelled for help, and it was 15 minutes before maintenence was able to open the door. They said it was because too many people were in the elevator, and it malfunctioned... a 6 person maximum, only 2 elevators, is just not okay for the amount of guests that the hotels can hold..... without even running any checks to make sure it was safe, they just let more people on the elevator like nothing had happened and walked away.

The breakfast was so bad, we ended up just going to get an egg sandwich somewhere close by. Everything was stale, eggs were rubbery, and the oatmeal was so thick and sticky that I literally flipped the bowl upside down and nothing moved.

Another thing that just completely floored me for a NYC HOTEL was that it had a ridiculous curfew. It said on our booklet that doors lock at 11PM-10AM.... once you leave the hotel between those houses, you will not be allowed back in because... get this, THE HOTEL HAS NO SECURITY! When I asked the front desk about the curfew hours, they said that they don't hire security, and their is no staff at night, so doors are locked during the night time... for a location in times square, where people notoriously stay out late at night, in "The city that never sleeps"... this rule seriously impacted our experience and we had to cancel some plans. It's ridiculous for a hotel that has this many guests, charging this high price, in such a prime location, will not spare any money to even hire a single security guard at night.

I actually was put in an extremely unsafe situation on my second night by my friend (now ex-friend) who got too drunk, started touching me inappropriately, and becoming angry/violent. There was no security, so I had to wait 20+ minutes for EMS/police to show up before I received any help. Within the time it would take authorities to arrive, with no security guards to mediate unsafe situations, someone could seriously be hurt or worse.

Other little things: I had called front desk to bring up an extra blanket, and they said they would send someone up. 30 minutes later, someone comes with a bath towel.... I try to communicate to them that i would like a blanket, and he did not understand English. He comes back another 30 minutes later, with just a bigger towel... so scratchy that I literally couldn't use it as a blanket without my skin becoming irritated. I called front desk again, and they said "we already did" and hung up before I could explain myself.

Carpet had blood stains as well, and...

Myself and my friend/daughter checked into Holiday Inn Express, Times Square, New York on Wednesday 11th of December. We were told by reception staff William that we had to pay a security deposit of 225 dollars, we queried this but were told it was for any damages and would be refunded at the end of our stay, we were not happy as we knew nothing about this. I paid with my bank card and asked William for a receipt for it and was told I wouldnt get a receipt until we checked out.

We went to the room we were allocated to find a small room with 2 beds, everything left in the room was for 2 people only, cups, drinks, towels. When we went into the bathroom we were disgusted to find a bath with long dark hair in it, and worse long dark hair stuck to the bathroom tiles. I immediately phoned William on reception and explained this and said we wanted another room as this one was obviously not cleaned. Within 10minutes a repair man appeared to say he had been told that the heating wasnt working! We explained what it was, he took a tissue picked up the bits of hair and left. We frankly were devastated at the way we were treated, our first time in New York, we contacted our travel agent and now that we are home I will be updating them as I obviously have pictures.

We reported a broken usb port beside one of the beds that wasnt working on Thursday, when we returned it still didnt work.

On Friday 13th we bought and paid for juice and a snack that came to approx 7.5 dollars, I went over to William, again on duty, and paid this thro my bank, a payment was deducted of £6.01 from my bank on 13/11/24.

We checked out on Sunday 15th. I was not informed of any charges, I asked about the return of the security deposit and was told this would be refunded in a few days, William again. I wasnt offered a receipt. I had to ask for one. When I received it I was shocked to discover charges amounting to 74.28 dollars. William said this was a charge for each night and there were charges for sundries on Friday 13/12/24. I said to William this was a mistake as I had paid this, he said well someone else had added it to my room, its not the amount but the principle here, I said it was added on in error as we had not done this. I said I felt this could be regarded as fraud/theft as his attitude was it was one of my party. I repeated that what we had got on Friday 13th was paid for by myself to him! I showed him the payment to Holiday Inn coming out my bank on this date. I asked for the manager then and was told I could email yourself about it. We knew nothing about a destination fee/taxes, is this displayed at reception? We were not told about it. We were told at check in we had to pay a ‘security deposit’ which would be returned at checkout, again by William. None of this has happened.

So I want to complain about our treatment at this Holiday Inn and the very unhelpful attitude of William, no info was given to us on checkin re charges, we were told the deposit would be returned on checkout, we were not given a receipt once this deposit was paid, and were told by William we werent getting one. We had to live with a bathroom that obviously wasnt clean. I paid for the items we bought on 13/11/24 as I wanted my deposit returned in full.

I emailed Valerie from the details William gave us 6 days ago but...

Someone tried to break into our room and they lied about it!!! It was supposed to be a 3 Night stay 1st day the rooms were small, so small 1 bed barely any walking space. Matress was AWFUL I had to call 4 times for more pillows!! Wifi signal in the room was awful, barely worked, had to use my cell phone internet my daughter had to tether off my phone. Day 2 Elevator stopped working. couldnt call it up or down the light just turned off but we could hear it going up and down. We had to call the front desk to have an engineer come pick us up. Their eggs tasted like CAT FOOD, what do you expect for free though but other places holiday inns I've been at aren't that bad. Day 3 we saw some sites then came back. After we got back from seeing some of the city I had put a do not disturb sign on the door. House keeping put a letter under saying they saw that and werent going to clean. While I was on the toilet I hear the key unlock and someone tried to open the door, no knock, no announcement, then again, the security latch saved it. I said "hello?" and they said "I have something for you" I said no thank you and had my 10 year old daughter call the front desk while I finished and came over. The call doesn't go to the front desk event hough ti says front desk it goes to some call center who knows where. They tried to call the front desk but it was busy FOR 10 MINUTES!! I'm in my room panicking getting ready to fend off an intruuder and protect my child. Finally they send a manager up and engineer. I ask them to check the cameras THEY DO NOT HAVE CAMERAS ANYWHERE EXCEPT THE LOBBY

I said thats it I'm going, get my car from valet and refund my stay. We packed up immediately. The engineer says he's going to get the logs from the door lock to see who accessed it. I go downstairs and talk to management they say they are investigating but the logs dont have anyone other than me opening the door.

I call IHG hotels who I booked the room through ahd file a complaint . I ask the shift manager about the refund and she says they'll process the other nights and refund the cancelled. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY ABSURD they have no security, someone tries to get into my room, the beds are awful I had to call 4 separate times for pillows, the elevators broke and they want to charge me!!??

Finally the manager comes over and says that one of the maintenance people went to the wrong floor and they were bringing a shower curtain and it was language barrier. I said okay. They refunded me the stay. I left after I talked to a friend that is a chief engineer at another hotel he said that was BS.

THEY ARE REQUIERED BY POLICY TO KNOCK 3 TIMES BEFORE ENTERING AND STATE WHY THEY ARE THERE WHEN THEY ENTER

this person just barged in twice. This was not an employee. This was an awful stay.

Laurie Misko was the person who lied and said it was their staff member who was just delivering to the wrong floor. She knows she was lying about that but there she is responding talking about re-earning my trust? yeah right lady. You should be fired. You know as well as I do your employees know to knock 3 times before entering and state EXACTLY why they are there. This was an attempted break in at your awful hotel and you just passed it off. YOU...