Holiday Inn Omaha Downtown - Waterpark by IHG — Hotel in Omaha

Summary: Terrible experience. Provided wrong pool hours during phone call. Other kids at the waterpark were out of control and unsafe with completely inadequate supervision. Other guests were intimidating and out of control. Dirty diapers on men's room floor. Elevators & hallway smelled like weed. Pool completely neglected by staff.

We left and asked for a refund. Staff member said he couldn't do it, but that GM or AGM would be able to process it in the morning. AGM / GM offered points but refused to refund. Called it a "threat" when I said I would be leaving poor reviews online.

Details: We decided to stop here to give the kids a break on the last night of a long camping trip. There were no pool hours on the website, so I called the hotel number and when I asked about the waterpark hours, the guy put me on hold for three minutes to search for an answer. Not sure if this was the hotel or a reservation person I was transferred to. He told me the waterpark closed at 11:59 - but on arrival just after 8pm, we discovered it closed at 9pm. He also didn't mention the $15 parking fee when I asked about RV parking.

My wife and kids went to pool while I gathered our bags in the lot. Within minutes my wife called. There was a woman in the water park who had at least 10-12 children, ranging from ages 5-14 or so. The older kids were running around all going down the slide together in small groups and when my 6 year old son went down the slide, a group of the older kids immediately followed and slammed hard into him at the bottom.

My wife walked over to check on our son who was crying. She calmly told the other kids they needed to give some space before they went down the slide. The kids seemed amused and clearly didn't care. A woman who was "supervising" them came running over and started yelling at my wife in a threatening tone for talking to her children.

My wife told hotel staff, who said under his breath "I see it's going to be one of those nights." He then addressed the woman who began screaming in the lobby. She was told to return to her room or she'd have to leave the hotel. We returned to the pool, but a few minutes later she and her group was back.

I talked directly with her to try to calm things down and resolve the matter. She told me she "can't watch 12 kids by herself" which begs the question why did hotel staff allow her in with that many children to begin with?!?

The rest of the night she glared at my wife every time she walked by clearly trying to intimidate her. Not a single staff member entered the waterpark the rest of the night to check on things. Other families talked to us as in the hot tub and said their kids evenings had been ruined too by this group.

The elevator and hallway stank like weed. Of course the same group we encountered in the pool was on our floor and there was another unpleasant passing at the elevators.

The room itself was fine - clean and large. The pool would have been nice too otherwise.

The last straw was when my wife later went back to our vehicle to fetch some things with our children, and sure enough, the same group was outside in the lot, and was starting, pointing jeering as my wife and kids walked by. There was a beat up "security" car parked in the lot but no guard in sight all night. I explained all this to hotel staff and was advised the group wouldn't be allowed in the pool tomorrow. They had on multiple occasions attempted to intimidate my family and had made other guests feel unsafe. They should have been kicked out but staff did nothing.

I told the front desk we were leaving and that I wanted my night refunded. He said he could not process a refund, but the AGM / GM "could definitely do it in the morning." I was given a card for AGM "Christine" and told she'd be in at 8am.

I called at 9:05 and no managers were in. The lady at the front desk refused to take a message so I sent an email to the AGM explaining everything. They offered points but refused to refund me, and when I advised I'd be leaving a poor review, they called...

We stayed at the Holiday Inn on Cuming Street in Omaha, NE on 12/23 and had a disappointing stay. I wanted a night in our town to spend with just my wife and boys before Christmas, so we booked a stay because the hotel had several amenities that checked off our needs. The water park and free meals for kids at the attached restaurant were the main reasons for our stay. My wife and I got off work and checked in around 6pm, checked into our room and were immediately impressed. It was clean, spacious and the children absolutely loved their own space. From there we went down to Burger Theory for a beer. The IHG website advertised "Kids Eat Free!", so we sat down and ordered two meals, drinks and two kid's meals. At this time, we were informed that we couldn't charge the meals to our room, even though the wait staff were wearing IHG polos. So we couldn't earn additional points for dining points during our stay. Then upon paying for our bill, we were informed that the front desk had to issue us coupons for the kids before the kids could eat free. So we paid our tab and went to the front desk, they had no idea how to issue the coupons and one of the ladies had no idea what I was talking about. Eventually they figured it out and they gave us coupons that we were able to use for breakfast in the morning for the children instead. Frustrated, we went to the pool only to find the main pool closed without any notice prior to booking or arrival at the hotel. The hot tub and water slide were great. However, my wife tripped, broke two ribs and cut herself next to the pool and there were no first aid kits nearby or at the front desk. Seems like a bit of a health code violation. Luckily, we had one in our vehicle and were able to control things. After that we went up to the room and changed before coming back down to try the arcade. Upon entering the arcade there is an ATM, but no bill breaker or quarter machine. I took my cash from the ATM and went to the front desk to break a $20, only to be turned away again because they don’t carry petty cash. Luckily at the bar, they were able to give me two full rolls of quarters, as they did not have any bills for change. My boys played a few games and we left to go look at Christmas lights downtown. Upon returning, we carried our sleeping children to bed, only to find that one of their beds did not have a blanket on it. Once again, I went to the front desk only to be told they didn't have any blankets and they couldn’t provide one to us at all because everyone had been requesting extra blankets. We just wanted one blanket for our child whose bed didn’t even have one to begin with. The staff commented that it wasn’t the first time that had happened that night. So once again I left the front desk frustrated again. Luckily, I had a very thin blanket in my vehicle and a large jacket to cover my child in. It's hard to come away from this stay feeling frustrated when the room was amazing, the wait staff at the restaurant were great and the food was good, but the frustration continued to pile up from the beginning of the night until the end. At a minimum, the front desk staff needs some additional training and a bit...

The smaller management group for this hotel is operating maliciously.

We have been booking hotels in the Omaha area for family vacations for many years. We know that it is the most popular weekend to book hotels in the area so the price as the date approaches greatly increases, and there are some willing to pay that premium. Because my family can better stomach a lower price, we book over 11 months in advance to get those lower prices.

The hotel has cancelled (without any notice) not only our reservations across two rooms, but also a family friend's for the same time frame. We have stayed here for a couple years now, and the hotel staff in person is always friendly. But, we have been lied to about the reason for the cancellation as well. It was stated that, "you called and cancelled" the random day(s) in the middle of our reservations, which we did not and phone records would prove. But when our family friend called, they admitted it was because of a price change.

Well, that price change is over $700 a night! Our grievance was elevated to the so-called "president" of a small group that manages a handful of hotels in the region, who was horrible, and treated us with immense disrespect while blatantly lying. Our friend even contacted this disrespectful individual who then proceeded to lie to them as well, even after our friend had already been told the truth by a hotel employee.

This "president" claims in his work bio, "he is a firm believer of transparency when interacting with others"—then why all of the facade? If you want business, be honest, and be respectful.

I love the location of this hotel and our family intended to continue to book rooms (and advise friends to as well) here for many years to come—but that will no longer be the case if this issue is not made right by the hotel and its ownership. I know that IHG (Holiday Inn's parent) would be disgusted to hear of this conduct, so I am hopeful for a resolution, but not crossing my fingers based on the service we've received so far.

So much for the, "the reservation as entered into and confirmed by our system will be honored". Gotta do those money grabs to disrespect your existing customers, I guess.

Don't bother with staying here unless you want to have a frustrating stay/experience.

Edit: In response to the reply, YOU are the one who cancelled our reservation. Did you even read the review? We booked at an agreed-to price. You are scamming people by cancelling nights in the middle of their stays to leave them no choice but to pay a higher premium price when they arrive and realize their reservation was changed. If you want to charge a higher price, fine! Don't list your rooms for lower prices and then act like an Airbnb and cancel to get more money. It is absolutely your fault. :) Have a blessed holiday, I hope you learn to change...