Holiday Inn Express & Suites Cherokee/Casino by IHG — Hotel in Painttown Community

First and foremost I am extremely sorry that the beautiful Cherokee, North Carolina area (Five Stars for Location) has to have this hole in a wall to represent lodging options for them.

As a frequent visitor to this area our family’s annual fall trip is usually spent at the Harrahs Resort located right across the street, but due to the area being such a popular tour destination our normal favorite was sold out. Settling for a never before visited “Holiday Inn Express”.

We were warmly greeted by the friendly male and female staff present during check in making our welcome in feel appreciated. (which earned the 2 stars for Service).

However, upon entering our room, we immediately begin second guessing our choice to move forward. Starting with the poorly outdated decor, I am surprised because the exterior of the hotel will lead you to believe that the entire hotel is updated and modern- NOT THE CASE-, next because we checked in after 6pm, we decided to get ready for some much needed rest for our adventurous planned weekend itinerary. As we looked for the pull out sofa mentioned, they forgot to indicate that NO LINENS would be available to cover the very used unsanitary mattress leaving us with two children receiving skin rashes.

After stripping the flat sheet from the bed to add to the pull out mattress JUST to get the kids a few hours of sleep since we checked late and could NOT get fresh linens until the next day when the maid staff arrived (as we were told that anyway), we were finally able to get some shut eye, NOPE wrong again, the poor insulation will allow you to hear even parking lot conversations so the slamming doors all night will remind you to ALWAYS stick with what you KNOW! We should have trusted our guts and proceeded to our destination.

And to add salt to our wounds, our credit card was DOUBLE CHARGED DAYS later after checking out. When we brought this to the attention of the Male “General Manager” we were laughed at and told “YES you were charged because we only hold half the amount of the stay at check in/check out and then we run your card after check out for the remaining balance.” Which is a policy I have never heard of being.

Can someone from the corporate office of IHG please...

I don’t like leaving a negative review but this one needs to be reviewed honestly. I stay at HIE’s 99% of the time when needing a hotel, they’re usually excellent, no complaints. This HIE however should not be a HIE, it just doesn’t meet the standards in any way. It’s a one star hotel & it will disappoint & make for a very unpleasant stay. The room had this very old musty smell, it was easy to see they’d converted a very old hotel into what it is now which isn’t much better. We noticed several bugs crawling around on the desk & bathroom floor area, not bed bugs but a small brown bug. It was late so I dealt with them & hoped that was all of them. Then we found one crawling under the top blanket on the bed. Next, the shower & hot water, or lack there of I should say, I thought it was just possibly our room with the issue but it wasn’t. The guests a couple of rooms down had the same issue, barely any hot water, not even for a second, it just stayed at an uncomfortable barely warm temperature. The tv had a cracked screen, so a third of the picture was just a solid greenish yellow color. The next morning I thought maybe the hot water is working, I was wrong, it was that same cool temperature. The desk clerk said it was possibly due to the kitchen washing dishes & was pretty clear that the issues I had with the room were what they were & that’s tough luck. I knew I wasn’t going to get any explanation or anything at all from her other than her final comment o saying she’d make a note for maintenance. So take my advice from someone who really doesn’t want to leave a bad review, find a different hotel to stay in. If you have to drive an extra 30 min out of your way just do it, the nightly rate was $189 for a standard room & I wouldn’t stay in this hotel again if they allowed me to stay for free. It has problem after problem & I spoke to two other guests & each of their rooms had the same issues and other issues. Sorry HIE Cherokee but people looking for a hotel there need to be warned to not book & stay there, it was the most unpleasant & terrible experience staying at a hotel I’ve ever had & I spend probably 50-60 nights in a hotel...

Our first room had ants all on the AC unit. I went back to the front desk to tell the very overwhelmed Desk clerk, Dave. He told me "ants are coming in from the rain, we spray, but it washes away". Ants were INSIDE the room, how does rain "wash" the insecticide away?

2nd room: AC not working, sink is stopped up, and a bar of soap was found not seen in the toilet prior to our arrival and was accidentally flushed....not sure WHY soap was in the toilet, but Dave said it happens often. He also told us the AC just wasn't low enough. We left it on 69, but that's not low enough? We ended up freezing because we set the AC at 63, but had to wake in the middle of the night to turn it up, so it wouldn't freeze (our feet/shoes also stuck to the carpet because it was so moist...disgusting). He did get the sink unstopped for then, and proceeded to leave his set of MASTER KEYS on our bathroom sink. The next morning, I stop at the desk to let the clerk know that our lock batteries were going bad. Word to the Wise, as my high school principal used to say, if every THIRD time the lock flashes red and green, the batteries are weak. I found there was NO MAINTENANCE on the weekend and our toilet is now stopped up from the soap, that gets flushed "all of the time". We were told we could change rooms. NO...at this point we had only been in the building and we were going to our third room....that's NOT guest centered. Dave would be able to check our lock when he arrived in the afternoon. He checked the lock and said it was fine. I didn't hear him change the batteries, but oh well. Guess what happened when we were coming back from Breakfast on our departure day....the lock flashed red/green!

I had told each desk clerk I understood their positions and understood they could only do so much. I'm a former select service assistant HOTEL manager, but I'm now a department manager at a resort. I do not think they knew what I was talking about, however, if someone comes in drunk and just lost their butt at the casino and cannot get into their room, they will not be as...