Holiday Inn Express & Suites Phoenix Dwtn - State Capitol by IHG — Hotel in Phoenix

So me and my friends booked this hotel for the local convention named "Phoenix Fan Fusion" and we were all excited about the trip. We booked the 2 queen and Sofa Bed Suite since we had 6 people in the booking. The front desk that checked us in was Brad and he was so nice and welcoming. The room itself was Good, some shelves did have a layer on dust on them which was a bit off but for the most part it was fine. There was a broken handle for one of the drawers also which was weird but didn't cause much of an inconvenience. The Pull Out sofa bed was very uncomfortable unfortunately and there was no sheets, or blankets for it in the closet so I had to go down to the lobby to get some late at night. Most of us in the group flew all the way from Colorado, and Florida, while one lived in Arizona. We ate breakfast and the breakfast staff were amazing! Their energy and kindness was so amazIng. So later on saturday two people in our group decided to uber back to the hotel from the convention center to drop off a few things that was part of their cosplay to get ready for the D.J party later that night, but when they arrived to the hotel they remember they forgot the keycard to the room. They asked the front desk if they could get a new key card and the front desk employee asked for the room number and the last name of the booking. Luckily this employee also say us earlier with the same costumes on so they knew who it was and also had a conversation earlier before going to the convention. When provided the room number and last name of booking, the employee gave them a new keycard to the room so they were able to make it to the room safely with no issues which was amazing service from the front desk staff. After they dropped the stuff off in the room they headed back out but later found out they left the new keycard in the room which was now the only working one. As we finished saturday night we went to the hotel and found that none of our keycards worked. Once the two people in our party told us they got a new keycard without us knowing we were little confused but didn't think much of it. We thought that we will just go back down and get new keycards for the whole group so this won't happen again. But this is where we had issues. Anthony who was the employee working the front desk that night was extremely rude and unapologetic when we asked for new cards. We provided room number, first and last name of booking, phone number of booking, and email. But denied everything saying you need the I.D of the person that booked the room. We went back and forth about that fact that one of the previous employees didn't have this issue and he said it didn't matter. He also stated that he was a manager and later I learned to find out he wasn't and he was lying about being a manager. I also asked if he can look at the lobby camera to find us and for proof that we have obviously been staying there. But he denied the ability to look at the front lobby camera saying only the morning management can. We kept telling him that the person who booked the room is in tempe at the moment sleeping at their residence and they probably won't wake up or answer since it was 1:00 in the morning, and then he said "Tempe isn't far". We ended up having to drive to the house and get our grandma that helped us book the room up at 2:00 in the morning just got show the guy upfront an I.D. He also would be continuously on his phone and refuse to give eye contact to any of us. After many struggles we finally got to the hotel and my grandma showed her I.D and he kept shaking his head at us and gave us only a single card for our group. We didn't get to sleep that night and had to pack our room since our checkout was in 6 hours from when this situation was finally resolved. This really ruined out trip since it wasted a whole night of our stay that we paid. We were excited to eat pizza and talk with each other and go to bed but instead we got locked out of our room for the night and had to eat pizza in the hallway sitting...

We chose this property because we like the Express/Suites experience in general, and needed a place mid-town. I called ahead to ensure that breakfast and pool were available, and was told they were. The location of the hotel isn't great (next to a community park with a homeless crowd, and no nearby restaurants/entertainment), but the hotel was new and looked great from the pics, so we took a chance. Price was good. Check-in and staff were excellent all around (friendly, helped us, said hello, etc). The beds are advertised as queens, but there is NO way our beds were queens. I am a big guy, and I know a queen bed, and these had to be doubles. My receipt says queens, though. I see another review here about this queen/double issue, so maybe IHG facilities switched up the beds and replaced them with doubles and didn't tell anyone. No matter: for sake of correct advertising, these should be changed to doubles.

Breakfast was a disappointment. I expected staff to be serving from the buffet style that is common with IHG/HI Express, but found grab-and-go, in a bag, that was really poor quality. Milk or juice box, yogurt, and a "main item" which was either bagel or danish. They ran out of breakfast sandwiches the first day, and the second day was cold bagels and more yogurt. We had to go out and buy breakfast because it was so poor. Many COVID-safe buffet style restaurants put the trays behind glass and serve hot food in to-go boxes to give to the guests, but apparently not here. All you get is cold food (minimal) in a baggie.

I wish I could better recommend this place. It's a nice little hotel in general, but the location, the bed discrepancy, and the weak breakfasts make it a no-go for us next time. To be clear, the staff were great. The rooms clean and functional. Bathrooms clean and useful. Also, I should note that this hotel is in soft opening mode, so hopefully by the time they open for sure, they'll have hot (served) breakfasts in to-go boxes for guests, and either bigger beds, or accurate descriptions on the website. Can't do much about...

One star because staying at this hotel has now cost me an extra $350 to replace a car window and get it re-tinted because of vandalism on their property. Someone broke the window to our rental car between the hours of 10 pm and 10 am on the night of 7/20/24. (My 34th birthday at that as my birthday is July 20th)||||I stayed at Holiday Inn Express from Friday 7/19/24 to Sunday 7/21/24 for WNBA Allstar weekend.||||Room: Stayed in room 303, and the room was clean and spacious. Negative was that the ESPN channel did not work at all, so I could not watch sports, which was the first bummer.||||Lobby: Lobby is clean, and breakfast area was well kept. Breakfast is standard hotel breakfast and food was Luke warm almost on the cold side especially the omelets.||||Area/Vicinity: Approximately 1 mile from downtown Phoenix. Not in a good area as their are several homeless people roaming around the area and they hang out at the park across the street and with the rental car we had being vandalized and the rear passenger window being broken on my birthday is really frustrating that this hotel doesn't have some sort of nightly security. I was parked in the very last parking spot in the car port area, thinking it would be a good idea, so the car was in some shade. We'll please take my advice and DO NOT park in the carport area, or you will risk having your car vandalized. I had to call the non-emergency number and make a police report, and drive home 6 hours with a busted window but front desk was generous enough to give me a box and some tape to tape up the window for the drive home but now I'm out $350 to have the window replaced and re-tinted.||||I seen other reviews about other vandalized vehicles but I never thought it would happen to me but it did so if you have a car make sure you park as close to the front lobby doors as you can and check on your vehicle frequently. I will not be staying here again since the area is so sketchy, and the hotel didn't even apologize or anything. What was supposed to be a great birthday trip was ruined because of...