Holiday Inn Express & Suites Port Arthur Central-Mall Area by IHG — Hotel in Port Arthur

Our stay was from November 18 – 22, 2017.

I visit my mother in Port Arthur, TX at least a couple of times per year. Many times I take her out of her assisted living situation and check us into this Port Arthur Central Mall location of Holiday Inn Express.

My elderly mother is very physically disabled and has recently completely lost her vision; when she wakes up during the night (which happens often), she is very frightened if there is no sound from a television or radio. Unfortunately, I cannot sleep under those conditions, so we always rent the only two-room suite in the hotel, Rm. 123. The room is twice as expensive as the one-room suites, and although we don’t get another bathroom, sitting area, coffee pot/microwave, etc., we pay this premium so that we can both have a comfortable stay. The hotel does not offer adjoining rooms, so this is really our only option.

I’ve never had a problem reserving this particular room, either by phone or online, until this last visit. I called the Holiday Inn Express from Seattle approximately three weeks before my visit to book the room for four nights. The woman at the front desk said that, although the room was available for my dates, she could not guarantee the room because there was a chance that “if someone booked that room for the night before they might decide that they wanted to stay longer.” I explained the situation concerning my mother and that we’d never had an issue before, and she still insisted that she could not guarantee we’d get that room.

Now, my husband and I have stayed in a large multitude of hotels and motels over the years, and there have been times when we’ve wanted to extend our stay. We fully expect that we may have to move rooms as another guest may have previously booked “our” room; it’s just common sense and common courtesy by both us and the hotel.

As the front desk would not help me, I decided to book the room through the Port Arthur Central Mall Holiday Inn Express website. I had no problem getting the two-room suite, and I received an email confirmation. A couple of days later I called the hotel again to make sure I had that particular room reserved. A different person answered the phone, looked at my reservation, validated that we were in that room, and all was good. Then, the day before I flew down I called again to confirm, one last time. I explained to the hotel representative why it was vital that we had that particular room, and exacted a “promise” from her that the room would be there for us when we got in. I further explained that we would be checking in at around 11pm and was told again not to worry, that the room would be ready for us when we arrived.

The day of check-in we arrived at the hotel at about 10:30pm to find that room had been given away earlier in the day because the person who had rented it the night before wanted to stay an extra night. I was livid.

The hotel put us into a one-bed room with a pullout sleeper sofa that was so uncomfortable that I ended up sharing my mom’s bed while listening to the TV all night.

The next morning I talked to the front desk manager, Abria, about this situation and asked her to at least refund me for 50% of the previous night’s fee. She refused, and just kept repeating what she has been trained to say: “I understand your frustration, Ma’am.” When I told her that given the fact I spend close to a couple of thousand dollars a year at this hotel I didn’t find her response to be good customer service, she again responded, “I understand your frustration, Ma’am – and I earn very high marks for customer service.” She offered me IHG points, which I refused (I highly encourage Yelping this program to see why it averages ONE star out of over fifty reviews). In the end she refunded me $19.00.

That afternoon, I was allowed to move my mother and all of our stuff into our pre-reserved room. My mother does not travel light, and it took me four trips to move her and everything else from one floor to another. To complicate things, I had a completely torn ACL (for which I am since recovering from surgery) and was clearly limping with every step. I asked Abria if someone could help me, and she said that there was no one other than her, and that she had to man the front desk. She then said that she supposed she could help me if I really wanted her to…at which point I told her to just forget it.

When we finally got into our room it reeked of cigarette smoke, like someone had been seriously chain-smoking in this non-smoking hotel. I went to the front desk (because the “front desk” button on the phone did not work) and asked Abria to have housekeeping come spray the room with Febreeze or some other air freshener. No one ever showed up. I found housekeeping on my own and asked for a bottle of freshener so that I could spray it down myself.

We then found a used toothpick on the TV cabinet (gross). The night before we checked out, we found another – this time in the sheets of my mother’s bed - which honestly led us to wonder if the sheets had been changed between guests.

We also found that the microwave timer was still broken since our last stay (July 2017), meaning that if the timer was set for, say, one minute, it would continue to cook until someone realized that it was not going to shut off on its own (what a potential fire hazard that could burn down the entire hotel).

Finally, I’m a teacher, and the hotel offers a discounted rate (similar to that for members of AARP or government employees) to educational employees; however, because I was forced to book the room via the Internet, I was informed that I was not eligible for that rate (which was truly strange, as that had never been an issue for me before). Abria finally agreed to give me my standard rate, but in the end did not allow me to have it for all of the nights of our stay.

Of course, we will never set foot in this Holiday Inn again – but we’ve been so disillusioned due to this experience that we will never set foot in ANY Holiday Inn property in the future. I’ve already found alternative lodging for future visits.

By the way, I would like to commend front desk employees Desiree and Blake. I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with them both at this location, and they consistently exhibit professionalism and true...

This was our second night of our weekend getaway for our anniversary. It wasn't a horrid stay by any means, but cleanliness could be a little better. I'll explain what I mean by that through this post.

First I want to say that the service was wonderful. We have zero complaints about the staff we interacted with. I also love that after a certain time at night, you must have a room key to get into the hotel or use a phone outside the entrance to confirm a reservation.

Breakfast was also good for your standard continental breakfast. There were scrambled eggs, egg omelet, bacon, sausage patties, sausage links, biscuits, gravy, a variety of cereal, but the milk in the cooler felt room temperature to the touch so I opted for no cereal.

Now, the room was nice. The bed was comfortable and clean. There was a strange musty smell when you first entered the hotel room. We just dealt with it because the bed was comfy and clean. So, we went to Sonic to get food (terrific Sonic btw) and brought it back to the room. The same musty smell hits us again upon returning. I just rolled my eyes and sprayed some air freshener. When I started to sit at the desk to eat, I pulled the office chair out and noticed that something had spilled all over the mesh holes of the chair back. Like something from a former guest was spilled and splashed over the chair and still hasn't been cleaned.

Now to my next complaint. I was sitting there munching my coney, peacefully listening to Mr Ballen when suddenly a waterbug the size of a dang Volkswagen skitters up the wall. It came from behind the very desk I was sitting at right then. My legs were under this very desk where this behemoth Madagascar-looking nemesis of every shorts-wearing lady just scurried from! I lost my crap! So naturally my husband had to save me by eliminating the creature of the vast. HOLIDAY INN please, PLEASE seek assistance from a pest company so no further trauma is dealt by this winged creature of the deep under-desk world. Ladies....avoid sitting at the desk in shorts unless you want the feeling of teensy feet scurrying over your legs...shivers*

Oh, the bathtub holds a little water when showering.

Other than the water bug from the deep, the musty smell, and tub draining problem we had an excellent stay. I even was able to sleep after the horrid bug...

My husband and I have stayed at this hotel many times and have almost always had a very pleasant experience. We stayed in one of the newly remodeled rooms and I loved almost all the improvements. However, there was one change that ruined the entire stay: the new beds are entirely too high!! I am a tall woman (5'9") and I had to push a chair up to the bed in order to climb in. My feet did not touch the floor when sitting on the edge of the bed. I'm not sure how a shorter person or a handicapped person would manage. This is the sole reason why I would rate this property as "poor".||||There were some things I loved, however:||||1. They have replaced the curtains with shades. These are much easier to open and close. They also provide better light filtration at night, making the room darker at night. ||||2. The television is now mounted on the wall, rather than sitting atop a wardrobe.||||3. They've replaced the arm chair and ottoman with a lounger. It was more comfortable, although a bit awkward.||||4. There are lots of usb ports in several locations along the desktop and on either side of the bed. We normally bring a USB hub to connect our numerous devices, but this was not necessary with this trip.||||5. They've added a very nice bench for luggage with three hooks above that keep jackets or handbags quickly accessible.||||6. The bathroom is very nice. They have removed the tub and added a large walk-in shower with glass doors. The mirror is backlit with bright indirect lighting. ]||||7. The breakfast area has been completely remodeled. Seating is much more comfortable than before. They added breakfast ham to their hot selection, and I really liked this (since I do not like sausage or eggs). Their cinnamon rolls were always outstanding, but even these have been upgraded. For a free breakfast, this was wonderful.||||I'm not certain if the hallways have been remodeled. If so, they need to reconsider. They just looked strange and uninviting. I think they were going for "trendy", but that was a miss.||||Even though I was disappointed in the bed, we will probably...