Holiday Inn Express Princeton/I-77 by IHG — Hotel in Princeton

This is my review for the two (2) hotel chains that I experienced on my recent trip. I include my comments for all to compare as to what you have done right, and what needs to improve, within the chain and what your competitors are doing.

As a base let me say that all of the hotels met all expectations.

For the Holiday Inn Express, Athens, Ohio:

Outstanding property location! A national chain restaurant and a national chain pharmacy/convenience store located within the shadow of the hotel made for a great chance to eat, relax, and replace a forgotten item left at home. Multiple other restaurants were also available close buy, and gas.

I was greeted upon entry, with all check-in paperwork ready. I was even awarded extra loyalty points as the guest of the day. Though not requested, the staff had express check-out ready.

The room was of good size, with reasonable desktop/counter space, making it easy to place luggage on to unpack (essential for those of us with bad backs), and a great mattress. The bath had great water pressure and hot water.

The only negative that I have to offer is that being unfamiliar with the room layout for this hotel, when offered room 222, I accepted, only to find out it is next to the elevator. My wife and I had ‘magic fingers’ until near midnight when the elevator calmed down. The staff was also unable to tell me what my loyalty points were, or how to use them (if possible) at my next IHG hotel stay in Princeton WV.

For the brand H Inn, Mansfield/Ontario, Ohio:

Located in the commercial area of Mansfield/Ontario. Multiple and varied restaurants, shopping, and grocery stores near by as well as an urgent care facility nearby.

The room was of good size, and usual amenities (refrigerator, microwave, toiletries). Again, a very comfortable bed. Desk top/counter space was limited, and a mirror instead of artwork over the desk would have made for a dressing/makeup table.

The in-shower body wash and shampoo (? Zero products), though convenient, did not react well with my wife. The only grab bar in the shower/tub was located mid length of the tub, on the far wall, and both my wife and I were uncomfortable with the long reach over the tub and the high step over the tub to get in the tub/shower. An additional grab bar at either end of the tub on the outside of the tub would have made us feel more secure.

Housekeeping was very accommodating, ensuring trash was emptied and towels replaced daily (3-night stay).

The breakfast was good, with a surprise of Belgum waffles, but the waffle takes up the ENTIRE paper plate, resulting in syrup running off and onto the table (need to find larger plates).

Holiday Inn Express, Princeton, West Virginia:

It is convenient to the turnpike, but not well marked, and sits back off of the main road. After a short wait, the desk clerk appeared and checked us in.

After a hit or miss elevator ride (the controls were malfunctioning) my wife and I were pleasantly surprised by an enormous room (for a hotel), also with refrigerator and microwave. This room also has a very comfortable bed.

Unfortunately, without an electrical engineering and computer programing degree, the TV remote was hard to use. You have to manually go through each and every channel (with many channels not used/available) to find a station or program. The water pressure is weak and the temperature gets to a warm enough to use, but not hot temperature. At least after the manager ‘reset’ the elevator control panel, it seemed to operate correctly. There were a few fast-food locations that were nearby, and a gas station (not much else).

All hotels offered a hot breakfast with a varied menu, that was most appreciated.

All of the beds were very comfortable, and the rooms clean.

As a more ‘mature’ guest, who suffers from neuropathy, slips and falls are of great concern. The ability to ‘black-out’ a room is a benefit for those that want to sleep in or are light sensitive, but walking around in a black, unfamiliar room at 2 AM is scary and dangerous. A dim night light, or a courtesy watch battery flashlight that could be kept handy on a nightstand was needed in all of these rooms.

All in all, my wife and I were well pleased with our room and stay at all of these hotels, with the items noted. The ability to see what my loyalty points could do for me, and any specials being offered by corporate would have also been nice to know/use, on the spot and while on the road. (like the 'I'm registered for 2,000 points for 2 nights stays from June - August. Well, I just had 2 nights booked in July. Do I get points? How can I use them? Would have been nice to use them...

Well where to even begin with this? We stayed there Sunday (Aug 17th) night, and I will say the hotel was clean and the room/beds were nice. HOWEVER, we'll start with the 2 small annoyances-

The first being the broken elevator. The door was getting stuck several times when we tried to use it. Luckily it managed to work when we needed the cart to get our items up to the room. But I have some severe arm disabilities, and try to go up and down the stairs with our dogs, carrying our food, small things like that was rough for me to do. Again, small complaint but annoying none the less.

The second being the maintenance guy who apparently felt he needed to dump chlorine in the pool while we were swimming. I don't know anything about taking care of pools, but I feel like this is something that could have waited until people weren't in it. We just got in the hot tub and stayed in that for about 30 minutes before getting into the pool. The chlorine smell seemed to have gone down. We obviously weren't harmed so maybe I'm just overreacting.

Now, the big one.. we had not originally intended to stay the night. We had planned to drive straight through from MI to NC, but my elderly mother insisted she would pay for a room if we stopped half way. The room was booked online with her credit card.

I had read the absolutely ridiculous $75 fee for having pets (higher fee than any other hotel I've ever stayed at). When getting to the hotel I asked that the fee being charged to my card and not the card that was used to rent the room (my mother's). The woman at the counter asked another woman if that was possible, she said yes, showed her how to do it, then wrote a note down in a book to inform someone in the morning about this.

Today my mother called me because she was charged the price of the room, and an additional $75. So I looked at our credit card statement, where our card was was ALSO charged the $75. They charged the pet fee twice to two different cards. Exactly what I asked them not to do.

So now I get to spend my lunch break tomorrow on the phone with the hotel, which I'm sure will be an extremely easy and painless process (sarcasm), and can almost guarantee will result in me having to talk my mother through the process of disputing the charge on her card.

All in all, yes the hotel was clean but you'll get better service at a 'pay by the hour' roadside motel in the...

We typically stay at Holiday Inn Expresses while on road trips because they are affordable, and reliably clean and comfortable, with quality breakfasts. This was a very different experience. While the location was convenient, the building was older with maintenance issues. There were some updates to the room furnishings, but still many problems. The bathroom in particular had a very stained bathtub, crumbling grout on the floor tile, chipped and peeling finish on the vanity, and no light in the room besides the rim light on the mirror, making it very dark. The carpet had crusty spots and the air conditioner had instructions to operate it using the wall thermostat, which didn't even appear to be hooked up. The fridge door would not close completely due to buildup of ice inside. The main room door was also very difficult to close. There were also numerous housekeeping issues. In the room there were only two clean bath towels, in spite of us booking the room for four people. There was an additional towel hanging from the hook on the back of the door that had clearly been used by a previous guest. The lobby bathroom was very dirty, with toilet paper all over the floor. The breakfast area was quite gross too - food all over the floor and tables that hadn't been wiped down. The breakfast selection was pitiful compared to what we've come to expect from other HIE properties. The pancake machine, which my kids always look forward to, was broken, there were no cinnamon rolls or biscuits and the only bread products were a couple of slices of bread and a couple bagels. The hot items were not labeled, so you couldn't tell which sausages were turkey and which were pork. The coffee was also weaker and more watery than usual. We will not be staying at this location again, and will be thinking twice before choosing a holiday inn express for...