Holiday Inn Express & Suites Raleigh North - Wake Forest, an IHG Hotel — Hotel in Raleigh

Overall, this hotel was simply OK. The breakfast was good, and the staff was nice. The only problem with breakfast was that the breakfast area is too small and our family was left waiting for others to leave before we could find a seat every morning we were there.

The room was a typical offering, but it left a lot to be desired in the area of comfort and cleanliness. We'll start in the bathroom. Something was obviously wrong with the door. The top hinge was bent in such a way that the leading bottom edge of the door dragged the ground and would become stuck on the tile floor. The door had to be forced closed and even then did not sit in the frame correctly. There also seemed to be some kind of fibrous material (think insulation) under the door that would tear off at times and be left lying in the bathroom floor. The tank cover on the toilet was cracked in multiple places. Additionally, we had booked a 2 queen room for our family of 4, but there were only 2 towels and washrags in the bathroom upon arrival. Even on subsequent days, after having asked for additional towels, there would only be 2 left anytime housekeeping came in to do their thing. Why would only 2 towels be left in a room with 2 queen beds, obviously arranged to sleep up to 4?

Speaking of housekeeping, our second day there we had no housekeeping services whatsoever. When we got back to the room at the end of the day, there were dirty towels left in a pile on the floor and no new towels or washrags had been left for us. Once again, we had to call down to the front desk to have towels brought up. Though we did have towels the next day, they were not enough, and the beds were not made the entire duration of the stay.

The worst thing about the room was the carpet. It constantly felt wet. It was a humid weekend in Raleigh, but the carpet felt wet from more than just humidity. On top of that, it was sticky. It just felt very nasty to walk on, and we had to sit on the bed and brush off our feet before putting them into bed because of the filth that would be picked up from walking across the sticky nasty carpet barefooted. By the end of the weekend, we were all wearing shoes at all times in the room. We'd wear them to the bedside and take them off to get in bed. If we needed to get up for any reason, we'd put our shoes on before walking across the floor. Honestly, it felt like what I'd imagine walking barefoot in a movie theater would feel like. We learned the hard way that if we walked around barefoot, the bottoms of our feet would become completely black from the nastiness of the carpet.

Though the staff was good, the breakfast was nice, and the location was convenient, I don't think we'll be staying at this Holiday Inn again unless some major...

Staff was friendly & the room was clean. However there were a few issues & inconveniences.

The phone in the room did not work so you have to leave the room and travel to the front desk whenever you had issues. We were told maintenance was gone for the day and would come the following day. That never happened.

Neither one of the beds had a comforter on them - just a thin sheet only. We were told several people had allergies so they removed all of the comforters and made them available by request only. We had to get dressed just to head down to the front desk after 9pm because the phone didn’t work.

The TV remote did not work & guess how we had to notify the front desk…yep you’ve got it. By getting dressed and walking downstairs. The front desk clerk told us it was the sensor in front of the TV. We adjusted, it did not work so we headed back down to see if we could get the remote replaced. She said it works…you just have to stand directly in front of the TV. Kinda negates the point of have a remote. When we shared the power & volume buttons worked just not the channel buttons, she said maintenance was gone & would be up tomorrow. That never happened.

The TV channels were limited to local and special cable channels. No TNT, USA, Bravo, or anything more familiar. Of course we had to stand and manually select the channels due to the remote issue. We found one station that wasn’t too weird and kept the TV on that station for the remainder of the trip.

We were only given two(2) total sets of towels for a multi night trip. Thats one set per person. The morning after the second night, one of us went down to request a fresh set of towels as they were heading out to their meeting & I was waiting to shower before logging into work & eventually leaving later that morning. We were told the towels were on their way up. It’s been over an hour & I’m still half dressed waiting to shower and start my day (now past 8am).

Guess what I’ll need to do to notify the front desk?

The bed was comfy, pillows were a variety of hard & soft based on preference, the water was hot, and the amenities were okay…but there were/are a lot of issues. Enough for me to post & leave a rating. Could have easily been a 5 star review if the issues...

The thing I loved about this location the most was the employees. ☺️☺️. Whoever hired everybody definitely hired a cohesive and kind team! 😃

We came up here to spend the night (close to home) to kind of just relax away from home for a night and ease some tension and be near some fun things that aren't near us down south.

April greeted us. We got there early and had no expectations of a room being available yet but wanted to check. She was so positive and professional and organized! It was like she got the memo we would be early!! 🥰🥰 Such a smooth check in! She is just AWESOME!! 🤩🙏🙌.

The ladies at the front greeted us when we got back way later that evening with big friendly smiles and a hello (Khariya & Sonya).

When we went down to breakfast the next morning, April said hello with a big beautiful smile and wave. ☺️☺️

And shortly after I saw Khariya in the breakfast area and she and another woman had everything perfect!! 🤩😍. Everything was put out beautifully and warm and tasted so good. :)

When you're away from home these things all feel like little treats. The fresh coffee, the little extras... And I feel like this hotel pays attention to their guests like they matter (which I appreciate!) and also the details.

One thing I noticed was the pancake machine acting up at one point. Khariya was handling it beautifully. Honestly? I would never have had so much patience and grace of it was giving me that much trouble. She smiled and still had a pulse on everything around her... And I noticed her name especially so that when I left my review I could say she deserves a big big BIG raise! 😄🙌. I would never have kept my cool.... And she was personable and professional.

🙌🤗

My family does travel quite a bit and having hotel points to use and the consistency of the IHG brand... Employees like the ones here are the type that I personally love 🙏. Everybody was always doing something but everybody (including other staff) noticed people. And that feels really good!

So that's why I wanted to leave a review.

It was a really nice night! Very clean Very efficiently run Nice people working...