Holiday Inn Express & Suites Raleigh SW NC State by IHG — Hotel in Raleigh

Our stay here was overall good. It's a good location not far from town. We could get anywhere in less than 15 minutes it seemed. Parking was always available and was easy and free. Breakfast was free although not much availability. Employees were hit or miss. Some were very friendly (both when we checked in and out), but there were also some who ignored us when we said hi, so that was odd.

The room was nice and we liked that the window could be cracked for fresh air. The bed was a very uncomfortable mattress so I'm glad I brought my heating pad for my aching body from a chronic health condition. I feel like hotels used to have cloud like beds and they all switched to rock hard beds. Pillows were still cloud like and very nice.

The bathroom was fine but had no vent fan, and we had no tissues the whole week even though we had maids clean daily. Once I figured out the shower head it was enjoyable, but we started with a direct jet stream that was frustrating.

The outlets on the lamp next to the beds were not working so we couldn't charge up our phones while using them. Instead they had to charge across the room. Seems like a first world problem but after being gone all day we had dead phones and wanted to be able to wind down with them while charging up. My heating pad wouldn't work on those outlets either so I had to pull the bed side table away so I could plug it in the back, but I could only do it by unplugging the lamp or alarm clock. If you don't want this possible annoyance, bring a power strip or 3 way adapter.

None of the maids spoke English. And I mean not even a word. I went back and forth with one maid trying to explain we would be leaving in 5 minutes and she absolutely did not understand. We ended up getting the word across through hand signs. But I felt embarrassed for neglecting my Duolingo. I was about to pull out my Google translate if the hand signs hadn't worked!

One last thing is this is the first hotel we've stayed at that didn't have cribs. We requested on multiple days and they seemed so confused by that. If we had driven we would have brought a pack n play but we flew so we were hoping for a crib. Our infant and toddler slept in bed with us instead.

The good thing is, despite the cons, the hotel seemed pretty chill and quiet and we had no serious problems. Just inconveniences. This would be a good stay for people who don't need much more than just a place to sleep and...

I’ll start by saying that my stay was pretty much excellent.

However, everyone said that service here was the selling point. That was not my experience. Called the front desk in the morning and was left ringing for several minutes. Decided to walk down to get some assistance, but there was no staff at the front desk while breakfast service was in full swing. After asking around, I finally discovered Victoria hiding behind the partition saying “ I didn’t see anyone here” all while continuing to ignore other phone calls being made to the front. She did, of course, assist me once another staff member got her attention.

I left and came back around lunch time to process my late check out, only to find my room key no longer worked. No worries, I just headed to the front desk to…again find nobody there. She had “stepped out” and so I patiently waited ~10 minutes for her to mosey her way back. Not to say that she shouldn’t be allowed to go to the bathroom, just that I didn’t sense much urgency to assist the customer.

The experience otherwise was fantastic. Good food, excellent cleanliness and room standards, etc. 10/10. Victoria was consistently polite in all my encounters; I don’t seek to malign her. But the service wasn’t exactly as stellar as other reviews state; got a real “just chillin at my summer job” vibe from the receptionist that wasn’t exactly concordant with the aforementioned reviews. In the grand scheme it’s not the most dire complaint, perhaps one not worth even making. But seeing as the GM is reportedly running a tight ship, I thought it prudent that she know...

I hate writing bad reviews, but man I had to for this one. My husband had such an awful experience with DWIGHT at the front desk from the second he tried to check us into our rooms. My husband is a club soccer coach and his team is playing in a tournament in Raleigh, NC this weekend—meaning we drove 8 hours from Ohio to be here this weekend. After getting in at 12:30am this morning with a few players that hitched a ride with us, my husband attempted to check us in for our room, as well as the room that the players would be staying in. Dwight was not only extremely rude (interrupting my husband when he was trying to explain there were two separate room reservations for us and the players) but he tried to tell my husband that we could not check in our players as he was considered a “minor” and did not qualify to look after these boys. Mind you…this was after Dwight very rudely interrupted my husband and asked him for his driver’s license, and if he would have looked carefully he would have noticed that my husband is 24 YEARS OLD and a certified coach!!!?? It took 20 minutes at 1:00 in the morning for Dwight to allow us to finally check into our rooms…and after driving all night long, that was the very last encounter I wanted to have at a hotel we are paying a lot of money for. Someone needs to give Dwight an attitude check and let him know that’s not how you treat or greet guests.

However, I will say the rooms are nice and the boys really like the hotel. Customer service unfortunately ruins a lot of the great amenities...