Holiday Inn Express & Suites Fort Myers Airport — Hotel in San Carlos Park

The hotel is brand new, hence very clean, furniture is in brand new condition.

During our 3 night stay we got a smile only from a young gentleman at front desk (we saw him only once). The rest of the staff looked very tired, their faces were full of stress and other problems, that seemed to be on the way to provide quality service to their guests. When we were checking out the lady at front desk didn't even raise her eyes from the computer, she never asked how was our stay, she just briefly glanced at my husband, when he handed her our room keys, she quickly clicked something in her computer and said that we were okay to go. :(

It would be nice if fence at the pool had a lock, that can be opened only with a room key. Anybody can access pool area. I didn't feel safe there, especially, after a strange man with a 6-pack of beer came to relax to the pool. We left right away.

Breakfast experience is something that stands out! I have never seen such an unwelcoming face. Because of covid, guests cannot serve food to themselves, instead a lady supposed to give you what you prefer. Well, when we came to the breakfast room, the lady looked at us and asked : "What do you want?" (with very annoyed intonation.) Well, the hotel placed a table right in the doorway to the breakfast room, so guests cannot enter the breakfast area and can only try to see what is offered. If you can't see really well from 12-15ft distance, you won't be able to ask for anything. When I asked for cereal, she asked:"What kind?"(again with annoyed intonation). How in the world I supposed to know what kind of cereal do you have? You should at least print a list of items you offering, place that list on that table and you won't be annoyed anymore, because people will give you their choice right away.

BTW, she locked the door to the breakfast area at 9:50am, but they supposed to serve breakfast till 10:00am. We were finishing our food when this happened, and saw another couple of quests that were surprised to see that the door to the breakfast had been closed, when they came. This never happened to me at other hotels, instead we always were asked if we would like to take anything else before they remove food. Unbelievable!!! On our last day I came to the breakfast area at 9:55am, I just wanted to take yogurt for my kids. Of course, the door to the breakfast area was already closed. So, I went around and called that lady. She came to me and said: "Breakfast closes at 10:00am!" And, luckily, I had my phone with me, I showed her, that it was 9:56am only. She didn't apologize, no no, she doesn't know how to do this! I asked her for yogurt and cereal, she gave me everything. This experience felt horrible, I wish they didn't serve breakfast at all... Selection was very poor. I can't mention competitors' names, but they would never do anything like this.

Another thing that was really bad - COFFEE. It tasted like they added only 1 tablespoon of coffee for the whole pot! It was transparent slightly brownish hot water. When I tried to make tea with the water that they provide right next to the coffee machine - hot water had a bad chemical taste. Not drinkable at all!

Please train your staff to provide quality service.

Next time I will choose a little older hotel building, but with thousands of reviews, so I don't have...

We stayed on a Saturday night in late December 2024.

Check-in was fine and nothing noteworthy. It was dark and pouring down rain when we arrived and most of the night. We spent the day driving on across 41 from Homestead to visit Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve. There is a market by the front desk for snacks and any items you may have forgot or needed and a beverage cooler with alcohol.

We stayed in room #413. 2 Queen Bed Suite. This was your typical Holiday Inn Express room with decor. The bathroom and shower were fine and good water pressure. I think one of my kids mentioned the water was a bit on the soft side and made it harder to rinse soap off. The bathroom had the standard Holiday Inn Express amenities like shampoo, conditioner and body wash.

The pool looked pretty standard and nothing noteworthy. Because of the rain we didn't use it. The fitness center was also pretty standard. It did have free weights which is nice and a updated water fountain with water bottle filler. We also didn't use because we had a early morning start and got in pretty late. The guest laundry also looked pretty standard.

I did notice people checking-in and out all day, probably because it's an airport hotel. We did have someone in our party use the complimentary shuttle service to the airport. You just let the front desk know and they give you a car with a number you can call too. The shuttle seems to run pretty frequently. We did have to make a change because flight for the next morning was already listed as delayed and they didn't have any problems with that. The only issue was their suggested time for leaving was overly conservative. It took less than 15 mins to get there and our party member had to skip breakfast because they didn't open until 7AM at this Holiday Inn Express. For a airport hotel that was oddly late. Our family member could've easily had a quick breakfast and made it over there with no time at all. We typically see breakfast served at Holiday Inn Express at 6AM or 6:30AM at the latest. We saw people sitting and waiting for the breakfast area to open.

The breakfast options were your typical Holiday Inn Express items as well. Cheese or egg white & veggie omelet, biscuits and sausage gravy. I did find it annoying that they put the pork and turkey sausage in the same container using the same tongs. I know some folks don't eat pork religiously and have the same tongs for the pork and turkey sausage didn't make sense. What also caught my attention was the cinnamon roll holder didn't have it's light on. Not sure if they weren't working or oversight.

When we left it was still overcast and dreary outside. We would certainly stay here again if we were in the area. There were a few Holiday Inn Express to pick from in Ft. Myers but we chose this one specifically for the convenience of having a complimentary airport shuttle. At our time of booking it was also the cheapest. This was our staging point for J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island the next morning and then the drive...

My job requires me to travel to many cities, and because of the nature of my work, I routinely need to switch hotels even within just a few miles apart from each other. I'm going to base this review on my specific room at this hotel, and on the things that I find most important at a hotel\motel - your needs may be different. 1-Noise, Noise, Noise. 2-Fitness center. 3-Kitchenette. 4-PRICE. The snug fit and proper seal of the rooms front door keeps noise from the hallways and adjacent door slamming at this hotel pretty quiet, when compared to other hotels. The fitness center was unusable to me because they keep fresh towels inside the fitness center and they emitted a strong fabric softener odor, which gave me migraines. I've seen this before at other hotels as well, but it's not too common of a practice. They would be better off placing the towels on a rack in the hallway just outside the fitness center door. The kitchenette was fine, although I had to pull the refrigerator out to lower the temperature, as it wasn't keeping things as cool as I wanted. The wifi was good, as well as the bathroom. Since this is a newer hotel the trees in the parking lot are still very small, so you won't find any spots that are shaded, thus your car can get extremely heated during the daytime hours. Very close to the airport, and the shuttle runs until about midnight, so that is convenient. As for the price - EXTREMELY overpriced for an adequate airport hotel. Not a good value at all for what you're getting. There were some nights in March where the rooms were in the $380 a night range. Yes - PER...