Holiday Inn Express & Suites Santa Clara - Silicon Valley, an IHG Hotel — Hotel in Santa Clara

In short: A very pleasant 12 days ruined by the last 2 days of horrific experience. In detail: I stayed in this hotel from April 16th to 29th. Had been having a very pleasant stay. Very nice breakfast (with plenty of variety and with rice too!), very clean room, very good room service, and generally polite and helpful staff. I had to checkout on 29th morning since I had a flight to catch at 3 PM. So, I planned properly and wanted to wash my clothes on 27th evening. I started the laundry machine and it started washing and stopped within a minute. Became out of service. All my clothes wet and mixed with detergent. I went and informed the front desk about this problem. They said that the mechanic will come the next day and get it repaired at 8 in the morning. The next day, 28th, I went and asked about the status of the washing machine at around 8:30 and they said that mechanic hasn't come and they have no idea when he would come. I came late in the evening on 28th and asked them if the washing machine is repaired. They said that is all done. So, on the last day, I had to wash my clothes in the morning and leave as soon as it is done to catch my flight. I called the front desk and requested that the laundry room be opened at 8:30 (usual time is 9AM to 10PM). It was opened and to my horror, the washing machine was NOT repaired and was still out of service. This is the part which was extremely horrifying. A single washing machine failure is forgivable as it is not in the hands of the hotel. But to keep the washing machine in out of service state for 2 days is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE, especially for a hotel which charges $213 a day. I was in a very panic state. My clothes were wet for a day and a half covered in detergent. The real issue is the weight of the clothes. I can't simply take it and I can't simply put them in dryer as all my clothes will go waste. Suddenly I got the idea. I closed the bathtub and simply rinsed the clothes to remove the detergent cover on my clothes and dry them as much as possible using my hands (and hurt my fingers in that process) and used the dryer in the laundry to dry them. I left the hotel in the hurry with injured fingers.

One more thing is, no matter what, the housekeeping always replaced the towels everyday. They had a note saying that if we want to reuse the towels (and requested to do so to fight the drought), keep it on the hangers in the bathroom. Every day I did it, but my towels were always replaced with new ones. It may be in the best interest of the guests, but it felt wrong.

All my pleasant experience in the hotel was replaced with the horrible experience I had on the last day. Whenever I think of this hotel, I will only have this experience in my mind.

[I have to thank Lynn, the front desk staff. She was a wonderful person and very helpful. If not for her, I would have given 1 star rating. She was there when I checked-out and she was the one who was kind enough to open the laundry room 30 minutes before the usual time to help me. Thank God she was in the front desk when I checked-in. On the first day, I asked for water bottles, she said they are free and also told that, there is a water dispenser which can be used to refill and is always operational. On the next day, there was some other guy and I asked for water bottle, he said "only one water bottle is free per day". I was like 'what the hell?'. I hadn't expected such a...

I called the hotel the day prior to arrival to see about dropping off our luggage after an early flight and was pleased to find out the room was ready early so we dropped our suitcases and didn’t return until late that night. It was the only time I was pleased with the hotel. There was a faint odor in the room, but because the room was ready early we thought it was most likely cleaning odors lingering. That night we found out it was toilet issues and the smell was sewage. It was too late for maintenance, we were exhausted and decided to report it in the morning which was just a few hours away. When my husband and I went to the front desk I began to explain the problem in the room and I was interrupted by the front desk manager who shouted at me to stop being aggressive with him. I told him I was speaking in a normal voice, didn’t appreciate his misogynistic tone and attitude and asked for the hotel manager who he said was not there. I should explain here, that while we are retired now we are associated with a plumbing company and do still have some knowledge in this area. I also am disabled. Because there were other guests around the front desk I stated I would take this to corporate. I called the number on the back of my Holiday Inn Card for member services and was only able to follow a complaint through the AI system and never got a satisfactory response other than the hotel manager would call. The hotel manager never did call, but chose to communicate by email for her protection. She stated her employee has the right to respond as he feels towards any guest and she, the employee, or hotel would not be offering an apology. She then went on to say if I didn’t want a handicap room I shouldn’t have booked one. I did book a handicapped room and had to send the corporate AI an actual picture of the door to the room because THEY listed my reservation wrong in their first text to me. Subsequent emails from the manager ask us to leave the hotel, claimed falsehoods of my husband apologizing for me which he did not and he sent off his own email to the manager at this point. The final email I read from her told me that I was not to go to the front desk and could not use the term worst Holiday Inn. The manager had made more demands against us and all I asked for was an apology. We couldn’t change hotels as we had to be as close as possible to where my 87 year old father was staying with a family member in case he needed help during the night. We ate two breakfasts at the hotel. It was the same breakfast both days and it was cold each time. The front desk manager made a point of leaving the front desk and standing near the hallway we had to use to go back to our room each time. I have saved copies of all correspondence and still am trying to reach an actual person in the corporate office to file a complaint. We will never stay in another Holiday Inn hotel after the nightmare the management team created. This is the worst Holiday Inn as far as we are concerned. How dare they make demands limiting my freedom to say and feel about the hotel, while giving their staff carte Blanche to be as rude to a customer as they want for reporting a legitimate problem. If this is the philosophy of business Holiday Inn has now they don’t need me as a customer for either business...

As with any hotel, they all have their ups and downs and this one was certainly no exception.||We flew into San Jose a little early so we were at the hotel around 11am, a few hours before check-in time. Inquired about an early check-in but was told that there would be a fee unless we waited until around 1pm. That was fine, we went to get something to eat and then returned a little before 1pm and was given a room.||The first room was like a dungeon. Literally facing a wall with no sunlight. On an overnight stay I wouldn't have minded but we were there a little longer so we needed something with some kind of light entering. On top of that, the smell of bleach in the room was so overpowering that I got a headache from it. A little after check-in I received a text from the front desk from an associate by the name of William and I expressed my desire to move to a different room. He was able to move us into a room that was facing the pool and received a lot of sunlight which was nice.||The hotel is on a busy corner but fortunately, we didn't hear too much traffic since we were facing the pool instead of the outer part of the hotel. Parking is free, no resort free and the breakfast options were standard for Holiday Inn Express. Very few eating options within walking distance other than El Pollo Loco or Paris Baguette. You'll need to drive if you want more options. Pool was OK. A little dirty and not heated but was nice to have to ourselves since no one else was using it while we were there.||On our second day, the shower knob had fallen off while my daughter was in there which fell on her foot causing some pain for the next few days. I even went down to the front desk with the knob to show William and told him that the knob had fallen on my daughters foot. Facilities was sent up to the room but I'm a disappointed that there was no follow-up on my daughter.||At checkout, I had asked for a copy of the folio to be sent to my email which the agent assured me that she would but after half a day, still nothing so I had to reach out to the front desk again to have it sent.||All in all, the stay was decent. Some hiccups but most were addressed. If it wasn't for your associate William, I think my review would've been a little more harsh but he was great to work with and addressed most needs... thank you...