Holiday Inn Express & Suites Schererville — Hotel in Schererville

First, I am giving two stars because the room was nice and the staff we interacted with were very polite and nice. If not for that this would be a zero star. Maybe my expectations going into it were unreasonable but I feel like Holiday Inn Express has a good reputation and I've never been disappointed before. This one was.

First, we get there and I notice construction vehicles everywhere. Not a huge deal. I know that local hotels will often do renovations in the winter so I half expected it. The lady at the front desk (and every employee that we actually interacted with) were all extremely nice and polite. I had zero issues with employees that we actually talked to.

We get in the elevator and there is drywall dust/mud everywhere. There is a sign that says the water will be off for the day. We're 45 minutes past that time so I don't think it's a big deal. It was still off for another hour. Again, I get the construction part but still, if I had known, I would not have booked it. The other part I am thinking is, how are the maids cleaning/doing laundry if there is no water? I hope they had another way of doing it or a plan but I don't' know.

The room was nice but the cleanliness was questionable. We got the family suite and the kids really liked it. This is small but tells me the level of detail they clean the room with, in the keurig machine in the room, there was still a used pod in it. If they aren't checking the keurig when they clean, what else are they not checking? There was also noticable hair on the bed that was not ours.

We got in the room and then started to hear loud talking in the hallway. From what we could hear, two employees (one male and one female) were upset they had been accused by management for stealing $5. The guy must have said "mother f**ker" at least 10 times with not only my 2 and 4 year within earshot but pretty much the rest of the floor. I didn't report it to anyone because honestly I didn't want to deal with it since we were there for all of five minutes.

I took the kids down to the pool, by this time construction was done for the day and I would expect they would clean up after. We get in the elevator and it's more trashed than before. Drywall dust and mud on the floor, the walls, hand prints on the door (I'd bet it's still there if you go in now). The biggest issue is there was a screw on the ground and my kids are walking around. I took it to the front desk and told them they should probably clean out the elevator. The girl was on the phone and acknowledged me like it would be handled. The elevator was in the same condition until we left the next day (this morning).

We got to the pool and it was pretty gross. There were clumps of hair in the water and on the pool deck. There was also graffiti carved on pretty much every tile around the edge of the pool. I get it's not the hotels fault but it's still not a great look.

At night, the hotel was quiet and we did sleep well. The beds were comfortable and we had a lot of space. Breakfast didn't technically start until 630 but I was down there early with the kids and the lady in charge actually fired everything up 30 minutes early so the kids could it. I really appreciated that.

Overall, I can get over the construction. I think the hotel could do a better job of cleaning up after it. I think the staff was very polite and nice when interacting with us. My main concern is the overall cleanliness of the entire hotel and the behavior of the staff outside our room when they thought no one could hear/see them.

We definitely will not...

First, I am giving two stars because the room was nice and the staff we interacted with were very polite and nice. If not for that this would be a zero star. Maybe my expectations going into it were unreasonable but I feel like Holiday Inn Express has a good reputation and I've never been disappointed before. This one was.

First, we get there and I notice construction vehicles everywhere. Not a huge deal. I know that local hotels will often do renovations in the winter so I half expected it. The lady at the front desk (and every employee that we actually interacted with) were all extremely nice and polite. I had zero issues with employees that we actually talked to.

We get in the elevator and there is drywall dust/mud everywhere. There is a sign that says the water will be off for the day. We're 45 minutes past that time so I don't think it's a big deal. It was still off for another hour. Again, I get the construction part but still, if I had known, I would not have booked it. The other part I am thinking is, how are the maids cleaning/doing laundry if there is no water? I hope they had another way of doing it or a plan but I don't' know.

The room was nice but the cleanliness was questionable. We got the family suite and the kids really liked it. This is small but tells me the level of detail they clean the room with, in the keurig machine in the room, there was still a used pod in it. If they aren't checking the keurig when they clean, what else are they not checking? There was also noticable hair on the bed that was not ours.

We got in the room and then started to hear loud talking in the hallway. From what we could hear, two employees (one male and one female) were upset they had been accused by management for stealing $5. The guy must have said "mother f**ker" at least 10 times with not only my 2 and 4 year within earshot but pretty much the rest of the floor. I didn't report it to anyone because honestly I didn't want to deal with it since we were there for all of five minutes.

I took the kids down to the pool, by this time construction was done for the day and I would expect they would clean up after. We get in the elevator and it's more trashed than before. Drywall dust and mud on the floor, the walls, hand prints on the door (I'd bet it's still there if you go in now). The biggest issue is there was a screw on the ground and my kids are walking around. I took it to the front desk and told them they should probably clean out the elevator. The girl was on the phone and acknowledged me like it would be handled. The elevator was in the same condition until we left the next day (this morning).

We got to the pool and it was pretty gross. There were clumps of hair in the water and on the pool deck. There was also graffiti carved on pretty much every tile around the edge of the pool. I get it's not the hotels fault but it's still not a great look.

At night, the hotel was quiet and we did sleep well. The beds were comfortable and we had a lot of space. Breakfast didn't technically start until 630 but I was down there early with the kids and the lady in charge actually fired everything up 30 minutes early so the kids could it. I really appreciated that.

Overall, I can get over the construction. I think the hotel could do a better job of cleaning up after it. I think the staff was very polite and nice when interacting with us. My main concern is the overall cleanliness of the entire hotel and the behavior of the staff outside our room when they thought no one could hear/see them.

We definitely will not...

We have been staying at this property every summer for a family reunion since it opened. In the past we have been very happy with the property and staff. This year was a much poorer experience for many reasons.

The breakfast area has been remodeled and has much less seating capacity than before. We have a large group (30 adults & kids) and if we were all there we could not all find a seat. The breakfast hours were shortened from 4 to 3 which makes the problem worse.

Breakfast food and drink quality was significantly lower. There was no “robust” coffee and the juices tasted odd. The pancake machine wasn’t working at any point and we did not see any effort made to fix it. The baked goods and fruit had seen better days.

The hot water was intermittent in the showers. Several of the other guests were complaining about this. The shower in our room leaked a lot of water into the tub and seemed to have not been updated with the rest of the bathroom.

We had problems with the cable feed not showing Fox. This was important because of a sports event that was happening during our stay. When we asked the front desk to look into it they mis-understood the problem and we had to explain it several times before they caught on.

The pool water temperature swung widely between warm and cold. The lights in the pool area weren’t turned on until 10 an after we had been swimming for 45 minutes. We had to ask for pool towels to be replenished Sunday evening and the pool bathroom was not cleaned between Friday night and Saturday afternoon.

The handle on one of the side doors broke off in my niece’s hand when she tried to enter it on Saturday evening. She was able to get in the front door.

One of the families stayed in a suite which they had used in the past. Unfortunately it had been renovated and was not nearly as comfortable this time. I didn’t get specific feedback from them but I will add it later.

We paid a higher rate per night compared to previous years, and a very low value for what we got.

None of these problems was catastrophic but we’ve never had so many problems during a stay before. The front desk staff, while friendly and polite, had a air of “so sorry” rather than “we’ll get right on that.” There was one maintenance man who was very helpful and responded quickly and effectively to problems. Unfortunately I didn’t get his name.

I’m afraid that we will be looking for a different hotel for next...