Holiday Inn Express & Suites Pasadena - Los Angeles by IHG — Hotel in Sierra Madre

First, let me start off with DON'T STAY HERE! I was informed by the Los Angeles County police that this is the MOST unsafe areas, and they weren't surprised I had issues. You might ask why I was talking to the police that is because during my stay, housekeeping went into our personal belongings and stole our personal possessions, which include medical equipment for our disabled child! There is no way you can shake this that doesn't explain unprofessionalism. In NO shape should ANYONE be going through our bags. Unfortunately, this is just 1 incident in a looooong line of things.

Upon check-in, I was spoken to in the most rudest manner and was basically accused of using someone else's card. This shook me from the get. There was no discussion of what type of room I would need, and no paperwork handed to me telling me how much I was going to be paying. I was required to fill out forms so they could CHARGE me for parking. Mind you, I parked in the legally marked handicap parking spot with our placard, which was uncovered and fully exposed to the downpour of rain. When I finished, I was not given directions on how to get to my room, just handed key card envelope with the key and room number inside. When I reached the room, it was not accessible even for us to enter with our medical equipment. I literally had to move a bench to allow us to enter the room. Once in the room, I discovered it smelt like wet dog. I immediately reported all the above issues in writing to never have the hotel acknowledge the email or handle the situation. They left us in that room for the entire 3 night stay. The room phone had no cord, which made calling down to the front desk impossible. I, in fact, had to call with my cell phone 3 times to tell them that the phone had no cord. I needed an extra blank to put down on the dirty floor for our disabled family member to be able to sit. If it hadn't been for the maintenance guy that came and fixed the room phone and helped move the bed we would not have been able to sleep safely nor have space to access the room for our disabled family member to eat, interact, basically the normal everyday life stuff. At the time, I was a God send. And it was trying to make the best of an incrediblely awful situation. It was only until on the 3rd night I discovered that wet dog smell was actually because the floor and wall were wet and more thank likely mold growing. For 3 days, we were in that room day and night with only to leave for a 3 hour span and for an ok breakfast, pretty standard warm breakfast. I also discovered the morning after our first stay that the rooms only window was left UNLOCKED and their was no screen and it opened enough for someone to be able to get in and out to the unnecessary balcony. The window was cracked even, and water was accumulating on the inside pane, which is what was probably seeping into the wall down to the floor. On our second day/night, I discovered that the phone STILL didn't work. No one could call into our room. Supposedly, the excuse is that there were messages and messages on the phone no one can call in. However, the phone didn't even blink that messages were there. The staff cleared Saud messages, and I had no clue what or who the messages were from. I showed the staff member that I couldn't even get the wifi to work on my computer. Without a working phone or wifi and a completely dead cellphone since I had been using the Hotspot for my internet access and my cord broke, we had no access to the outside world we could even order door dash for food for dinner. Which is why my family members were trying to call the room so they could dash us something. Unfortunately, when my sister called, she was met with the same hositiy i received during check-in, and the staff person refused to give their name and hung up on her. On our 3 thrid day of our stay I was told by the staff someone would come up and fix the wifi, they never showed! Housekeeping never showed this day as well!

I've been a long customer of Holiday Inn. However, after this experience, I am really...

Two different hotels under one roof, sort of. Let me explain.

First, after driving past the place twice (the sign cleverly hidden by trees which need to be pruned), I pulled into the HI Express lot, which also serves a small strip center running from the older building to the newer building. The photo on the hotel website, features photos of the very distinctive OLD building, which is nowhere near the street. So, if you don't see the sign, you certainly won't see the hotel.

I was given a room in the newer building, which is above the strip center, complete with a separate elevator, accessible from the parking lot, with your room key. The elevator takes you to a wide rooftop patio, and a turn to the right takes you to the old building, a turn left to the new building.

Once inside, newer HI Ex carpeting covers the hall, and I ventured to my room at the end of the hall, which may have been a corner king (an upgrade).

To say the room was spacious, is an understatement. From door to carpet is a good eight feet of brick flooring, serving no purpose other than to give the room an airy feeling, and a small corner table for charging phones.

The room itself is standard Holiday Inn Express, which is not a bad thing. A microwave sits on a shelf atop the stainless-steel clad mini-fridge, next to the very comfy bed is a desk with more than ample space for work, and a really cool desk lamp, with a suitcase shelf to the side. A reasonably nice chair flanks the other side of the bed. Lights above the entrance hall, on the desk and above and on either side of the bed provide all the illumination you could want. If you want natural light, just pull the chain on the stylish, euro-style blinds. I want these blinds!

The narrow bath features plenty of vanity space, and a fairly roomy shower with designer shampoo, conditioner and body wash in a permanently-mounted dispenser. Here lies one of the few minor annoyances--the bathroom door pulls shut on its own, so, in order to cool it down using the room's powerful A/C, you have to prop it open. The other minor carp, is the television, which is DirecTV-equipped, but not standard DirecTV, so your memory of channels at home won't help you. The channel guide is on channel 2, and scrolls at its own leisurely pace. There is nothing worthwhile on Sunday night TV anyway, including the four HBO channels, so it was no big deal.

Breakfast was served in a dining area in the old building, and was a little more crowded than the usual HI Express, but featured a pancake maker, egg or egg white omelets, sausage AND bacon, plus the usual cereal and bread/bagel/muffin offerings. In addition, this is the first hotel offering USA Today, in ages (not surprising since USA Today, is more of a news pamphlet, than news paper--and $2.00!)

I was impressed enough, that I wish I had more than seven hours to spend...

By far not the worst hotel we have stayed in, but definitely not the best, not the experience you would expect from a Holiday Inn, the rooms was more like a better Quality Inn

The Good 1: the front desk staff was amazing and helpful.

2: the room although very small, was really good quality, and very quite, and was really really clean upon arrival.

3: really nice property interior and exterior.

4: Great location right off of the Freeway, close to everything,

Now the bad 1: The room was way too small! We got the standard double queen room and it was so small that the two of us could not walk past each other

2: the bathroom was extremely Hot, no matter how cool the room was that bathroom stayed hot, we couldn’t stand to be in there for more then a few seconds, and would be sweating like crazy

3: they charge $10 dollars a night to park in a built on parking garage that the hotel owns, I could totally understand if they did not own the parking garage but they do, you’re giving this place business the least they could do is let you park your car free, we’re rewards members, and members still have to pay, my advise would be to offer free parking to members as an incentive to be or become a member, the parking spaces are small as well a Ford Taurus can not fit between the lines, but there is plenty of spaces

4: breakfast not that good

5: guest laundry, $4 to wash and $4 to dry, so $8 for 1 load, and the dryer didn’t dry the first time so I had to restart the dryer so $12, much cheaper to go to a laundromat

6: housekeeping was not very friendly, we asked a lady for some towels she rolled her eyes, and responded NO English, which isn’t the problem if you can’t speak English then you can’t speak English but I had a translator app and it read out loud what I said but in Spanish, she then started talking with English, so the issue is using the “No English” to simply not have to deal with the guests.

Would I recommend this hotel? Well that just depends on what your expectations are, while the price isn’t that bad compared to a lot of hotels in the area it’s kind of expensive for what it offers in Room and service category, if you’re looking for a cheaper hotel you’ll be more happy in a low budget hotel, at least your not expecting Holiday Inn quality, there’s also better options for around the same price, if you are expecting a normal holiday in room I’d pay up and find a different Holiday Inn, again not the worst hotel, and it definitely isn’t an experience that would ruin your vacation or...