Holiday Inn Express & Suites Smithfield - Providence by IHG — Hotel in Smithfield

Upon arrival, we requested to have a room on the 3rd floor and was told that was not possible since I didn't make a request when booking. I notified the front desk that I did my reservation online and there was no place for me to leave a note or make such request. I was told I needed to call. We came to find out from other people staying at the same hotel that they were placed on the 3rd floor and never made such request online, by phone, or at check-in. We accepted, without further discussion, a room on the first floor. Once in the room and starting to unpack, we noticed several issues: Dirty pillows: make up and sweat stains on a couple of the pillow cases, one pillow had some black stuff stuck on the pillow itself. One of the bed skirt had a large stain on it without being able to tell what it was (urine? Tea? Who knows). The other bed skirt had rips on the side and bottom of the bed. Carpet around the trash can in the room had all kinds of dirt/trash around it, as if it didn't get vacuumed. The bed frame was a foot bigger than the mattresses which makes people bump into it when walking by. I communicated these issues to the front desk and requested to be moved and for someone to come and take a look at the room. Someone did stop by to take a look and we were told they would arrange for us to change rooms. They moved us to a different room (on the first floor) When an associate came to take a look at the room (before we were moved) It was mentioned that some sort of a discount would be taken off our room rate which was not the case. We did get a complimentary rolling bed ine the room we moved to did not have two beds. The "new" room was "cleaner" but the carpet still looked it hadn't been vacuumed. We could not watch anything on TV as the signal kept going away. After 11:00 pm on Friday night we were awakened by people yelling and running on the corridors. This went on for half an hour or more. Saturday night there seemed to be an event/party in the "breakfast room". We are not opposed for hotels to have events but then rooms should be better insulated against noise for people who need to get up at 6:00 AM and therefore go to bed at 9:00 PM. A hotel is first and foremost a place for guests to sleep. The pool was supposedly to be heated but several people complained it was cold and were there for only 5 minutes tops. Our son couldn't even stay in the pool. There were people smoking right next to the outside doors and the hotel is supposed to be a non-smoking property. What is the advantage of it if the first thing you inhale when you get...

I am a longtime customer of the IHG hotel chain, especially the Holiday Inn Express. My husband and I went on mini trip to RI for my birthday. We were put on the 3rd floor. When we walked into the room, it was like an oven. Thermostat read 80 degrees. It's the end of June and so uncomfortable. There was another woman who was on the 4th floor reported no A/C in her room either.||||An engineer tried to help fix the A/C to no avail. He brought up a dusty ocelating fan that really didn't do much good except make my eyes itch. My husband was not feeling well and was extremely uncomfortable.||||The worse part was the manager (?) at the front desk. This guy acted like he was so annoyed by the ordeal. The huffing, the eye rolling, the shrugging his shoulders saying "what am I supposed to do?" I even kindly asked if they would mind keeping the pool open longer so we could cool off. Apparently that was out of the question and said it wasn't up to him. A little compassion and empathy could have went a long way. Oh, and the hotel was booked so we couldn't get another room.||||By 10:15pm on Saturday night, I had enough. I sat outside and started calling various hotels in the area. We ended up paying a hefty amount for a 2 bedroom suite from a last minute cancelation. We packed our stuff, I went to the desk, handed in my keys and said we were checking out. At no point did I raise my voice, was condescending or rude. In fact, I even told the clerk (he was obviously new, Mr. Manager was dealing with another customer), that we understood, stuff happens, but we can't stay there.||||Here's the icing on the cake: I still got charged for an additional night. I can understand charging us for Saturday, even though we clearly shouldn't have, but we got charged for Sunday, too. We weren't there. We left because they couldn't provide habitable lodging. This is ridiculous.||||Steer clear from this hotel. And unfortunately, I will never stay in another IHG hotel ever again. I will continue to post this review on every possible website that I can. I hope treating us like dirt and then ripping us off...

Pros: We found the staff here to be exceptionally courteous and sensitive to the needs of the guests. Initially we had a problem with the bathroom locks in the room we were assigned. It was July 4th so the hotel staff could not get hold of their management; however they gladly transferred us to a different room to resolve the issue. We also had an issue with the room not having pull out sofa (even though it was a Suite). Hotel Staff readily provided us a roll away bed free of charge (although it generally costs $15 per day). Normally in such situations I've seen the front desk staff unwillingly to help in other HIE hotels. In this place we found that the staff really cares about the guests. Rooms status: Rooms were clean and well maintained. We noticed that they have a good team of room cleaning staff that comes regularly (I had an issue with this in another hotel on a previous stay). Breakfast: This hotel provides free full breakfast - which includes scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, bacon, sausage, egg/cheese omelet, egg white & vegetable omelet, cinammon rolls, muffins and pancakes.Breakfast staff is generally available for any refills that are needed and they are very courteous and friendly. Overall cleanliness of the hotel is excellent. Hotel pool is properly maintained and has fresh towels all the time.

Cons: Bathrooms in the rooms are not exceptionally good but just average. It is smaller than others I've seen. Cost of sundries/ snacks at front desk is pretty high. One small granola bar costs $2 so I thought that was a bit too steep. Normally the water cooler in the Breakfast room is left on for guests to refill their water bottles but I found that this place shuts off everything after the breakfast hours. So we have to use the water fountain which others may have placed their mouths on...