Holiday Inn Express & Suites Charleston-Southridge by IHG — Hotel in South Charleston

We stayed for 4 nights and this was not a good experience. I travel a lot for work and this is the worst hotel stay I have ever had. We arrived late (9:50pm) after a long day of flying and when we got into our room there was something greasy on the bedside tables. I accidentally set my phone in it and then noticed it was on all of the tables. I went to the bathroom to wash my hands and there was no soap... I went down to the lobby and asked for soap and Clorox wipes to clean our room myself before unpacking and realized our fridge did not work... back to the lobby to ask for maintenance. The front desk was so sweet and he came up to check the fridge. He could not get it to work. We were not offered another room and there was no other fridge available. Next morning we were told they would put a new fridge in the room. We were still getting ready when housekeeping knocked and we told them we would be leaving in a few minutes. When we got back that evening I walked up to our hotel room door finding it OPEN!!!! I went down to the front desk almost in tears furious mad and was offered an "I'm sorry" but no explanation as to how this occurred. I left my computer, jewelry, travel identification and cash in the room that day for safe keeping. Thank goodness nothing was missing. I told the front desk I needed to speak to a manager that I was so extremely upset and she said she would let him no so that he could talk to me the next day. I must add our room was never cleaned that day and we had to take our dirty towels down ourselves and get fresh ones. The next day I never heard from the manager. Our room was thankfully cleaned that day while we were gone and I loaded up all valuables and took them with us that day not trusting the security of our room. The next day when we came back that evening our room was not cleaned. We again went down to the front desk to get soap and towels. I complained to the front desk that I had never heard from anyone about our room being left open. While I was speaking to the front desk the manager walked around the corner having overheard what I was saying. He was on the defense immediately and said he was informed of the incident and that he himself replaced our fridge and he knows for a fact he didn't leave the door open. I told him I wasn't accusing him of leaving it open but our door was in fact LEFT OPEN. This went back and forth for 15 minutes with him over and over telling me he knows he closed the door and each time me saying sir I am not saying you left it open but it was open. I finally said do you have cameras? He said yes and he reviewed the footage of him leaving but admitted he never watched to see if housekeeping or anyone else entered our room and didn't close the door. NEVER DID HE TELL ME HE WAS SORRY. He instead told me how long he had worked there and how he goes above and beyond to make guests feel special by writing them notes and sprinkling rose petals on beds and folding towels into swans. All I was seeking was an acknowledgment that our door was left open and for him to tell me he would investigate it. THAT NEVER HAPPENED. As a manager it is your job to take responsibility for your staff and address issues accordingly. Never was I personally blaming him. I did not raise my voice, I was not rude, I did not ask for our room to be comped (although I absolutely feel we deserve our money back after everything we went through on this stay), all I wanted was him to say he would get to the bottom of it. I would love to speak with his boss to explain the importance of communication with customers and the fact that when something like this happens a persons concerns need to be validated and addressed with empathy. My husband and I both own businesses and I would absolutely want to know about something like this. I have never even written a review but I am still so upset that this happened and we were offered nothing. I can't believe I had to clean my own room and retrieve my own towels. I will honestly avoid IHG hotels after this experience. I don't know what I would have done had my wallet or computer gone missing from our door being left open that day. We wouldn't have been able to board our plane without our ID's and without our money how would we have been able to find another way home? We were 17 hours away from home and it was just me and my 8 year old daughter traveling for her nationals gymnastics. Nightmare of an experience and I truly hope some one will look into this so that it never happens again to someone else. How can someone have this many negative issues on a 4 night stay and be offered nothing to rectify it but be told stories of all the wonderful things you have done for other guests? And I was so extremely nice about it even when I was in tears the night we came back to an open room. I wish I had taken pictures of the dirty room and our door being left open. I only took one picture to send to my husband. Also on three separate occasions our room key stopped working and we would have to go down to the front desk and get a new one. Each time this happened there was some one else at the desk getting a new key as well. This was most frustrating when we could not get in from the parking lot and would have to walk all the way around to the front to be able to get in. My POSITIVE comment regarding this stay: Blake (front desk) and his sister (unsure of her name) were so incredibly sweet. Blake offered to help me clean my room the first night. He came up to the room to look at the fridge and was disgusted about the greasy substance on the tables. He said they had been getting complaints about housekeeping. There was a girl with blue hair working the breakfast area and she was also...

I honestly can't imagine that the people giving this Holiday Inn Express 5 star reviews are actually legit... We called at 1pm to see if an early check-in would be possible, the person on the phone told me in a very straight forward tone "no, that's not an option, our check in starts at 3pm"... Ok, no worries, we were in town for a funeral and just decided to change clothes at a relatives house. When we arrived at 6pm to check-in though, we noticed a lobby full of people and the woman at the front told me she was waiting for a phone call from the cleaning staff as to what rooms are ready and that she didn't have any rooms available right now. I asked how long she thought and reluctantly she told me "just a few minutes" (again, all of this in that same matter of fact tone and completely unapologetic). We waited with the other twenty some guests in the lobby for over 30mins and finally gave up on the idea of freshening up before dinner (it was a super hot day for WV), as not one single person that was there before us got checked in during that time. We returned at 10:30 that night to the same woman at the front desk and while she was finally checking us in, she proceeded to gripe about her job with another guest (a major pet peeve of mine!), while also making a comment up how it's the next guys problem... argh. This would be a good time to note how gross the lobby was... water stained ceiling tiles, worn carpet, peeling wall paper, etc.

Once we got to our room, the mildew smell hit you right away! In addition to that, the air conditioner is very dated and couldn't keep the room cool on that hot day, plus the paint was peeling (badly) on the ceiling right above the shower!

Now, I'll be honest, this is not a typical hotel chain that we stay in, but with hotel prices skyrocketing, I figured we could save a few bucks (still was about $160 for the night) and booked this stay in advance instead of one of the nicer hotels that not long ago went for less then this place currently cost. Once we were here though, we were stuck...We were unable to go anywhere else as there was evidently a major power outage in a nearby county and every single hotel was now already booked by all the locals looking for refuge. All in all, you'd be crazy to willingly choose this place with other options available nearby... don't make my mistake, pay the extra $40 and consider yourself lucky for...

As a Platinum Elite member of IHG, I expect better out of IHG hotels. This is by far the worst hotel I've stayed in and I stay in Holiday Inns 10 days out of the month. I was welcomed by a sign that said No Internet available. Reading older posts, I see that it has been this way for 3 weeks now. Having wifi is CRITICAL for my job. I have daily reports that need submitted and deadlines to meet. I had to go to another location (3 miles away) to have access to wifi so I could submit my reports on time. The clerk at the desk told me he was putting me on 2nd floor and the Meeting Room wifi would reach and it did NOT. The room and fixtures are very dated and show significant wear and tear. The mini fridge appears to be a 90s model and sounds like a B-52 bomber it is rattling so loud. It was so loud that I unplugged it and placed my refrigerated items (water, coffee creamer, meds) in a cooler iced down. The curtains in the room had holes in them and allowed light to pass through. Very annoying. When I addressed the inconvenience of the wifi to the front desk clerk, he essentially had no options for me or a solution. Looking back at other reviews, it appears that the wifi has not worked in a LONG time. I have advised my company to not book this hotel again. I am here doing OSHA Consultations with clients and I feel like I am staying in an OSHA hazard hotel. Ceiling is falling with water stains down the valance and a broken plug in the bedside lamp that buzzed when I when go plug a charger in, then I saw the broken piece in the outlet. 😳 There's also mystery stains on the carpet...no that's not the carpet design. Its a stain. (see attached pictures) The fixtures and vanity are disgusting. Come on HIE. You can do better. I expect more from IHG brand. I feel like a significant credit should be issued for my inconvenience.

**Update Thursday 9/14. Woke up to an ant infestation and they had gotten into my cooler and was all over EVERYTHING. Spent 20 minutes cleaning out my stuff. I addressed it with the manager at the front desk and she said that they just found out that there was a crack in the wall in 204 and the ants were coming in and she would have maintenance to spray for them.

I give my whole experience here a huge 👎 Very sad that my company paid what they did for this 2 nights in filth. They have removed this particular HIE from their future bookings for...