Holiday Inn Express Winchester South Stephens City by IHG — Hotel in Stephens City

I am a IHG member and travel often for my job, so I'm are vsery familiar and partial to Holiday Inn Expresses. This was the worst Holiday Inn Express I've ever stayed at. I went early to check it out because of their reviews were not good. I was very scipticle when I left because there's no air conditioning in the lobby, the and pool was closed - indefinitely..probably forever. I spoke to my company bout the concerns I could see and they asked me to give it a try. They thought the same as I did, its a Holiday Inn Express, they are usually reputable. BUT NO! I checked in put my stuff down and returned to work, came back after work and....My 1st ROOM: Very musty smelling, smoke detector was knock off the wall and not operable, there was mold on the ceiling above the bed, the bedrooms had a musty and after about an hour I got a horrible headache, carpet was wet, musty there was food mashed into the carpet which made it sticky in places and there were no lamps for light or a chair ..guess they didnt want anyone to get a good look at the room. I asked to be moved...2nd ROOM: it was better...I guess, but it didn't have a curtain on the window, just a light sheer that was ripped and allowed no privacy, the carpet was visably dirty, Do Not Drink out Of the COFFEE POTS IN THE ROOMS... CHECK OUT THE PICS INCLUDED. shower curtain was torn from the bar on one end, DIRTY DRIED UP washcloths hanging in the shower. the toilet wouldnt flush and the receptacle didnt work so I had to go sit in my car to charge my phone. I went down stairs to let them know about the toilet and was told I'd have to wait for "ERICA" to come in the next morning. So when I needed to flush the toilet i had to fill the ice bucket up from the bathroom sink and dump it in the toilet. and finally, the breakfast was pretty bad, but you sorta expect that from a hotel (or maybe it should be called a motel) that doesnt have a full kitchen. The food did tasted stale, especially the bread products including muffins. The coffee was to bitter to drink and the fridge wasn't working and was empty, and you had to ask for milk or yogurt (any refrigerated items) . Unless some major changes happen at this location, I would not recommend booking a room here! I changed hotels for the remainder of my 5 nights working in the area. When I checked out at the front desk, "Erica" was not as nice as she was when i first checked in, and very short with me, I'm guessing my company had a few words to say to her.... but that's the Hotel and/or Managers fault not ours....

I've posted what the rooms really look like, big difference than what is shown in...

Every year we visit this hotel and stay for the Route 11 crawl. We booked our rooms 2 months ahead of our stay. When we arrive, the 2 desk staff assigned us 2 rooms which were not what was booked. We booked 2 King suites and were given 1 suite and 1 Regular King room. the staff only said well its all we got, and everything is now booked up because of the event that day. We should have been given the rooms we booked ahead of just walk ins. He just kept saying well we cant do anything now. We went up to the rooms and my friend walked in their room (KING SUITE) and took his shoes off. First thing was room had an awful odor. He walked over to adjust the A/C and floor was soaked through in a large area. He came got me and we went down to the front desk. When we told the girl there that the room smelled and the floors were soaked, her response was " oh yea that's because it's been raining outside". Well that would be why we booked our room inside so that we wouldn't be in the rain. She never offered for anyone to go see what's going on. Put them in a double hearing accessible room and were told that's all we can do. All the rooms we went in had a bad musty smell. I wanted to speak with a manager and there was not one on duty. I went back to my room and called IHG and spoke to someone who took the report and said not much he can do until we speak to the manager and said she would call the next day and he would also follow up after I spoke to her. The manager never called. (as I expected) On Sunday I did get a call from an assistant manager that stated they have had plenty of problems with the 2 on duty that even and offered me points towards another stay. With all we had going on we should have been refunded at least 1 of those rooms. I never did receive a follow up call from the guy at IHG. We have stayed at this hotel and many IHG hotels and we actually had alot of problems with the same hotel at the same event last year. Normally i love visiting and staying with IHG but this is one you should avoid unless they make...

Holiday Inn express is our preferred brand of “box hotel” the road. In general, they are a good value and most are well managed. On a recent trip from Michigan to Virginia in mid-July, we spent the night at the Holiday Inn Express in Winchester Stephens City just outside the DC Beltway. It was very disappointing.|The first impression was mixed. The reception person was quite friendly and efficient in checking us in. But reception area was extremely hot on this hot and humid evening because the air conditioner had failed. Fortunately, the room had its own system|We were assigned an “upgraded” room for disabled guests on the first floor. This is not a problem in itself, but this room was in horrible condition. The lighting in the room was so dim we had to bring out our phone flashlights to unpack our suitcases. The window shade was broken. When we attempted to close the shade in this ground floor room, the entire shade came off its roller. The television didn’t work and the bed had a big dent in the middle of the mattress.|At about 2:30AM, somebody attempted to get into our room. Fortunately the chain was latched and they pulled the door shut again. But it disrupted our night. A call to reception went unanswered.|The next morning we were presented with a hot breakfast that seemed like it had been recycled for several days. The scrambled eggs were dry and had burned bits in them. The precooked omelettes were so dry that they had a texture of leather. The bacon was out, the biscuit gravy was out and the coffee was so bitter so as to be undrinkable. Box hotel breakfasts can range in quality. We have been to many Holiday Inn Express hotels and other box hotels where the breakfasts are top notch. This is one reason we choose HIE. But this breakfast here was inedible.|There are plenty of hotels in this area just outside the beltway. Avoid this one.|S&P Hotels (Hermal Shah) who owns this hotel and several others in the area should be ashamed...