Holiday Inn Express & Suites Middletown - Goshen by IHG — Hotel in Town of Wallkill

I had a very concerning interaction with the front desk (Martin).

Check-in was fine, but as soon as we opened the door to our room we were immediately hit with a strong cigarette smoke smell. It was overwhelming and we could smell it before walking into the room. It was strong.

We knew we couldn't stay in the room. Not only would all our clothes and luggage end up smelling like cigarettes, but we were also worried that we'd be blamed for smoking in the room. So before I even set my bag down, I called the front desk.

I explained the situation (overwhelming cigarette smoke smell) and asked the front desk if we could switch rooms. This was at about 3:15 PM on Saturday, July 27th. Martin (I only later found out his name) told me, "Unfortunately we are all booked tonight and there are no other available rooms." I explained to him that we checked in at 3:15 PM, saw the entire stack of papers for people who hadn't checked in, and that there was no way we could stay in the room. He once again said, "Unfortunately sir we have nothing else available."

So Martin told me that he would not switch my room. He told me not once but twice. At this point my tone changed. It was unacceptable. He just didn't want to take a few minutes and make a change on the computer. He had all his room assignment printouts ready to go and he didn't want to be bothered. This was not ok. I told him that he absolutely can and will switch rooms. My family and I are not staying in a cigarette smoke-filled room when I know there are plenty of rooms available at this point in the day.

He told me to come down to the front desk so I did. Before I even opened my mouth he barked out at me and said I couldn't talk to him like that and that I was acting "entitled." "Entitled" was his exact word. I told him that I asked twice to be moved but he said no. I had no choice but to demand a change. It didn't have to be that way. He could've offered to change my room. But instead, he told me that he wasn't able to make the change. He told me "no" twice.

He was acting kind of wild at this point. Talking loudly, pacing around, throwing his hands in the air, walking in and out of the back room, interrupting me, and not letting me talk at all. He wasn't wearing a name tag so I asked his name. He didn't tell me his name. I asked him his name again. He didn't tell me. I asked his name a third time and he got very upset, slammed open some drawer at the desk, started fishing around for his name tag, didn't find it, and then shouted out his name (Martin). I'm assuming he told me his actual name.

So then after all of that, he finally took about 60 seconds, made a change on the computer, and assigned me a new room. Then he just tossed the new room keys down on the desk and said, "You happy now?" I said "Thank you" and walked away. The new room was fine. It didn't smell like cigarettes.

This is just conjecture but I think Martin just didn't want to be bothered. He had his nice little stack of room assignment printouts and he didn't want to take a few minutes and make a change. He rejected my request twice. After he told me "no" for the second time, then and only then did I make a demand. If I didn't, he never would've made the change.

Martin could have avoided the entire situation. I don't appreciate being called "entitled" when I ask to switch rooms because a room has an overwhelming cigarette smoke smell.

And to make matters worse, I briefly overheard (only about 5 seconds) an interaction Martin was having with another guest checking in. The language and tone were...

While staying at the hotel during a visit to Legoland we had a ln all around bad experience at the Holiday Inn Express in Goshen. First off, when checking in the receptionist was very cold and standoffish. I am typically greeted with a thank you for being a Platinum Elite member, which I don't really care about, but I do expect friendly service, which I certainly did not get. I asked fort upgrade which I am supposed to get free as a Platinum Elite member, but of course there was nothing available. That's hard for me to believe since it was a Sunday night during the school year.

When we got to our room we noticed that there was no clean room seal on the door like most IHG hotels use, the beds were a little disheveled and there were a lot of pieces of long hair all over the bathroom floor, so obviously the room was not cleaned. I recalled seeing a sign when I walked in with the clean room promise so I went down to ask for another room. The same receptionist that I checked in with was there and was super rude. When I told her there was hair all over the bathroom floor she questioned In a condescending voice, "There is hair on the floor?". I asked for a new room and she didn't say another word to me and just typed in her computer. She made new keys for me, wrote the room number on it and handed them to me with a snotty voice saying, "here you go". No apologies or anything. On fact she made me feel like an idiot for asking for another room. That does not at all for in with the clean room promise. It was quite obvious that she either hates her job or was having a bad day, but it should never come out on the guests. It's called "hospitality" for a reason!

When we got to our new room there were crumbs on the door, so once again, it was clear that this hotel does not do a whole lot to keep their clean room promise. At this point it was late and my kids were tired so we just went to bed. To be honest I was a little scared to go tell the receptionist that this room wasn't clean either. The next morning when we went down for our continental breakfast there were only a couple coffee cups, no lids, no sugar, and the coffee station was a mess with stickiness all over. I told the receptionist working that morning that we needed sugar and at least this girl was very friendly and took care of it. When she saw the mess of the station she promptly cleaned it and replenished the supplies.

Lastly, we were traveling with another family who later told me how rude the receptionist was to them when they checked in that same evening. They booked a package through Legoland to get the hotel and tickets together, which was supposed to include a welcome package when they check in to the hotel. When they asked the receptionist for it she was rude to them as well and said she had no idea what they were talking about and the hotel has nothing to do with Legoland. It's possible that Legoland has an error on their site and is inaccurate, but she could have at least been nice about it.

This was a very disappointing stay...

The afternoon front desk employee harassed my family and I simply because he did not like my children. It began when they were using the complementary computers in the hotel lobby. He approached me in the pool Area to tell me that the children ages 9-11 needed adult supervision at the computers which had no sign that stated this as the pool area and gym did. The next day at checkout the morning employee did give us an hour extra to check out the room and allowed us to use the pool after checkout as most hotels do and at least every hotel I had been to previously allowed. The problem began once again when the after/night shift employee noticed us in the pool area and asked if we were checked out already and stated we could not be in the pool area if so. My family and I had already used the pool most of the afternoon and were already changed. I was just charging my device and looking to order food for some of my family back home so we all moved to the sitting area in the lobby where you can charge devices. After about 5 minutes he asked if we were waiting for a ride and I responded that we were leaving soon. After another 5 minutes he asked again if we were waiting for a ride. My family and I were sitting quietly not disturbing anyone but apparently we were a disturbing to the employee. I let him know that I felt harassed at this point and asked if it was hotel policy to ask guest how they were leaving. He refused to answer and threatened to call police if we did not leave in 20 minutes. The mother of my children who had been walking outside the hotel with our 1 year old who was crying and did so not to have noise in the lobby came inside and realized there was an issue so she asked what the problem was and he told her we were no longer guest at the hotel and needed to leave immediately. He then proceeded to call the police. I needed to print something on the complementary computer before leaving so I sat at the computer to do so and he said I could not use his computer or his printer to print anything. I ignored the employee and proceeded to log into my email account to print the documents I needed and he attempted to shut the internet off but failed so I was able to print what I needed and was ready to leave before the 20 minutes. My children were using the bathroom when the police arrived and I explained the situation, they completely understood and said there may have been some miscommunication between the morning and afternoon staff regarding us. I believed the issue was that he simply did not like my children, as he had also told my 11 year old son that he’d never met such rude children in his life when they were using the computers. If the computer area also requires adult supervision it should be stated, our room was literally steps away from the lobby and my children are mature enough to be on a computer, they actually have been using laptops from school since Kindergarten. The morning employee with the piercings did not have any issues with my children and she even gave one of my boys a free...