Hotel Indigo Tuscaloosa Downtown by IHG — Hotel in Tuscaloosa

This hotel has gone DOWN HILL! My husband and I have been staying at this hotel since it was built and i’m here to tell you that the staff that is currently in place is awful. ||||We arrived for check in and there was water all over the floor in front of the check-in desk. We told the front desk clerk, she walks around and looks at it- says, oh it’s only water i’ll get it later. (it may only be water but i still don’t want to set my luggage in it thank you). She checks us in and as we walk away I ask for our parking pass because i don’t see it - she says, oh they don’t usually check on the weekends.😳ummm, not taking that chance either sunshine. ||||We walk into our room to unpack and chill for a bit before we have to leave. We notice that there is no soap, there’s trash on the floor, it’s just sub par cleaning at best. ||||We head to our daughter’s house to see the grands for their annual halloween party and when we return we head to our room. We get off the elevator on the 4th floor and the smell of weed knocks us down. The loud music is thumping like we’re at a rave. I call the front desk and i’m pretty sure after the check-in experience i’m not going to get this resolved promptly or even at all. At 10:30 I call again and requested that we be moved because we weren’t going to get any sleep in that room. ||||We pack up everything and head to the 3rd floor where we walk in and the heat is stagnant but it doesn’t reek of weed so that’s a plus. Now we are old- I mean, we watch wheel of fortune and go to bed old so it’s late for us. We finally lay down with no noise and almost fall asleep when a car alarm 🚨 begins to go off and we are lucky enough to have the flashing lights that accompany the alarm dance on our ceiling. My husband gets up to make sure that it’s not our vehicle and we just wait for whomever to come turn it off. Whew- finally, it’s off. But wait, round two is coming and the alarm goes off again. Yay!! ||||The alarm finally goes off and we fall asleep, I wake up at 3:45 because i’m hot and my husband was already awake for the same reason. We get up to turn the air on and you guessed it- it’s broken. I call down to the front desk and she said come down and get a key to another room. At this point, i just want it to STOP 🛑 I look at my husband and say, do you just want to go home. So we go down to the front desk and this girl wins the RUDE award. I say to her, we are going to just head home and would really like a full refund of our stay. She is counting money and never even looks up at me and says, “I ain’t doin that, you gots to talk to the manager and they ain’t here” Not an I’m sorry you’ve had a bad experience, kiss my a$$ or anything- so so rude. ||||So my husband and I leave the hotel at 4:45am and being an IHG rewards member decide to call them and inform them of our stay. She takes down all the information, listens to our experience and then said she can’t refund our money because she doesn’t have that ability but what she can offer is points. She says, I’ll give you 15,000 points and I said well how many points would it cost me to stay at the hotel Indigo in Tuscaloosa (King) - she looked it up and it would cost me 21,000 points. I said well then why would i accept 15,000 - she says, well i can do 18,000- I’m like, WHAT??!! now we’re negotiating??!!! Why wouldn’t you just give me 21,000 and call it a day??!!! In the world of customer service my motto is JUST MAKE IT RIGHT - but clearly that’s not IHG’s motto. Had I taken the 18,000 points she said the case would be closed and I said no thank you, I want a FULL REFUND or 21,000 points. ||||I own a business and the reason my business thrives is because of my customer service. I mess up too but when I do, I own it and I make it right. Do better. I would NOT recommend this hotel to anyone. It gets a 0 from me. ||||So here we are, on our way home, typing a novel and waiting until Monday morning when I’m able to speak to the manager at the Hotel Indigo in Tuscaloosa, AL. ☺️...

For a one night stay on a Sunday, I was disappointed. The hotel was chosen due to ratings and being familiar with the boutique brand. The location is dark and isolated feeling, so did not feel safe. For the location it seemed poorly lit. The hotel bar and restaurant were closed, which was a huge disappointment as we had planned on eating at the hotel when we arrived later in the day. It was hard to find something semi-palatable in the area that didn't require you to drive a long way. Also oddly, things do not stay open much past 8 or 9 on a Sunday, which was unfortunate because we arrived around 6:30 and wanted to eat around 7pm.

The front desk staff did not offer much information about dining locations in the area. They seemed ill prepared to help guests find something or somewhere to "go" eat or to have "delivered." I am familiar with how to use the internet to find food and to order delivery/takeout, but honestly it was a huge pain to deal with and it was frustrating to try to find something to eat when the dining options were severely limited on Sunday. For a college town it was very bizarre.

We could have "walked" a few blocks to an area that we had passed that looked busy, but honestly in the strange darkness surrounding the hotel and location it did not feel safe or wise for 2 women to do so. I have traveled a lot in big cities and I have never felt this strange, weird at the thought of walking a couple of blocks at night. The location is next to a park and some apartment/condos and it was just very isolated feeling and like a perfect place for something sketchy to happen.

In the daylight it is ok, but still very isolated.

Overall, I was not impressed with my experience. The room was fine. The decor was ok. The wall had some cosmetic issues right in a focal area, which was disappointing as well. The bathroom was nicely appointed. I did like that the elevator required use of hotel key in order to press the button for the floor. This was respected by the front staff as I heard someone in the lobby indicate they were there "to see a friend" and the staff told them that their "friend" would need to come to the lobby to get them. I think that was a nice security feature inside, but the outside security leaves a lot...

I want to begin by saying that I am most definitely not a high maintenance guest. I am not hard to please, and I enjoy staying in budget hotels as well as upscale hotels. I do not have unrealistic expectations or standards. This is also the first time I have ever felt the need to write a review to inform future travelers.

First off, the staff was great! So was the location. We have stayed at this hotel several times before (early 2019) & were pleased on each previous visit. This stay was a disappointment, though, because the bathroom was unacceptable. The sink & vanity were clean enough but the toilet & shower were not. The toilet had marks from a previous BM (pardon the frankness) in the bottom of the bowl. This was evidence to me that it had not been cleaned. It made me wonder if anyone had even "looked" at the toilet. If they had, surely they would have at least flushed it to try to remove the marks if they weren't going to clean it. The shower also had not been cleaned. In fact, I'm pretty sure it had not been cleaned for some time. There was pink "gunk/slime/mold" growing in the corners & all around the frame of the shower door. I thought that I could just avoid the "pink" when I showered & assumed that at least the shower floor had been cleaned. I assumed wrong. Even though the shower floor wasn't moldy, it did have a waxy, sticky film on it that stayed on my feet even after I exited the shower. I had to clean the bottom of my feet with soap & a washcloth when I finished showering to get it off. I actually felt dirtier when I got out of the shower. I'm not sure what has happened with the cleanliness of this hotel since our last stay a little over a year ago, but I sure hope it doesn't continue to decline. It's a fantastic hotel with tons of potential if they can do a DEEP cleaning of at least the bathroom of room #308. Maybe not, but I suspect more than our bathroom could...