Holiday Inn Express Washington DC Downtown by IHG — Hotel in Washington

I have always enjoyed my stays at various Holiday Inn Express locations throughout the US….but this location was NOT a pleasant one.

We checked in on Friday the 20th. With the exception of one front desk staff member (I didn’t get her name & didn’t see her again after the day we checked in), the staff was not pleasant. Whether they were a woman or a man. They were not inviting in their energy or their demeanor. When we were checking in there were two women at the front desk. One of the women made a condescending statement because I didn’t hear what she was saying due to me being distracted by something else I was doing at the time. I asked her if she could repeat herself and I didn’t like her response at all. As I said there was only one exception and that was the tall woman at the front desk. She most likely was the manager. She was there at the same time as the other woman and she was pleasant and helpful. She was a very talk woman; that is the only thing I remembered about her. The very talk woman was very helpful but she was the only one out of the entire staff that I found to be helpful and accommodating.

When we were checking out from my first reservation from the day before (the 20th), the woman at the front desk (Chardey or Charday, I don’t know how to spell her name) was there and I explained to her that I was checking out of one room and checking into another. I explained to her that we had two reservations. One for Friday and one for Saturday. I told her that we are supposed to be checking out of a double queen and checking into a one queen size bed room. She said I’ll have to check to see if any is available. She ended up giving me back the same keys that we were given for the first reservation. I said we’re supposed to get a queen size bed. Her response was “uhuh- mmhmm.” No explanation as to what she was doing or the reasoning for why she gave us the same keys back. If you’re going to put me back into the same room why was I still charged for the queen size room? I should have been charged the same amount as the room I originally checked into the day before. I will be calling and speaking to management about refunding me at least $100 from the amount that I was charged for the 2nd reservations.

None of the charging stations in the room work. You can tell that some of them are actually broken.

Our room was never cleaned even though my husband asked the cleaning staff that was right next door to us at the time; to clean. They didn’t; they pretty much ignored him. I don’t know if this particular location has a policy to not clean the rooms until guest have checked out; I don’t know but I never had an issue with cleaning staff not cleaning rooms, whether you have checks out or not. I wish I would have looked at the reviews first before I booked for the weekend because this along with rude staff seems to be the ongoing theme at this Holiday Inn Express. But I’ve never had issues in the past with this hotel franchise & it was close to where we needed to be for our weekend activities so I just assumed the experience.

Corporate needs to take these kind of complaints more seriously and address these issues with the staff and compensate guests. Their attitude sucks and they lack any kind of training on conflict resolution, overall attitude & professionalism and most importantly effective communication. It seems to be everyone working there.

I called management and corporate to request a refund of at least $100 for the issue of still being charged for the king size room; even though we were still put into the same room. Chardey didn’t explain anything about what was happening or what was being done. No explanation from Chardey at all. They refuse to issue even a partial refund.

DON’T STAY HERE! If you want professionalism; DON’T STAY AT...

Customer Service? Not here!

This is by far the worst US Hotel I have ever had the misfortune to stay at.

The Holiday Inn Express Washington DC is a relatively new, modern, and well-appointed hotel, but that’s where all the positives end.

Upon checking into our room all the complementary Shower Soap, Conditioner and shampoo dispensers were empty, so if you hadn’t brought any of you own toiletries, you couldn’t have a wash or shower.

You would have thought that this was an oversite, and that as the hotel claims daily housekeeping, the containers would be refilled the next day, but oh no, they stayed empty for the duration of our stay. In fact, daily housekeeping never seemed to materialise. Our towels disappeared one by one without being replaced, toilet roll ran out on the 2nd day, and the bins were never emptied resulting in having to use plastic bags to put the overflow rubbish into. Likewise, the tea and coffee supplies were never replenished and despite the hotels boast regarding complimentary tea and coffee in the lobby, these supplies would also run out mid afternoon and the coffee flasks either cold or empty. On one day during our stay, there was no water to any of the drinking dispensing machines throughout the building.

I reported the lack of room service to a very abrupt lady on the reception desk, who informed me that room service is provided daily and is a ‘light touch’ service. I would say it was so light as to be non-existent. The receptionist tried to dismiss me without a further ado thinking that her explanation was satisfactory, however I wanted answers that she obviously was not prepared to provide. Her final say was for me to contact the “Subject matter specialist” (Housekeeping manager), who conveniently wasn’t available and bizarrely couldn’t be contacted throughout our stay.

My understanding of the hotel reception is your first port of call with issues, but obviously not at Holiday Inn.

Complimentary breakfast (it’s not complimentary, the cost is built into the room rate), is buffet style and was equally abysmal. Despite arriving in the breakfast area not long after breakfast service commenced, the food supplied was lukewarm and just about cooked. Especially unappetising was the scrambled egg that sat in a pool of water in the bottom of the serving dish. The toaster supplied only toasted one side of the bread and if you queried it, you were told that you were using the toaster wrong. Well, we were in good company as everyone could only get one side of their bread toasted.

Except for 2 younger members of staff who were pleasant and helpful, on the whole staff working at this Holiday Inn, were rude, abrupt, and totally dismissive. The Holiday in Express Washington DC is where customer service has...

This hotel is situated in a busy area with many restaurants and stores in the area so it’s nicely located in downtown. Washington DC.

The rooms are comfortable, and the lobby is spacious with many comfortable chairs in places to work.

In terms of the room, there were several issues.

First and foremost, do not think of using this hotel as a business destination. The room does not have a table, nor does it really have a desk… It has a minimal approximately 8 inch ledge, and that’s it, which is insufficient to work with a computer . There is basically no area to work in while you’re in the room, although the lobby does have several options for working with chairs and desks. But don’t even think of trying to work in your room, especially not with a computer, it will not work. I ended up having to put my computer on the ironing board and sit on my bed to work , which is unacceptable.

The card keys for the rooms have a serious problem. I was spending time at the convention center a few blocks away, and every single day my card failed, and I had to go back down and get a new one. This was an experience that apparently many, many people in the hotel were having because there were always lines trying to get new cards done. They , which is unacceptable.

The card keys for the rooms have a serious problem. I was spending time at the convention center a few blocks away, and every single day my card failed, and I had to go back down and get a new one. This was an experience that apparently many, many people in the hotel we’re having because there were always lines trying to get new cards done. They told us it was something about the convention center that affected the cards , and perhaps that’s true, but I also had my card fail just walking in the area to dinner and coming back without going to the convention center. So something is seriously wrong with the card key access.

There are no signs telling you where the ice machines are, and there is not one on every floor. I had to go all the way down to the lobby to be told it was on the floor above me .

The water pressure in the room, specifically, the bathroom, was great in the shower, but in the sink it was not much more than a trickle.

Overall, the room was comfortable, and I slept well, but with these other issues, I have a hard time recommending the hotel for anything other...