Holiday Inn Express & Suites Wheeling by IHG — Hotel in West Finley Township

I typically stay at the Suburban Extended Stay Hotel across the street where every single employee provides top notch service and makes the 2* hotel feel like a 5* hotel stay.

I decided to stay somewhere "nicer" this time and chose the Holiday Day Inn Express and ended up regretting it.

During check in I was not recognized as a Spire Elite member nor was I given a welcome gift. The front desk agent acted as if I was bothering her merely being at the front desk, I did not feel welcomed at all.

There were no luggage carts in the lobby. When I inquired about luggage carts, the front desk agent replied everyone took them upstairs. She never bothered to get off her butt and go get a cart which is apart of her job and the hospitable thing to do.... A guest of the hotel actually fetched a luggage cart for me.

I later went to wash clothes at the hotel laundry facilities. The washing machines have signs that say "do not overload the washing machines". The washer machines simply do not work correctly. As you can tell by my pictures, the washing machines did not drain completely with a sizable amount of water left in them. You can also see the little bit of clothing I washed and I've used these very same washer machines at many other different places and never had this issue. Had to rinse all my clothes out over a drain so they could dry properly in the dryers.

Also my clothes came out the washing machine with some nasty dirty filmy crap all over it and they certainly did not go in that way. I know this came from the use of oilfield workers and the hotel never bothering to wipe out the washer machines.

The parking lot is poorly designed and poorly lit at night. Particularly at the parking lot entrance, If no vehicle is parked in that space where the curb is, the curb easily blends in with the ground because of low lighting at night so beware, you can easily jump the curb and damage your vehicle. Their definitely should be a orange cone at the end of this curb for safety measures.

The day before check out I asked for a late checkout. I was told 12:00 p.m. is the latest they can do. Being a Spire Elite member does not matter to this hotel. The excuse I was given was housekeeping comes in early... And? The hotel was only a little over 50% occupancy with no huge groups checking in in the upcoming days. Pure laziness from the top down.

Now the good...

This is definitely one of the nicer hotels in the Wheeling area. The lobby is unexpectedly big and luxurious. Very cozy and inviting. Hotel is super clean you can tell they take great pride in it's cleanliness. My room was spacious and clean. Wifi is fast enough to online game on. The fitness room was more than adequate. The pool and hot tub is great to relax in. Breakfast is delicious with a nice variety of food.

If I felt welcomed, this would have been a four star review easily but because I didn't, it is two stars. Going back to the Suburban Extended Stay Hotel where they treat all of their guests like...

The hotel is newly updated. The pool is really big along with a really big hot tub. The area of the hotels location is newer as well with lots of stores and dining/fast food options. You're so close to Ohio and Pennsylvania and that makes it nice. The beds are a bit firm still, but that's as expected due to them being so new they're just not broken in yet. You'll typically find something about the room when you first arrive such as one time the shower curtain not being long enough to cover the area to take a shower, once an empty pop bottle under the chair, sometimes they don't vacuum behind or under the trash can so when you goto change your trash during your stay you'll notice it, once they didn't clean the floor under the bathroom counter at all, sometimes they don't clean under the cushions for the pullout couch, but for the most part the rooms are clean. The bedding is always clean I've never had an issue there. I carry my own cleaning stuff and get what's missed upon my arrival. Hopefully they will step it up a notch with the cleaning to keep these rooms feeling new and updated. If not unfortunately I feel as though they will go down hill over time. I've NEVER seen not one kind of bug and I love that! I've called down for service before and never received the service and had to go search out housekeeping on my own. On two different occasions I've had staff try to come into our room even with the blue do not disturb sign in the keycard holder, but luckily the latch was locked and it stopped the door so they closed it back. Depending on the room you may have to constantly get your keycards reactivated even if you just leave it laying on the counter and never touch it. We've went up and down the elevator 3 times in a row before. The staff unfortunately isn't as friendly as other Holiday Inns, besides the older gentleman that works the breakfast area. I would have to say the breakfast workers are the best and friendliest workers at this particular location and they do a great job with the food and service. The breakfast area is also very clean. The outside area stays clean and always feels safe. We have experienced other privacy issues with the hotel remodeling, such as workers directly outside of our actual window on the second floor without being told to expect it so it became a serious invasion of my privacy at one point. If you're a valued IHG member you wont feel any different at this location they don't recognize their IHG members. I think a refresher training course with staff including management could take this location to its highest potential because it is a very nice hotel. My review is very detailed because I know a lot of people put a lot of thought into their hotel choices and I have a lot of experience at this location. I do recommend this location, but these are some possible things you may encounter....

First Anita the manager is very rude I had the back door cracked for 2 minutes while my husband looked outside at the patio area, she came down a guns a blazing talking to me like a child, do not Crack that door. Unprofessional and unnecessary she needs to learn how to speak to her customers. Then I see both of the charges for my 2 rooms go thru this morning which I have never seen with a 20% charge. I travel a lot I always book a room and then at check in they charge your card plus they will add for incidentals. But they charged me before I even checked in I to hotel and was told they need a physical credit card just to put on file but nothing would be charged. A few hours later I get an alert from my bank I was charged 2 more times.. so now I have 4 charges for over $230 pending I asked the desk and was told they aren't sure why that happened. This makes no sense if charges went thru even before I came why in the hell would more charges be able to be added. Now I have over $800 pending and 6 hours away from home. I only leave a little bit of money in that account and didn't bring any more money. What a disaster I will be calling Monday for a full refund I had to borrow money from another parent since we were traveling for sports to eat and make sure I had enough gas money to get back home.... I'm very disgusted with this hotel and the service. This is ridiculous, I contacted the General Manager Heath who was did not care he was not interested in hearing anything I had to stay. He said "you did have a hotel to stay in". Never apologized didnt want to hear a word the customer had to say at all, RUDE. I called the customer care filed complaint in turn they turned the table on me and I said I was upset because we couldnt check in early. that is far from the truth what does that have to do with the money not one thing they are dishonest and do not want to deal with their customers at all, I was told by customer care that Heath the GM no longer want to speak to me, these calls are recorded. I got a message on messenger stating that I was given the opportunity and declined, they continue to make up lies instead of just listening to the customer and understanding what the problem was but they DO NOT CARE. I would never stay in an IHG property we travel a lot and would never go back to these properties. Customer care isnt even located in the US then I called the hotel to get the owners name and they wont provide it to you instead they turn this situation around and make up stories. SAD that a customer is treated this way we were so inconvenienced and so far from home one would think that a GM of a hotel would care but HEATH does not. I wrote a review on the website and received and email that it did not meet their standards, I...