Holiday Inn Express & Suites Ogden by IHG — Hotel in West Haven

I'd like to start out by saying that every staff member that I interacted with during my stay here was professional, friendly, and very accommodating to my needs as a guest with disabilities. Unfortunately, that's all that I can say good about this hotel. To be fair, the hotel has not had a remodel since it was built, and is now in the beginning stages of a major renovation. Still, it went far too long before this was considered. My ground floor room with roll-in shower (Thank You, Maggie!) had several issues, starting with a loose toilet seat that kept wanting to slide off one side or the other. As is typical of mid-priced and below hotel chairs these days, the arms on mine were so wobbly I didn't dare use them for getting up, and whatever cushioning the seat may have once had, it has long since given up. My initial view of the roll-in shower was that it would be a blessing ( I have a disability that makes stepping in/out of a tub a very firm no-go, even with handrails), then I turned on the water. The showerhead, that may have had a good spray pattern eons ago now acted like it was doing an impression of someone spraying a crowd with champagne. Then the pipes started violently hammering as I tried adjusting the temperature. The only way to stop the hammer was to set it to only cold or only hot, nothing between those extremes. I settled for hot and then looked for the soap dish or shelf to put the bar of soap I prefer to use on, and my small bottle of dandruff shampoo. Nope, no shelf or soap dish anywhere in the entire shower, indeed in the whole bathroom, other than the top of the vanity. I've travelled quite a bit in my life, for pleasure, for work, and in the military, on 5 of the 7 continents, I cannot for the life of me ever recall a hotel shower with no place for a bar of soap. I could understand if there were evidence of one having been removed or broken off but there wasn't. It's as if whoever made and installed this shower had no actual experience in bathing in one. Very weird. The rest of the room was just as quirky as the shower. There's a thermostat on the wall that is set to 71 F and nothing you do will change any of the settings on it. Then I found that it's not connected to the room window split unit, which has its own controls. The desk is a glass-topped steel table, with the ubiquitous hotel coffeemaker placed square in the center, making it difficult to use with a laptop and full-sized keyboard. (I hate laptop keyboards) I considered stacking it on top of the microwave that was perched on the mini-fridge but thought it best not to put something guests would be pouring water into on top of a powered appliance. Perhaps I'll stop here again in the future, after the remodel is completed, to update this review. But for now, it is what it is, and what it is is a mediocre...

Be aware when staying here. Housekeeping are thieves, and management doesn’t do anything about it. I left my shoes in the room and immediately realized it upon check out as we were getting on the road so I called the front desk to let them know. I let them know we were headed to an event, but would be back after to pick up my shoes. When I called, the night crew said there weren’t anything in the lost and found where housekeeping normally keeps things that were left. She advised I call in the morning when housekeeping would be there because they probably locked it up for safe keeping. I called the next day and head of housekeeping wouldn’t even speak to me. All they would communicate to the front desk was that “there was nothing” left. And that’s all they could tell me. They took my number and told me they’d have the GM call me back. It’s been almost 3 weeks and nothing. So I called IHG (corporate) and tried to at least find out the General Managers name as they should know if they have someone on their staff stealing, because if they are stealing from customers there no doubt they could be stealing from the company. I was never given the name to the GM, all IHG would do is talk to the hotel which told them the same thing. Again it’s been 3 weeks and although they have all my information, I was never contacted or communicated with. We will NEVER stay at this hotel again. I’ve stayed at countless hotels around the country and even worked for Marriott and NEVER have I EVER had an experience like this. I’ve always had my things returned and have seen people I’ve worked with fired for taking a customers belongings. I’ve waited to leave this review. But feel I’ve given adequate time to get it resolved. I mainly am upset there has been no acknowledgement, and no concern for my personal property. A “sorry we will investigate” would even have sufficed. But hearing nothing makes me feel like nobody’s belongings are safe here and others...

We stayed at Ogden both ways on our trip. Did not see on first visit that it was pet friendly, as we need a no pet policy (except service). First time out everything was fine. Return trip; headed to our room after checking in only to hear a dog howling and howling. Even the cleaning staff was looking around. I went back to the front desk where Nancy was in attendance. I explained that a dog was howling away. I stated that I did not know it was pet friendly and that my profile said no pets. She looked at profile and I guess something was changed (by me?) as it did not have "allergy free" as I had spoken to Corp. Office prior to our trip. We stayed in several Holiday Inn Express throughout our trips WA/Idaho/Utah/Colo/Kansas/Texas. So the entire trip I guess we were lucky with a 12 year old who suffers allegries. Anyway Nancy immediately said no problem and moved us up to the 3rd floor - which we did not know this would also prevent room with service pets (I hope that info was correct for future trips). She was on the ball and acted quickly. At the same time another guest was checking in and listening to the conversation. As I went back up to the second floor to get our things out of the room that same guest was standing in the hallway near the howling dog. She said her husband was down getting another room. Another trip by this room 10-15 minutes later Nancy was there and I believe attempting to solve this issue. I would like to commend her on her quick actions to solve a great issue. Otherwise everything was by the standards of Holiday Inn Express. Ada from the morning breakfast was a pleasure to talk and visit. Very helpful as we were about 15-20 minutes earlier the next morning that when they opened. All and all a good stay. No problems but will have to find another hotel in that area next time as we stay in No Pet hotels only due to the situation of...