Holiday Inn Express & Suites Wichita Airport by IHG — Hotel in Wichita

I have stayed in this hotel many times. I grew up in Wichita and usually stay with friends when I am in town. I like to return my rental car the night before my early flight, stay near the airport, then fly out early the next morning.

This means I am dependent on the hotel airport shuttle to get me back to the hotel after dropping off my rental car, then getting me to the airport the next morning. I phoned the hotel, as instructed, once I was done with the rental car counter, and had a LONG wait in the hot sun for the shuttle. Once the shuttle arrived, I was amazed at the discourtesy of the shuttle driver. He did not budge from his drivers seat. I had to muscle open the heavy sliding door myself, and get myself and my purse in the shuttle, then close the heavy sliding door. Not one bit of help from the driver.

We arrived at the hotel and, again, he stayed in the drivers seat. I again had to struggle to get the heavy door open, then somehow get myself and my purse out of the shuttle. It is a long step down, and I lost my step and I fell. Only then did the driver get out of his seat, saying "Are you OK?". No I was not OK, as I had just fallen several feet onto concrete. I am a woman in my 60s and not as strong and agile as I used to be.

I told the front desk personnel about the accident and they apologized and offered me hotel points as compensation. What an insult. I should have been comped for the entire stay.

I went up to my room, cooled down a bit, then decided to go back downstairs and ask the desk to order a cab for me the next morning, paid for by the hotel. They resisted, telling me that the morning shuttle driver would not be as rude and lazy as the afternoon shuttle driver. I insisted on the cab. During this conversation, I could see the shuttle driver behind the desk. He was trying to avoid me, and did not speak one word of apology to me.

The cab was there, as promised, the next morning and I was happy to leave.

Next time I visit Wichita, I will have to think long and hard about returning to this property. I usually like staying in a Holiday Inn Express and that brand is usually my preferred brand no matter where I am. However, in all my years of travel, I have never seen such a rude and lazy...

This is the 4th time I've stayed at this hotel. Alas, I think it's the final one.

The good is that the hotel is well located for doing anything you need to in the Wichita area. The room is very clean and the sound proofing was excellent. Considering it is literally off the runway for Eisenhower Airport, this is not a small concern.

Now for the bad.

-Clearly there have been security issues in the past. The front doors of the hotel are hard locked from 10 PM to 10 AM every day. Read: If you forget something in your car, go to get it, and forget your key, you'd best hope that someone is at the front desk. Got to watch a guest ringing the door bell at 8 AM because the desk clerk was legitimately helping another customer. If there is a safety threat that requires the front door to be locked for 12 hours, I certainly wouldn't want to be hoping someone could let me in.

-In the elevator and multiple places on the property there were bold signs reminding you that you needed to conceal your valuables and lock up your car. Furthermore, the hotel emphasized that it was not responsible for lost and stolen goods multiple places.

-I imagine part of this issue was due to the heavy transient / homeless traffic around the hotel. That's not much the property can do, but I'm just noting it.

-The final problem was that as I was checking out, there was a fire alarm. Horn sounded twice, than was immediately cut off. Either the hotel staff turned it off (the control panel was open with someone holding a button when I got to the front desk) or the system malfunctioned. Either way, unless a superhero works at the front desk there wasn't enough time to have checked for a fire before it was silenced. As a former safety inspector in my last job and someone who has first hand suffered from lazy emergency decisions, this gave me some serious qualms. It's never an actual fire until it is, and the staff's lackadaisical response ("Are you going to unlock the front door?" "No, we don't do that until 10...") definitely makes me hope there never is an...

My husband and I have always stayed at this hotel when coming to the city. One we liked the easy location and it was close to all the things we liked to do, including the close proximity to the airport for the frequent trips we would take. However; now with a family, our situation has changed a bit. We need more room, which even with the sweet we had it was not enough. The overall upkeep of the room and the cleaning staff was horrible. You can just tell the room wasn't as clean as I've seen in the past, my husband and I were always having to ask for our tolietries to be replaced. We were even left a nite by house keeping that she specifically left extra trash bags for us. For my family that was by far the rudest thing that happened. That is why we requested house keeping daily. We're on vacation for a reason it's not our job to take out trash and replace bags!!! We as a family to care of our personal belongings as for the rest that is housekeeping a job. Also the TV on the bedroom side of the sweet never worked our entire stay!! We made it work for the amountbifvtime we were in the room but most days we were out the entire day. Lastly the security of the hotel was horrible, we were entering through the side door on the north side of the hotel and we got our key out and the door would not accept our key so my husband thought well maybe it's open already so he opened the door just like any other door and it was unlocked we never had to use our key on the north side our entire stay!!! That's horrible anybody could of just walked in. How safe is that? So overall a hotel once keep so clean and secure, a hotel I would've have recommended to anybody is now deteriorating. We will definetlt be staying at a different location our next trip...