Holiday Inn
reviews and complaints

On April 29 2011 I made a reservation by phone at Holiday Inn Exp. P.S.L. for June 2 and June 3 (confo # LK18273) . I was told they had to have a credit card # to hold the room. Unexpectedly my credit card was charged for the full amount that same day.
On May 30 I called to cancel my June 2 and 3 reservation due to a death in the family. I was told by an agent at the hotel that I couldn't cancel, that the reservation was pre-paid, and there was no refund. I said I was not made aware of a no refund on the reservation by the agent. They said if I had looked on the Internet I would have seen it was a no-refund rate I was quoted, and refused to refund my money.

I stayed at this hotel last weekend, but needed to cancel the last 11 days of a 13-day stay, because I work for the military and there were circumstances beyond my control. I let the front desk know this when I checked in, which was more than 48 hours before the first night I needed to cancel. The manager refused to do anything to resolve this, even though she told a Holiday Inn Express guest relations that she would at least split the bill into two bills. I was willing to compromise by agreeing to stay the additional nights on a second trip to the area, but when I checked out, she refused to do so, and I was given a $1800 bill. I called Holiday Inn Express guest relations, who was supposed to call me back within 48 hours, and 96 hours later, I'm still waiting on that call. Priority Club was no help, so I've cancelled my platinum membership and have reported both to the Better Business Bureau.

I am an employee of this hotel and witness deceptive practices of non-payment of city and state taxes; the owners have several banking accounts and in order to pay their employees, they have to move money around to pay hotel bills and payroll; payroll checks bounce often so they are now paying employees in cash...leads me to believe no payroll taxes or social security taxes are being taken out of our checks which is something the IRS and State of Texas Wage & Hour Board would be interested in checking out. The owners curse and yell at their employees in front of hotel guests and fired two bartendars during the middle of your shift. They offer no benefits even after they said they did in the offer letter. The hotel was cheaply built to the point that you can hear your neighbor using the bathroom, snoring or just talking on the phone. The owners are indian and on one occassion, I witness one spat in a front desk clerk's face; they have no respect for their employees and treat them as servants rather than employees. Most the housekeepers are illegal and the owner uses them to clean his friends and personal residences while they are on the clock and they are scared to say anything for being afraid of being fired. This hotel has a history of the reoccuring problems and to fight all the unemployment claims of past employees, they lie and create scenarios of theft in order to sway the judgement in their favor. The owners throw family parties in the ballroom and will pull liquor out of the bar to use for personal use without paying for it and would get so drunk that they would forget how many bottles were actually pulled; they in turn, accuse the bartendars of stealing when it was the owners and their family stealing from themselves. The interns coming from Taiwan and El Salvador to learn the hospitality business are porrly treated and the owner charges them for their rooms, yet the rooms are in the hotel system as "comp" which means the hotel is collecting revenue and not paying occupancy taxes on those rooms! During sellout times, the owner has the interns to move into out-of-order rooms which have no running water or carpet, while still charging them for the room. The owner uses racial slurs when conversing about minority employees. The number one account for this hotel is comp because the owner uses these rooms for friends, family and business men as sex rooms for personal use. The owner would run up large lines of credit with vendors (Sysco, US Foods, Goody Goody, etc) and then not pay the invoice to the point that they are on a cash and carry. This forces them to go out and buy liquor from the store which is no huge violation of TABC laws. Check out the City of Frisco's Health Department inspection reports. This is a franchise hotel...beware!

I had very unpleasant experience with Holiday inn express customer service. I made reservation to stay one night on April 4th two and half weeks in advance through their website. When I looked up their rate by clicking "show Price" at TripAdviser, it shows the price by each travel websites and cancellation policies are mixed. It happened to me that I read one of the website stated the cancellation is free prior 48 hours (read www.venere.com cancellation policy) and I was convinced it should be all the same and I made reservation. However, when I called up and want to cancel the reservation prior one week and the hotel customer rep refused to make any change and told me you can cancel it and the cancellation fee will one night charge+tax. No matter how I explained to him and it is useless. After 10 minutes talk, he refused my questions and not willing to help me at all. I decided to call customer relationship at their head quarter to complaint about their cancellation policy and customer service. It was the same and no one willing to listen to me or willing to help me even I escalated to supervise Amanda and Michelle Mitchell. Operations Manager Customer Care at IHG. I did not get any one willing to listen my complaint about their cancellation policy. This company DOES NOT CARE ABOUT CUSTOMER! Read their fine print from their web site and don't just read the cancellation policy from other travel service web sites. You will be trapped and they will charge you cancellation fee as much as one night room price your booked. Never expect them to refund your money once you paid. They don't spit out your money not matter what your situation is. They could do much better job to list room price and cancellation fee or cancellation insurance etc. I will never stay any of their hotel because their cancellation policy is the same.

My family and I were staying at the Holiday Inn Express, Searcy, AR, I entered the hotel through the pool area into the lobby. After stepping off the mat I slipped and fell, hitting my body on the breakfast bar as I went. Mgmt said I could go to my own doctor at home since I was in town briefly to see my terminally ill father. They also said the incident would be on their security cameras. Now, the bills haven't been honored and their insurance company is saying the "pictures" show caution signs were up (these went up after I fell) and no one seems to know where the security footage is. Reviewing other people's altercations with Holiday Inn, STAY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

A very bad phone conversation just occurred with me and a foreign representative trying to pass themself off as an American named Ann.
Well, "Ann" believed that Boston was in Texas, that was my first hint that my complaint was not going to go far. As for being transferred to a representative in the USA, that wasn't going to happen. My complaint stemmed from the bait and switch rewards program that Holiday Inn has. My eleven days spent at the hotel chain were not going to count because it was booked through a third party process.This was not at all revealed on any of the sign up page or where any normal individual would see this. Not till you went to terms and agreements in fine print and buried in three pages of text do you find this. Normal booking rates were twice the amount that a third party would give, but I did select Holiday Inn as my preferred choice, thinking that I was part of a rewards program. Please don't sign up for this program unless you would like to pay top rate price to earn a free night down the road. I am disappointed that this occurred, I would have liked Holiday Inn to be my first choice when booking.

I stayed at the holiday inn express (Durham NH) on Janurary 1st. 2011. From the beginning I could tell the professionalism was inadequate. They told me over the phone when I was asking for vacancy that I could pay with cash. That wasn't the case. When I arrived the man at the front desk said we needed to put a card down so they would have it on file. I gave him mine and asked is it going to get charged and he said no you will pay in the morning. He then had me sign a non smoking agreement. The next morning I went to check out and the lady at the front desk had already charged my card for the room and handed me the bill. A few days went by and i noticed the charge was still pending. A full week has gone by and I checked my bank balance and they had charged for twice. One for the room 141.65 and one for smoking in the room 150.. The fact is I never once did smoke in the room. I spoke with the general manager and she told me that the room smelt like smoke and that she had pictures. When i asked what the pictures showed all she said was "residue" I then asked where the residue was and she explained that "it doesnt really matter where it was." I have put a claim in with my bank because One i didnt smoke in the room two they never even called me to tell me that i was being charged with this fee before hand and three I believe they charged me twice for the room and are just trying to cover up for their mistake.

Hi - i'm a Gold Priority Club member from the Hilton HHonors Diamond promotion, i've booked two IHG properties since this and i've been massively let down both instances

1/ Stayed at the Crowne Plaza Venice - hotel room was in a state, pieces from the roof paint falling on face for the first two nights (i didn't realise it until i saw all these white flecks and paint all over the floor and glanced up to the ceiling, jogger not operating/health risk - it was snapped in two - hotel said they'd fixed, never did in the 5 days i was there, bathroom shower full of mildew, toilet seat falling off not repaired, TV channels not operating properly, soiling over all the walls in the upper ceiling in the room. I contacted IHG about this and they offered nothing in return, yes I was on the 2c error rate, but how can a hotel get away with this? Also my initial room was not what I had booked either. They then claimed the room was unavailable.

2/ Booked the Holiday Inn Male for December, booked on the 8 November, public knowledge which i'm sure IHG would have known that this hotel was leaving and going to Shangri La Group (Traders Hotel) on a press release issued 4 November. I didn't know this upon booking. IHG charged me for a cash + points award of $60 + 5, 000 points. The conditions of the booking said to the effect that consideration had been paid. In my eyes this is a valid binding contract, in fact my card has been charged, albeit for the points I still feel my clear expectation in the booking process was I was booking this hotel. Get an email from a reservation person at the Holiday Inn Male, saying they are no longer from 22 November part of IHG and they are CANCELLING my reservation and for me to rebook. I can't see how they can do this, but I decided to call the reservation line at IHG, escalations were unhelpful and just suggested I emailed them. I now have 10, 000 IHG points which I didn't want, no reservation even though I had made a valid booking and the hotel trying to extort me to pay a small fortune to stay there. I just think this is:

a) really poor tier member customer service from IHG, all the mean time pay 10p a minute for the privilege of being able to speak to them. In fact it's shocking they can treat members so badly. I get great service from the hilton diamond desk, light years apart.

b) that the IHG group can still sell the hotel branded as theirs (it's still even bookable on their site with no notice that it is no longer a holiday inn property from 22 November).

I'm just really annoyed with IHG Priority Club, it has to be the worst loyalty program and customer service i've ever experienced. Shocking.

Am I just huffing and puffing or do u think it's a little crazy?

This concerns fraudulent charges for two nights - two rooms on my visa account that the Holiday Inn Express Ohio State University Area Hotel added to my account without authorization. I did not stay at this hotel from July 31st to August the 2nd 2010. My confirmation number was for August the 13th to August the 15th and was made online. I made several attempts to have the hotel correct the billing and the Guest Service Manager, Karinn Knight, refused to remove the $567.41 fraudulent charge that they hotel added on to my account.

This letter accompied the return of the T-shirts presented to my wife and me.

My wife and I recently attended an International Convention held in San Antonio over the 4th of July weekend. As you recall, we had reservations at the Holiday Inn Express in down town San Antonio, reservations we made in early 2010. You called us approximately two weeks prior to the event informing us, there had been a computer problem and our reservation information lost, and we would have to relocate because the convention had over booked your down town location. You obtained accommodation for us at a facility near the airport. It apparently was not an issue that we had reservations at the Holiday Inn Express for the same time period as the convention. I selected your hotel based on past good experiences and its location to the convention facilities. I am disabled and the relocation to the other facility presented problems during my stay.

When we checked into the other facility, we were presented with two Holiday Inn Express T-shirts that had printed across the front, I spent the night in jail. I'm not sure what your organization was trying to do, if it was an attempt to placate my disappointment with your organization, it woefully missed the mark. Since October of 2009 I have stayed in Holiday Inn facilities twice and had anticipated staying for the reservations I had for San Antonio. Looking at my bills for these stays it would have totaled approximately $1600 dollars. I have a saying when I receive bad service with no reasonable explanation, Apparently they don't want my money, I bet someone else will.

I have learned that I should never attack the messenger, but the message sometimes deserves an attack. That is my intent here to attack the message. The message that I received was that our welcome at the Holiday Inn was not being tendered and that is was in the best interest of Holiday Inn to bow to the needs of a convention first and not honor prior reservations to an everyday customer as me. It also raises a point about why anyone would make reservations if the reservations are not going to be honored.

In this situation, I believe it would have been better had Holiday Inn left well enough alone or thought of a better solution to at least make an attempt at the possibility of having us for customers at a later date. We have yet to receive a satisfactory explanation as to why we were relocated (other than the convention over booked your location) despite having early reservations not made through the convention. We are still looking forward to that explanation. There certainly could have been a better attempt at ensuring our return to another Holiday Inn location other than two Holiday Inn Express T-shirts advertising your company and saying I SPENT THE NIGHT IN JAIL! Oops, by the way they were the wrong size shirts anyway. In returning these shirts, I hope you can give them to a satisfied customer because I WASN'T!

I called in a reservation on 2/5/10 for 2/6/10 with my debit card. I stayed the night, and checked out on 2/7/10. When i checked my account online it showed they charged me twice on two seperate days, so i called back and they told me it was only taken once. I said i will wait for my statement from the bank and if it was still there i would call back. Well, it was and i did. They told me to fax the bank statement and still proceeded to tell me it was only charged once and that i should talk to my bank. So i went to Bank of America and got more documents from them saying i had been charged twice. They STILL said it was only taken once and they were sorry but i have to talk to the card company.I then called the bank again where they told me that the card company cant take a charge off my card if the another company does not request a payment. So here i am 3/3/10 still 100 dollars short in my account and no one is even TRYING to make it right. I've called several times and she hasn't once called me back. The only people i have talked to are associates. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could get in contact with me. My name is Susan Welsh, my cell is [protected], and my work phone is [protected]. Thank you for your time

On Sunday 27 December, 2009 we paid, in cash, the morning desk clerk $100.13 for our stay. The desk clerk informed us the computer was down and we would have to return for our reciept. Due to illness we did not on that day. The next day, Monday 28 December, 2009 when we returned to pay for that day, the morning desk clerk, the same individual, told us we did not have to pay and not to bother him since he was busy, he would tell us when a payment was due. On Friday 1 January, 2010 on his way home he called and told us we had to pay $ 700., this included the bill for Sunday the 27 th.. We informed him we paid the bill, he said we did not, we then informed him we'd be in contact with the manager.
On Monday 4 January, 2010 we contacted the assistant manager and manager. They showed us the video tape from the day in question, the tape went at a very fast speed and showed us at the front desk and the clerk with his cash draw opened. The mamager then told us to leave the hotel at once, this was 12:45 pm.. The reason was we were saying the morning desk clerk stole the money, which we did not say at all, we were just questioning where the money went. As we were packing the police came and told us to leave, which we informed them we were. They waited until we drove off the property.
Attempts to resolve this problem with Holiday Inn customer service and the hotel have not accomplished anything. The manager would not even given us the owners phone number! It comes down to a case of we said-he said.
We would recommend a stay in a cardboard box then stay at Hoilday Inn, Newport News VA.. It will save you a headache and needless embarssment. A sign should read over the door-" Abandon all hope all ye who enter here."

I recently made an online reservation with Holiday Inn Express. Their website clearly states that "a deposit for the entire stay" will be billed upon making the reservation.

Since the definition of "deposit" in this situation is this: "down payment: a partial payment made at the time of purchase; the balance to be paid later, " of course I assumed that Holiday Inn knew what the word "deposit " actually means and that therefore they would be taking a "down payment, " or percentage of the total charge.

I assumed that their web designer and/or corporate office has a dictionary if they don't know what "deposit" means.

Apparently they don't know, and don't have a dictionary. Holiday Inn has decided to change the dictionary meaning of the word "deposit" to mean, "the entire fee." I called Holiday Inn's 800 number to check on how much they had charged my card, and was told that it was the whole amount.

The woman I spoke to thought that saying "for the entire stay" somehow meant not a percentage for each night reserved, but "the entire fee."

There is no point discussing word definitions with someone who hasn't any power over corporate policy in the first place, but I find it exceedingly annoying to have to assume--rightly in this case--that the people in charge of a large corporation don't actually know the English language well enough to write policy.

By far, the worst Holiday Inn in the state of Illinois is in Rockfalls, Illinois. Its owned by a bank and the name Holiday Inn is franchised. Why Holiday Inn doesnt pull there name is in question? they have failed several inspections and the hotel itself is in dire need of serious building repair. The manager is no more a manager than I am an engineer. She has the hotel group, who is in charge of the hotel now, snowed with lies. Little do they know what kind of person she really is. They would know if they only talked to the poor employees. An example of her professionalism, when the previous owners went bankrupt and left the state, she took the lobby tv 52 inch to her house and later sold it to a certain person. She hired her own boyfriend who broke more things than he fixed, and who knows how much money she has paid him since she is also running the accounting books, BOY, if that hotel group who is in charge only knew her scams, but they are far away in Chicago and come to Rockfalls once in awhile...wonder if the bank knows what that Hotel group is doing? The whole situation there is unbelievable. ### happens right...and what goes around comes around...but the people have a right to know about this hotel before they decide to give their hard earned money to them for a good nights sleep..NOT!, or decide to enter the unsafe pool...NOT! or before some idiot decides to buy this rundown roofless hotel from the bank owner...NOT! People beware and be careful in this Holiday Inn in Rockfalls, Illinois next to Highway 88.