I like Holiday Inn Express. It’s actually one of my favorite brands because it gives me all the things we typically look for in a hotel – free breakfast (cinnamon rolls!), adjoining rooms, no parking charges, etc.
(SEE ALSO: 3 reasons “budget” hotels DESTROY nice ones)
One of my most memorable hotel customer service experiences was at a Holiday Inn Express, with an amazing breakfast attendant. But this trip was memorable…. for the wrong reasons. My wife and son were having a travel “date” and they decided to head up to COSI in Columbus. They drove up on Friday night and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Grove City, just south of Columbus.
The experience was not great, so I wrote a complaint letter, which I thought I’d share here. I tried to learn from the experiences that Sam from Milenomics shared at Family Travel for Real Life – be specific with what you mention, and ask for specific recompense.
Complaint Letter to the Holiday Inn Express Grove City
I spent a special one on one weekend with my son last weekend, and we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Grove City, Ohio. Unfortunately, there were a number of problems during my one night stay.
1) I was not offered my 500 welcome points as a Platinum member
2) At night, there were a number of loud guests. Unfortunately it was not clear where the noise was coming from.
3) Breakfast is normally something I enjoy at HI Express (cinnamon rolls!) Unfortunately, although we were out at breakfast by 7:30 (breakfast starts at 6), there were no eggs, no cinnamon rolls, no forks and the pancake machine was empty. Apparently, there was a baseball team staying in the hotel so they were up early and must have cleaned everything out.
We got muffins and waited for someone to restock. I saw no one for a pretty long time. Especially considering it was nearly 8 on a Saturday. Finally an older gentleman shuffled out who I guess was working alone and then proceeded to slowly restock the utensils. Finally was we were getting ready to go back to the room he put out some cinnamon rolls. I was not impressed.
4) Then, at 9 a.m., housekeeping just walked in on us, even though I had the sign on the door that said quiet please. She said she was just checking to see if we were still here. This seemed strange since I would think hotel staff would know that we had not checked out already.
I did mention these problems to the front desk as I checked out, and the clerk apologized but didn’t offer anything. I would like (at least) a refund of the 15,000 points that I used for this stay, as the experience was not acceptable (and, thankfully, not consistent with my typically positive experiences at Holiday Inn Express stays with my family)
The aftermath
I am quite sure that there are people that are going to get on my case about “whining”, so if you feel that it should have not been mentioned or handled in a different way, I’m curious to hear how you’d have done it. It is my belief that what I’m paying for (in points) is a good night’s sleep and a good breakfast, and I feel like we didn’t receive either of those in this stay, so it should be addressed with hotel management.
UPDATE: Holiday Inn Express responds to my complaint letter – here’s why they’re wrong
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
I don’t consider you “whining.” You paid for certain expectations (even if you’re paying in points, they still have value to it). Those expectations were not met. You have a right to complain. At the same time, the hotel as a right to do nothing. But that doesn’t stop you, or at least shouldn’t stop you/anyone else this happens to, to letting people know what happened.
While I personally would never tell a hotel that I demand, or expect, X amount back. I do hope they would give me something as way of apology (as long as I am not abusing this). But if they choose not to, that’s fine, I just won’t support their business anymore.
had a similar stay in Bakersfield ca at a new holiday inn. breakfast was out of most items at 7:45 /the hotel was sold out and management was poor in planning for all those people. no ice machine on 3&4th floor,had to wait 45 min: trying to get my room/2 other people with same room were checked in after I was told to wait.The A/C drain dumped on floor of dining area/water every were but no one noticed/just had a sign up wet floor.
I don’t think this is whining. It takes a lot to become a Platinum member (#1). And (#2) regardless of whether you’re paying for a stay with points or dollars, you’re still a paying customer. Just as housekeeping should know whether you checked in or out already, so should the breakfast crew know the hotel occupancy,and have proactively prepared accordingly (I’m sure the athletes had a ‘block’ of rooms, and athletes are big eaters). The request was not unreasonable and well within the rights of a loyal customer. My two cents.
So in November, you wrote about why you hate Holiday Inns, does Holiday Inn Express not fall into this category? Here you say Express is one of your favorite brands. ??
Correct – generally speaking, I do NOT like Holiday Inns, but I do like Holiday Inn Expresses – they’re 2 separate brands. The big thing I don’t like about Holiday Inns is that their breakfast is usually in a restaurant and not included
Ah OK, thought they may be two separate brands, but wasn’t sure. Thanks
I work as a front desk agent and I take offense to this letter of complaint. It’s all about perspective and communication. It is my job to make sure everyone is having a great stay whether that person is a platinum member or someone who booked on priceline. I do try to recognize when someone is platinum or spire elite, as they are on the road most of the year. When things are not communicated to me, I have no way of fixing them. While it’s a little unusual that the breakfast took 30 minutes to come out….maybe the hotel is understaffed for an unforeseeable reason and someone has to scramble to get breakfast ready (pun intended). The biggest issue I have with your gripe is the lack of communication. The fact that you expect compensation, yet didn’t even give the staff an opportunity to correct the issues as they arose makes you come across as a whiny, passive-aggressive person who expects to be treated like royalty by someone who is paid a meager hourly wage to essentially be a punching bag at times. Please try looking at it from an operations perspective when you have complaints. Yes, these things that happened to you are frustrating, but how is the staff supposed to fix it if they aren’t told about anything wrong until checkout when it is too late? Also, if the issue is that the hotel is understaffed, the front desk agent probably has little to no power to do anything about it and it’s likely due to negligent management. Here’s a tip: instead of being angry with the hourly wage workers, find out the name of the management company who runs that particular franchise and complain to them as they are responsible for the operation of the hotel. If you need help finding this information, please let me know and I will try to help.
I am currently staying at a Holiday inn express my emails to management request to speak with management and have all fell on deaf ears. Anytime I try to voice, a complaint, or a concern immediately management negates anything that comes out of my mouth. I have noticed things that I had used earlier that morning are no longer in my room and I am being told I’m crazy, this place has been nothing but a money pit for me. Every time I leave staff comes into my room whether the sign is up or not I was told the do not disturb sign will not be honored when I checked in very strange situation and don’t know what to do about it , however the fact that I have been hemorrhaging money since I got here and constantly buying the same products over and over and over again the last few weeks because as soon as I leave and come back, they’re missing is beyond me all I asked for was for an apology and I’m not getting that. I understand you guys take no liability for anything that happens here however, if I were to destroy anything in the room I would be liable for that I don’t understand how it’s so one-sided.
Where do I go to get resolution? After my horrific experience with the assistant manager now I am livid and now I expect some sort of restitution.
>>>This seemed strange since I would think hotel staff would know that we had not checked out already.<<<
That;s the one sentence I disagree with. I've had this talk with hotel cleaning staff, and their problem is that a lot guests leave w/o checking out. So the cleaning staff is standing around until checkout, does not know which rooms are empty, then faces a mountain of rooms to clean.
However, that is no excuse for disregarding a DnD sign, but it's happened to me too.
Besides that I agree with you. One of my pet peeves is breakfast staff that waits until the food runs out to prepare more.
Hmm I wondered about that – thanks for adding your 2c!
500 points in a HI express? In the uk as a spire member I only get 400 in expresses. And no cinnamon rolls! What’s going on!
I once had an argument with a premier inn regarding room cleaning – if booked a 3 night stay to cover an exhibition in Aberdeen, but after night one took a flight to Shetland isles overnight. Came back afternoon of day 2 to find the tv on and bed unmade!
Excuse was that housekeeping heard to on so didn’t enter room. Normally wait 48 hours after no contCt before entering room.
I could be dead and mouldy by then!
Edit. 300 points in uk at HI express
You call down and tell them that guests are being loud. Then in the morning when there was no breakfast, you tell whoever was at the front desk that there isn’t any food. That staff member would have either delegated the work to the right person or did it themselves, (assuming they have half a brain). Then when you contact HI for compensation, you document what you did to rectify the situation and what the staff did to rectify it as well. Take down any staff members’ names as proof. Then when you submit your complaint, it not only doesn’t sound like simple whining, but as a Plat member, you will be taken more seriously especially with details such as what and who was involved.
You’re being petty and spoiled. It was a free stay for cryin out loud and you weren’t the only one in the hotel. GEEZ!
Yes! I knew we’d have some angry commenters! I dunno, I think 30 minutes without any of the main breakfast dishes is a little much…
And while I used points so didn’t pay any cash, as one of the other commenters pointed out, that doesn’t make it “free”
“It takes a lot to become a Platinum member”
You mean…like getting a credit card that awards a status based on signing up for said credit card?
Granted that is one way, or you could spend 48 nights in IHG hotels this year so far as I have…
1 – Yup, you should have received your 500 as a Platinum.
2 – You do not state if your wife contacted the front desk to report the noisy neighbors. Was the noise until 10 PM? All night? Did she ask for a different room? If she did not call and report the noisy neighbors (regardless of knowing where-ish the noisy room(s) was located), then you/she cannot complain about a lack of sleep the night before.
3 – The kitchen/store room for the breakfast area is normally just next to the food area. Did your wife go to the door and look for someone to ask for the food/utensils to be re-stocked? I have done this when the pancake machine is out/no ketchup/no cinnamon buns/etc. The person staffing the area will apologize and either provide the missing item(s), or let me know when they are expected to be available (cinnamon buns in the oven). Also, the front desk is usually not far from the breakfast area. If there was no staff in the breakfast area, did your wife go to the front desk?
If you cannot answer questions 2 & 3 in the affirmative, then I would say no, you are not due recompense on the 15,000. If she did 2 OR 3, you should be returned a portion of your points. If she did 2 & 3, then you should receive all points back. However, if you receive all points back, I do not believe you should receive the 500 Welcome Points.
FYI, mentioning 1-3 at checkout does not count. They should have been reported as they occurred.
For the housekeeping entering the room, did your wife have the deadbolt & safety latch thrown? That would have been an immediate heads up to housekeeping to apologize and move on.
Finally, you say your wife wrote the letter, and yet the letter is in first-person. To me, the person that experienced the instances is the one that may use first-person. If it was written by you, you should have said, “My wife experienced the following…”
They do not pay their staff nearly enough, 8 dollars an hour is an absolute insult! When they make over 100 dollars per room! And they are expected to clean 2-3 rooms per hour.
Even 9 dollars is a joke. They should start them out at 10 dollars! They shouldn’t rely on guests to tip because honestly most are too cheap or ignorant to know it is proper hotel etiquette to tip a minimum of 1 dollar per person in the room. And you are to do it daily, not wait until the end of your stay. Because the house keeper who cleaned your room for 2+ days might not get the tip if you leave on her day off, a different house keeper would get all the money if you wait to tip until the last day.
I don’t think you can demand all of your money back for the issues you had…because you did get some value out of the stay. I had an experience that was very similar to yours at the Holiday Inn Express in Golden, CO. I was not using points and did not demand anything of them. I let the manager know my issues and wrote a bad review on their website and a couple other sites(enough damage done there). I won’t go back in the future to that location. That’s all you can do…
I disagree with the way you handled the stay. You seem to have super high expectations for a non-luxury brand that makes its dollars on high volume non-discerning business. Those expectations seem misplaced, regardless of the great breakfasts and silent nights you’ve had previously. It also struck me odd that you called out the age of the breakfast replenisher and almost made me a bit sad to envision grandpa who had lost his pension in the downturn serving your young family cinnamon rolls. I suppose I just would have found a staff member and asked them to bring food out. And they might have had a good reason for the hot items not being there (people just ate them and the HIE likes to make their stuff fresh for consumption dunno).
Because you do not make clear, are you complaining about the lack of acknowledgment about being PL, or did you never receive your 500 point bonus? If the latter, I do think you have a legit gripe and perhaps IHG will come up with a couple of extra thousand points for you. I honestly hate the weird canned thanks that comes when I check into Hyatt. I am certainly fine with them asking the discrete questions about my amenity or points preference, but I hate the false kowtow surrounding loyalty thanks. YMMV.
Finally, I am curious to see whether folks would feel you were similarly entitled to a refund if you paid cash. I don’t imagine so.
Reading the article, I consider it whining or gaming, trying to get a free night.
Hey, I’ve had many point stays and its NOT like paying cash. Seems you are just trying to make a case for a free night over very minor stuff. And if you got those points from a sign up bonus or from the IHG 96 post card mail in then that’s VERY BAD KARMA!
I had a similar experience last year at a Staybridge Suites using 20,000 points but with slightly different issues. I even went to the trouble of contacting IHG corporate. The bottom line is that I never received any points adjustment whatsoever. And the comment about it “taking a lot” to be a Platinum member is true only when that status is earned through paid stays. Status given as a benefit of a co-branded credit card isn’t hard to get at all.
As a hotelier of many years, I thought I would add my comments.
You should not points awarded for a free night stay. Points are usually for $$ spent and you didn’t spend any dollars.
Hotels cannot control noise from other guests in all situations. Part of it depends on how light of a sleeper you are, the time of the events and the conduct of the other guests. If it was late and ongoing, you should call the front desk and give them a chance to respond. If response is ineffective and the time is truly late, you have reason to complain.
Breakfast should be available and plentiful at all times. Clearly the hotel knew they had a baseball team staying.
Housekeeping should not be disturbing guests at 9:00am that are due to check out. They most certainly should not be walking in on a room with a do not disturb sign. There are many other ways to schedule their work so it gets done effectively. Maybe they should have cleaned the rooms from the baseball team. Appears they were all out playing ball by then.
Is a refund due, especially a full refund? Not sure. Depends on how much these events affected you and how much the hotel was at fault. Perhaps the hotel clerk should have asked you directly if you needed anything else after they apologized.
I think you’re referring to my first comment about the 500 points. That is not points being awarded for the stay, that’s the standard welcome amenity that is given to a IHG Platinum member on any stay (award or cash). I believe you can choose the points or a “welcome amenity” which is usually something like a bottle of a water and chips
From a former General Manager of a Holiday Inn Express Hotel NONE of these issues should have happened. If housekeeping is standing around for hours change their hours so they come in right before check out. As for the loud guests staffing should have done their job and found out who was making the noise that’s what my staff had to do its not the guests that had to do our job. And he should have gotten all of his points plus more management handled this case all WRONG and they don’t know IHG very well because they will be paying a fine plus for the points if you had contacted guest relations, and if the GM didn’t care you should have. This is not a case of whining or trying to get something for free this is a legit complaint and should have been handled so much better.
I had people try and complain because they put pink ink on a pillow case and say we missed it. But when brought up to us it was still wet and we could tell it was them that did it. So I know fakers when I see it this is not fake.
Thanks for the insider tips Michael! We did not say anything about the noise at the time because I never know what to do about noise. It wasn’t identifiable to a specific room, and I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. We have 8 people in our family, and while we do try to keep them quiet, it’s not always library-quiet. If that had been the only problem, it’d have been fine and I wouldn’t have said anything.
What a wasted stay.Holiday inn express Daytona beach shores was horrible.They had church groups there that were out of control and no matter what it fell on deaf ears.No one did a thing.We should have called the police and maybe this horrible time could have been better.Teens tossing things off the balcony at guest,screaming,banging on doors and walks no respect at all and none from the manager.We couldn’t use the pool could not find seats to sit for breakfast because these people would not move .It’s really sad that Holiday inn doesn’t care
Can you please share where exactly you sent your complaint letter? I have been dealing with IHG to no avail. I contact Customer Care and my complaint has been escalated but hit a brick wall. I feel like I am not being heard. I want to register a formal complaint and I want to go further than the Operations Manager who dealt with my case. Do you have a suggestion of where I can send my formal complaint letter? Thank you so much!