Holiday Inn Express Saint Ignace Fails to Impress

Holiday Inn Express is on of my favorite chains - breakfast, internet and evening cookies are included in the rate. There's nothing meant to be glamorous about the chain, it's all about comfort and competitive prices. I stay at these Intercontinental Hotels Group properties often, and have achieved their highest frequent guest ranking - Platinum Elite. Among the perks to Platinum Elites are free upgrades upon check in, based on availability.

I recently had wonderful stays in Mackinaw City and Munising on this media visit to upper Michigan. Before I arrived at the properties I faxed a note reminding the managers I am reviewing their hotel as part of my travel article. This alerts them to take care of minor details like making sure there is no blood smeared on the walls of my hotel room, or assigning me a room facing a dump. I also wrote in my reservation I am a journalist reviewing the property.

Staying at Holiday Inn Express is typically a great experience. Every now and then, the stay is problematic. My current stay at Holiday Inn Express in St. Ignace fails to impress. Being a Platinum Elite, I am always offered 500 points or a snack amenity upon check in at an IHG affiliate, but this property offered neither. After receiving my keys, I checked room 402 to find blood smeared on the wall, a swamp "water view", garbage outside my balcony, thousands of mosquitos swarming from the swamp, and a hallway carpet needing vacuuming. I passed room 409, which was propped open. I looked inside 409, which had 2 queen beds, a water view, and a spa tub. It was clean and had a better floor plan than 402. I went back downstairs to the lobby and asked if I could have a free upgrade to 409. The receptionist told me no, because it was not yet clean. I told her I was just inside the room, and saw it was indeed clean. She then said no, I was already in an upgraded room.

When a second employee came to oversee the room assignments, the first kept pointing to an area of the printout with my reservation. When asked to sign the contract, I found she had been pointing to the room price. Apparently the price paid is directly related to whether one can get the best room available, rather than the guest's status with the chain.

I paid a travel industry rate, a non-published rate designed to lure travel industry members to the chain because we recommend hotels to consumers. Apparently the staff at this property was of the conviction a guest paying a lower rate should be given a lower quality room. I guess that's fine when guests pay though a consolidator like Priceline whose purpose is to dump unsellable inventory, but when the rate is to lure industry personnel in order to show off the property in its best light, this mentality doesn't fit well.

A cursory review of the landscape revealed disappointing findings - the lawn was infested with weeds and dandelions, and litter was scattered about. A worker was weed-whipping the edges of the lawn, but seemed to be oblivious to the litter. A walk through the pool area showed a floor badly in need of sweeping and cleaning. I wouldn't allow children walk bare footed through such a dirty area.

Tripadvisor showed disturbing comments about the hotel, going back several years but apparently never precipitating much corrective action by management. Harold_J35805 wrote, "This was one of the worst experiences I've had in a hotel!! First of all, we arrived and I wiped down the bathroom counter with a disinfectant wipe to find it was filthy like the rest of the room. ... the shower was disgusting....a big hair ball in the drain!! The hot breakfast is cold...do not stay at this dirty, poorly managed hotel." Michelle G wrote, "During our weekend getaway, a housekeeper for the hotel stole multiple items from our young children instead of cleaning our room. We were very upset about what happened and addressed the matter with the hotel. Rather than being treated like victims we were labeled unruly guests." Two weeks ago, Andre D wrote, "...there was no manager on duty the morning of our checkout. This was Memorial Day weekend, one of the busiest weekends of the year, and they leave one clerk to check out the entire hotel. There were 10 parties waiting to check out behind us. Furthermore, the clerk had only started working there that weekend, so she made a number of mistakes, and didn't know how to correct them because there was no manager on duty. She charged the room a total of three credit card swipes, and as of 24 hours later, all three identical charges are still on our two accounts."

If you realize you made a mistake choosing this hotel, the property has a way of dissuading you from staying elsewhere. Firstly, there is a three-day advance cancel requirement, else you are charged as if you stayed a night. Secondly, there is a $25 fee for fleeing early. Hotels normally don't have these nasty requirements unless there's a strong probability guests are going to bolt.

People called "case managers" are responding to complaints on Tripadvisor, repeatedly saying they apologize for the guest being unhappy with his stay. It's probably someone in the Philippines who has a standard list of responses they can cut and paste into the response. Personally, I'm not impressed by someone overseas pasting canned responses onto websites - I'd rather see someone actually take the initiative to fix the problems that have been documented.

Until then, you might want to find a better place to stay when visiting St. Ignace and the Mackinac Island area.