Complain about a product or service

Holiday Inn

Chris of London UK (1/8/04):
We wish to raise the utmost concern about the scams, ripoffs and poor service at the Holiday Inn in Chicago City Centre. We stayed there twice - before Christmas for 5 days and after Christmas for 3 days. Our main concerns are as follows:

• Reservations & Room Rates -- the reservation for our second visit was cancelled for no reason at all, we only discovered this after arriving late from a traumatic flight from Lexington, KY; during our first stay management increased our room rate from the agreed $108 to $161 without notice due to a ball game in town and were very reluctant to refund the difference when challenged about this.
• Room Facilities -- during our second stay the nonsmoking room 1412 smelt so badly of stale tobacco that we requested a complete change of sheets and underlay, which cured the problem but why did the previous sheets smell so badly? The overlay blanket had a huge tear in it and what looked like cigarette burns.
• Tea-bags were not available from Housekeeping - we had to continually request these from the Front Desk because Housekeeping couldn't (wouldn't?) provide tea bags. We were told if we wanted tea then we had to order it from Room Service (at cost). Only two coffee sachets were provided per night - one reg. coffee, one decaf. Only ONE very small shampoo bottle was provided for two people in a twin-bed room. The television system did not have any British news channels - VERY important to us since the U.S. newspapers had even less U.K. news.
• During our second stay the phones in 1412 had to be reprogrammed so that the 'Room Service' and 'Housekeeping' buttons etc., would work -- local calls were charged at £1.50 each. No-one could tell us (would tell us?) what the Hotel charges were for interstate and international phone calls to the UK would be
• Front Desk -- when we left after our first stay we were told that the Hotel's car to O'Hare Airport would be the same price as the Airport Shuttle but we were charged $40 to go to O'Hare, the Shuttle only charges $32; when this was pointed out to the Concierge staff when we left after our second stay all we got was sarcastic comments from them about not wanting to use the car service instead of the Shuttle - the Shuttle driver told us that this was not the first time that she had received complaints about this.
• No loyalty programme membership discount tokens for meals were offered when we checked in for our second stay
• Spa/Fitness Club -- the spa/sauna facilities for women was VERY small and cramped - this was not mentioned in the hotel description
• Restaurant (300 East, American Cafe) -- when we had fried Lake Perch and chips all we wanted to go with this were vinegar and brown sauce, however it took four visits by the waitress (who could hardly speak English), a visit by another waiter (who was then rude to the waitress within our hearing), and then a visit by the Chef, to obtain Heinz malt vinegar and Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce - by which time we had nearly finished our meal which was steadily getting cold. We declined to leave a tip. -- the plates were invariably cold, making the food cold and unappetising.

Lisa of Westland MI (11/18/03):
I took my kids to the HoliDome, Livonia, MI, for a birthday party and stayed one night. I was charged for 2 nights. I let them know and they gave me a full credit THE NEXT DAY and said they assured me that they would then take the CORRECT amount. So I made sure I had the amount (plus a little more) to cover the charge that was going to be taken from my account (I am on a budget) To my surprise the charge was taken for 2 days ONCE AGAIN and I did not have enough to cover it so my bank then charged me a NSF fee also.

I called them and told them the situation and they were very polite and said they would credit my account the amount that was over charged plus the NSF fee right away, it has been 2 WEEKS and I have still not gotten my money back and no one is returning my calls or emails, not even the corporate office. When I did get someone on the phone they said a credit was made (a week ago) and that my bank must be holding it. My bank says there is no record of a credit being made and said why would we hold it?? They admitted they made a mistake but will not refund my money.

Marsha of Allentown PA (10/1/03):
On a recent visit to the Holiday Inn Sunspree, Virginia Beach VA, over July 4 weekend I left my cell phone and a trash bag filled with dirty laundry and wet swimming suits. When I called back they said they do not see anything there. I did not settle for that so I kept calling back every weekend and finally I spoke to this woman that said she used to be from Allentown and she said she would check and call me back.

It only took her 10 minutes and I got a phone call saying she found all items and even had me verify the serial number of my cell phone. She said she would air the items out and then send it COD. I thanked her immensely. Now 2 months later I still do not have my items. I called and left a message on Mr. Reyes' answering machine and also sent him a letter and still got no reply. Can you help me find out what happened to these items. My husband died 15 months ago and this was my first trip since then.

John of Highland IL (6/17/02):
We booked a stay at the Holiday Inn Sunspree, Lake Buena Vista FL, is resort through HRN (internet hotel discount site) from June 6th through June 17th. Upon entering this hotel we realized this was not a RESORT but a dumpy motel that we could have stayed at elsewhere for much less money. The room we were in was not clean. The front desk clerk was not friendly. When we went to our room the maids were down the sidewalk with a boom box blaring and ranting and raving about something. The area around the pool was not clean. That night we could not sleep for the noise everywhere.

We had breakfast (if you care to call it that) the next morning and left most of it. We did not want the buffet but wanted 2 eggs, hashbrowns, and bacon. The person seating us acted like it was the last thing we wanted to do and the waitress who waited on us had an argument with the manager. When they brought the food out we almost barfed. The bacon was burned and the hash browns tasted weird like something had been put in them besides the usual. After taking a bite of that we just left. I am surprised my husband didn't complain but he was afraid to say anything for fear he would lose control and throw the whole plate on the floor and maybe end up in trouble.

I went to inquire about tickets, etc to Walt Disney World and some fat man behind the counter started giving me a sales talk about discounted tickets but we would have to go see a resort and listen to a short presentation. We decided to pack up and go to Clearwater and then maybe come back. Well the Clearwater hotel we stayed at was so nice we never came back. As a matter of fact I am sending the keys back today.

We lost a great deal of money because this reservation had been paid in full.

Sandra of Auburn GA writes (8/2/01):
My family and I planned a reunion at the Holiday Inn of Gatlinburg, TN, for July of this year. I was the first to arrive. While waiting for my family, I decided to go to one of the pools. In a while, my daughter arrived and came to get me.

Upon going back to my room I learned that they had given a key to my room to one of my brothers, telling him it was their room. So when my brother opend the door, not knowing my things were there, he immedialtely went to tell them the room was occupied. They didn't have a clue! So they start going through my things! When they pulled out a pill bottle with my name on it, Jerry knew it was mine. They finally put him in the next room.

I had also paid for the room for my daughter. The front desk didn't have this noted, so I paid $101.00 for their room that day. After going to my brother's room, when I came back my key would not work. I went back to the from desk, had a new one made and it worked. Later that night after dinner, the key would not work again. I hiked back to the from lobby, (about a block or so walk,) raised h-- -- -- and had another key made. The next day this key did not work and we were stranded in the hall for over 20 minutes.

Upon leaving, I went to the front desk again to get my check-out slips. They did not give me one for my daughters room, and the one they gave for my room had my name on it with someone else's address. I called them when I got home, talked with Kim at the front desk, and she promised to send me the correct one. That never came. The night manager, James Grote, promised to send me a coupon for a free night in their hotel. That never came either. I spent over $400.00 with these people, and I would like to be reimbursed.

Michelle of Woodbury, MN writes:
I reserved a room at the Holiday Inn, 7333 Parvin Lane, Kansas City, MO, on the internet and was given the rate of $79 a night. The website advertised GOV/AAA discount. At check-in, I inquired about the GOV/AAA discount since I was on leave and was told that it would be $85. This did not make sense to me. Why the difference in price? This is not a discount.

After deposting our lugguge in the room, we left for downstairs to have dinner. We sat down at the table only to find crusted food on the table. I requested to have the table cleaned and the waitress responded with, "It must be from breakfast and it's dark in here". We ordered 2 drinks and were told that they were on the house since it was happy hour.

We ordered our meals and an appetizer. It took 45 mins to get our appetizer (we were one of two couples in the place). We received our meals in an additional 30 minutes after the appetizers and they were cold. We sent them back and they came back microwaved. My husband could tell this since the inside of his instant potatoes were cold and the canned gravy on top was hot. His beef brisket was cold as well while the bottled BBQ sauce on top was hot. My porter house steak was burnt. They tortured this cut of meat and charged $16.95! The waitress again apologized and said that the cook was on the edge of having a nervous breakdown and gave us 2 free breakfast tickets for all the trouble we were having. The whole meal itself cost $54 and this included the 2 drinks we were told were free in the beginning. After choking down what we could, we left for the room.

I lifted the commode lid only to find that it had not been cleaned. My husband called down, showed the on-duty manager and we were moved to another room. The new room had one wall of windows overlooking the amusement park and we had to crank the heat up to 90 degrees to get some sort of heat in the room. The Manager tried to give us breakfast tickets and we turned them down since we had already received tickets for our dinner. She called up later and told us she would give us $20 off the room.

The next morning, the Housekeeping Manager came to the room (I had left my bag in the other room) and she wanted me to show her where the mess was. I obliged. Needless to say, what was on the commode was not there when I got there. We left to experience the $8.25 breakfast buffet. The food on the buffet was by no means warm. Cold grits aren't the easiest to eat. My husband did manage to get some hot food when he asked for an omelet they made on the spot.

Our whole experience at this hotel was a disaster and my husband had had enough and spoke with the on-duty manager. In the end, we did not have to pay for the meal or the room. I will never stay at this Holiday Inn again nor will I ever recommend it!

We had driven 7 hours from Minneapolis, MN and wanted an restful night since we were going to drive 7 hours again the next day. Our night was not as peaceful and restful as it should have been. This is our first time staying at a Holiday Inn and I doubt if we ever will again.

Michele of Palatine, IL, writes:
Back in July of 2000 I had brought my daughter and some of her friends to the Holiday Inn (Holidome), Algonquin, Rolling Meadows, IL for her birthday. I got two rooms for two nights which eaguals out to a nice sum of money (about $700.00). The reason I did this is because I was 7 months pregnant at the time and couldn't do much of anything else not to mention that when the baby comes around money would be tight so this was a special birthday party for her.

In the middle of the afternoon on the second day there, my brother (who is 9) went into the room to get a towel and on his way in as he was opening the door it came back on his foot and cut his big toe open. It bled for an hour or so before I had to take him to the emergancy room for stiches. It ends up that he cut a vein and that's why the bleeding wouldn't stop.

I would like to mention that these doors have an automatic shut mechinism on them and they are exceptionally heavy doors. When I was getting all of our things into the room I propped the door open with a chair and the chair slid across the door opening. Why, at a Holidome where there are children, they would make these doors so dangerous I don't know.



Holiday Inn claims that this particular holiday inn doesn't have insurance and that they have no intentions on paying the $600.00 bill from the hospital. After what I spent there, it really uopsets me. I can't afford it either so it is going up for collections and will affect my credit report. I am a single Mom and really don't need this extra stress.

Michele should talk with an attorney whose practice includes Personal Injury.

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