Having stayed in probably 10 different IHG properties so far this year, this was by far the lowest…read morequality and the most disappointing.
This hotel had maybe 15-20 parking spots TOTAL at the hotel, for a hotel that has 17 floors and hundreds and hundreds of rooms. When we pulled in, half the parking lot was blocked off with cones and the rest of the spots were full. There is sign that says you can use a parking garage up the street and have it validated but when it's snowing out and you have luggage and there's no clear signage explaining how to get to the parking garage AND you finally get to the garage only to find out that the garage is old and low and does not have high enough clearance to accommodate a standard SUV (granted it was an escalade, so it is a larger SUV, but still a standard height!) it's pretty frustrating.
As a platinum IHG rewards member, I normally get a small upgrade (subject to availability, of course) and a welcome letter and complimentary bottles of water, even at the chain's budget brand hotels. Here, even though the room was booked with points (so clearly they knew I was a rewards member), not even so much as a 'thanks for your loyalty', let alone water or an upgrade. When the hotel is near empty, it feels like a bit of an insult that they wouldn't even put us in a room on the side of the hotel with a better view, or something. I'm pretty sure we got the worst room in the place. Or if it was NOT the worst - I would be scared to see what rooms that were worse than ours looked like.
The clerk checked me in and told me our room number would be xx06. As he was handing me the keys, the phone at the station next to him rang, so another clerk grabbed it. I heard the lady who answered the phone say oh, room xx06? Sorry it's already taken. Yep the guest already checked in. Hmm, name is_____ and said my name.
I said to the guy checking me in, uhh, she just said my name and room number, what's going on? He got the girls attention, the two of them turned away from us and talked for a second and then she said oh your room's not clean yet, so we'll just put you in a different room. Since we were checking in very late in the afternoon, I just can't imagine the room wasn't clean. Also the hotel could not have been very full... Late March is the lowest time of year in billings. Half the town was closed down as it was Easter Sunday. I think someone just wanted that room so they bumped us out of it. Which wouldn't have been that big a deal, except 1) I don't appreciate being lied to, and 2) I'm pretty sure they put us in a downgraded replacement room.
I can only speak for the floor we were put on, but that floor was dark, stained and dingy in the hallways. It couldn't have had more than 8-ft ceilings as my 6-ft husband could easily put his palms flat on the ceiling. It feels old and claustrophobic and just really makes you think of a damp, dank jail hallway or something.
Inside the room, it was clean but again dated, dark, dingy feeling. Low, cracked and warped popcorn ceilings, banged up/scraped/scratched furniture, cheap, peeling/warped interior door to the bathroom, and metal plates covering up large sections of wall all added to the yucky feel of the room. A small window facing the roof of industrial building didn't help. The mattress was extremely hard, unpadded, and had springs poking me in the back. There was a strong, sickly sweet smell of something fake and chemically that reminded me of perfume gone bad, as if they tried to douse the room with smell to cover up worse smells.
The desk clerk said they had a happy hour in the executive lounge from 5-7pm so we headed up to check that out. What a disaster. Not only was the 'lounge' just a larger hotel room with a different furniture configuration, but also - they RENTED IT OUT to a large family for a kids party!! I have never in my life heard of such a thing. And, hey front desk, maybe don't send members to the lounge when you rented it out to a private party!! That was beyond obnoxious to me and seemed completely inappropriate.
Lastly, extremely loud saw, drilling, and hammering noises which seemed like they were directly above us began very early in the morning. I guess it's good that there is much-needed construction going on but it would be nice if it were not extremely loud and directly above my head first thing in the morning. Especially when you know the hotel couldn't have been very full!! Could they not have put us a little further away from the noise? I can't imagine we could possibly have been any closer to it - it was SO loud I took video of it but not sure if this site will let me post video.
Overall, just an extremely disappointing experience from what I expected to be an upper midscale hotel but instead felt like a scary, old motel 6.
I would rather sleep in my car than pay $120 or tens of thousands of points to stay here again.
I'm giving it two stars ONLY because it is very conveniently located.