Formerly a Holiday Inn Express. Relatively convenient location off the Mass Pike, about halfway between BDL and Amherst. When we checked in, our room smelled of residual cigarette smoke (even though the room, and I think the whole property, is supposed to be non-smoking) and a heavy dose of air freshener. The room lighting was very dim, the window shade didn't work, and there were people having a party in the back parking lot with loud music. We asked to change rooms, and the desk agent was courteous and accommodating and moved us up to a room on the 3rd floor, where the party was less noticeable, the room didn't smell, and the shade worked--though the lighting was still badly inadequate. Breakfast was fine--pretty standard for a Hampton. There was a microwave in the breakfast area, which was helpful because we had some leftovers to reheat for lunch one day.
The biggest issue with the hotel is that it seems to attract a clientele that is there to smoke (tobacco and weed) and to party. The whole first floor reeked of cigarette smoke and industrial air freshener (it wasn't just the first room we were in), the elevators and other hallways often smelled of pot, and often the smell of either pot or cigarettes would waft into the bathroom through the vents. The party that was going on out back when we checked in continued until around 10, and then resumed at about 2 in the morning as a half-party-half-fight. Quite a bit of the clientele seemed to always be walking around baked. At one point I walked out to get something from my car, and one of the guests on the first floor had left his room shade open. He appeared to be passed out on his bed (at about 8 in the evening) and the room was filled with open bottles of hard liquor.
I get that a hotel can't necessarily control who stays there, but my impression is that it is not a typical business and family traveler sort of place. I also realize that pot is legal in Mass, and it is very hard for a place to stop guests from smoking if they are inclined to do so, but we were in a similarly priced hotel in Chicopee a month prior and had no problems with this sort of stuff. It is perhaps not a coincidence that there is a dispensary right across the street. Maybe we caught the hotel on a bad weekend, but I will not stay there again. read more