Holiday Inn Express Richmond - Midtown by IHG

Charging for parking is a joke. It is a commercial lot with multiple businesses and ample space. It should be free. Complete joke
First night, was in bed and heard a drip. It was coming from the blinds, I assume from the ac upstairs. Notified management and they brought towels and said it would be fixed the next day. One room available, a king, but we had 3 people so that wouldn't work. Was told would be comped but had to call booking. Called booking and they tried to contact hotel with no effect. The next day, we checked in with the front desk, and they said someone would be out to fix it. We left for the day and when we returned, nothing had been done. The afternoon shift had no idea that there was a problem so it had not been relayed or marked down in the system. Needless to say, we were never comped, room was never fixed, and we were never moved.
The pool was not open
The elevator didn't work for the last day so we had to wait 15 plus minutes to get down with our luggage

We were given keys to a room at about 5pm for check in. We went to the room and found it to be a room that was not clean. Beds stripped, bed linens in a big pile. There were dirty towels on the floor. We left immediately and returned to the front desk. There was another couple who had the same experience as ours also returning their keys. We were given a second room and there we found a big pile of trash on the floor as soon as we opened the door. We were then escorted to a third room by staff who was very apologetic. They told us that they had just made up this room themselves. It was acceptable, but we found only one bed was freshly made with sheets tucked in. The other was haphazardly just pulled up. We found long black hairs all over the floor.
The parking lot is a run down strip mall, it did not feel safe, so much so that we opted to door dash dinner rather than go out.
The next morning, we had a very good breakfast, which really surprised us. We noticed that one of the two elevators was not working.
We went to check out at 9:30 am and no carts were available. We were on the 5th floor and one of us is handicapped. When we went to the elevator on 5 we waited and found neither elevator operating. We called to report it to the front desk. One of us walked down the 5 flights which takes you outside of the building. The front desk attendant was apologetic and went to try to reset the elevator. He was not successful by the time we left. He had two cleaning staff walk up the 5 flights and help to carry down our luggage. We checked out and asked for some sort of credit adjustment off our bill for the disappointing experience. He said he could not authorize that but gave me the business card of the general manager to call and discuss.

We should have been notified that the pool was not open.

Hello 9.5 million viewers! Stay elsewhere! Beware! Shame on you IHG!

My experience at this Holiday Inn Express was extremely disappointing and reflected a complete lack of customer service, accountability, and operational competence.

The biggest issue was that no one seemed empowered to help guests. After checkout, I was repeatedly told that only a manager could address billing concerns, despite the fact that front desk staff and night auditors have the ability to make folio adjustments. Guests should not have to leave, hoping that a hotel will eventually resolve problems in "good faith." Stating that you put a note on the reservation doesn't solve anything.

The property itself was not well-maintained. The elevator was out of service daily during the week, the pool was closed for the duration of my stay, and the hotel appeared overwhelmed and unable to keep up with the volume of guests, with overflowing trash cans and common bathrooms in disarray. Common areas were trashy and messy, giving the impression that staffing levels were inadequate.

Despite multiple checkouts, check-ins, and even a visible stack of no-show reservations at the front desk, the hotel would not accommodate the room type requested. It was difficult to understand how rooms were supposedly unavailable when evidence suggested otherwise. As a previous hotel manager, you make the guest in front of you happy and adjust the accommodations as the night progresses - you could even give a single traveler an "upgrade," thus making two solid good impressions. Duh!

Billing issues only added to the frustration. The hotel refused to honor tax-exempt status, despite this being standard practice at hotels regardless of where the reservation was made. I was also charged for parking, even though my reservation was made before the parking fee was implemented, and the convention materials listed parking as free.

I never got to check in the front desk staff fell asleep and never checked me