Holiday Inn Express & Suites Hood River by IHG

We have to re-evaluate our opinion of Holiday Inn Express after this stay In our minds (mine and my wife's) Holiday Inn Express always seemed to be a safe choice. Clean, modern rooms at a reasonable price. We've had no real complaints that I recall during previous stays at other locations. Our minds were changed after this visit. I am an IHG rewards member, I'll probably look around for other hotel reward programs after this. This was our first visit to the Columbia River Gorge area and Hood River so choosing a place to stay was a crap-shoot. I reasoned that Holiday Inn Express was a reliable, known quantity, so that's what I chose. First of all the HI-E was incredibly expensive, way more in line with a fancier hotel. Wow, it was expensive. I figured it was just a price to pay for the location. Wrong. The location, although in the Columbia River Gorge area, had no view. Other than being able to see the top of Mt. Adams from the parking lot, there was zero selling point view-wise. It's not like you can pick up and move the building, but for the price I was at least expecting a view. The entrance was shared with a gas station. Check in was good, and the room was ready even though we were about an hour early. However, the hotel itself was DIRTY and run-down. All the carpeting, the halls, the stairways, the room, was very stained and need of deep cleaning or replacement. There was a big carpet stain in our room. We stayed for three days while we hiked in the Gorge area. During the stay I noticed debris in the third floor hallway that remained the entire time we were there. Our tub/shower had worn off finish in spots. The floor of the tub had a big stain. The shampoo/conditioner/body wash holder had fallen off the shower wall, leaving a remainder of caulk that had surrounded it. The holder was sitting on the side of the tub. We are pretty sure the body wash container didn't contain body wash but some sort of lotion. I bought a bar of soap at the friggin Wal-Mart across the street. We kept finding random long hairs on the bathroom floor and in (!!!) the folded towels. The bathroom fan, pretty much like all bathroom fans in hotel rooms, was completely ineffective in clearing the mirror. The toilet seat was loose. I tried to fix it but realized that was impossible and it needed replacing. One day our room was never made up. One day it looked like a surly teenager could have made the bed better. We found trash bags simply draped over the trash cans instead of actually being opened and put in the containers. The big sticking points were finding random hairs in the towels and bathroom floor that we know wasn't ours and not having our room touched the one day. Breakfast: This was a high point and one of the reasons I pick HI-E. Although one day there was no coffee despite there being two urns and I informed the attendant. She remedied that right away. We were surprised to find no plates available and used bowls instead. It was no big deal, but the second morning (and third) there still were no plates. We assumed that if it was a supply issue that the manager/owner with initiative could have gone across the street to Wal-Mart and bought plates, but no. There was no one at the reception desk when it was time to leave so I just tossed the key cards in a box on the counter. Overall, this was a big disappointment, way below the usual standards of Holiday Inn Express. I've seen several 5-star reviews of this facility and I find them really suspect. I believe the rating is being artificially inflated by phony reviews.

Terrible Smell in the Room Although the rooms were nice enough, our smelled to HIGH HEAVEN. It was a non smoking room but the stretch was as if someone had been chain smoking for weeks prior inside the room. The hotel was full so I didn’t ask for a room change and we were only there one night. The air conditioner was SO loud I had to turn it up as it kept me up whirring loudly on an off throughout the early part of the night. The location is next to a Taco Bell and Walmart and there were some shady peeps hanging about. All this I could deal with if the room didn’t smell so bad. We were only there one night so I went across the street to Walmart to buy a candle - but that only made the room smell like artificial candle and cigarette smoke. There were also creepy stains on the rug. Note the staff was very nice and we could have asked to move but for a few hours sleep we decided to endure but we won’t be back.

Bad customer service & location Customer service was poor. After driving for several hours we arrived at the hotel an hour before check in. There was no one at the desk with a sign that said they have stepped away. The receptionist came up to the desk after a few minutes and informed us that our room wasn’t ready but would be at 4. Not a big deal. We love hood river and had dinner and explored. We came back at 6 (2 hours past check in time) to no one at the desk again. The receptionist came up a few mins later and radioed housekeeping to ask if our room was ready yet. The housekeeper on the radio said “sorry I forgot, give me 3 minutes”. Pretty unnerving that our room would be cleaned this fast and that it still wasn’t ready. When we went to our room, the shower curtain stunk like it hadn’t been washed in a long time and there was hair in one of the beds…. Making us think the sheets weren’t even changed. There was a pull out bed on the couch that was full of springs and uncomfortable. The pool was closed unfortunately as well. The next morning we went down for continental breakfast and there was no coffee or plates with several people standing around. After about 10 minutes we finally got someone to restock everything. We went to checkout after this to find no receptionist at the desk and the sign again saying they stepped away. We saw this same receptionist that checked us in the night before outside with other employees smoking in the parking lot. She saw us through the window standing there and ran in to check us out of our room. Customer service was very poor. The hotel shared a parking lot with a gas station. There are much prettier and nicer places to stay in Hood River. We won’t return to this hotel.

Quick stop-over We came in late for an overnight stay. This hotel is very nice. Google Maps helped us located; the entrance is by a gas station. Our room was well-appointed and clean. I liked the decor & comfortable bed. We did not eat breakfast as we wanted to hit the road early, but I'm sure it was good. We would stay here again if in the area!

Unclean! I first want to say that the night manager was wonderful. She tried very hard to accommodate us, however the lack of cleanliness prevented our stay. The first room we were given the beds had not been changed, which was clear from a note left by the maid. The second room the beds had pubic hairs all through the sheets and the bathroom floor also had toenail trimming and hair on it. The 3rd room had urine around the toilet base and hair on the floors and in the beds. The final room had bloody tissues in a garbage that hadn’t been emptied. Clearly there is a BIG issue with lack of cleaning here which was especially frustrating when there are signs throughout the hotel claiming they hold the highest of cleaning standards.