Holiday Inn Express & Suites Ashland by IHG

We used points for this overnight stop on the way to Seattle, but I’d gladly pay to stay here again. The Ashland, Oregon location was a great place to sleep, with spacious, clean rooms and a comfortable bed. Breakfast had plenty of choices, and the cinnamon rolls were especially good, hot and fresh. There are three restaurants within walking distance, so we could check in, get a bite, and skip driving. Holiday Inn Express was a bargain for a great room.

The room showed wear everywhere: chipped tub enamel, missing furniture doors, a finicky lock that took several key insertions, and just one tiny trash bin for a one-room suite. The “bedroom” had no clock radio, was open to the other king bed, and had no separate heat source. At 55 degrees, the room took two hours to warm up, leaving the main area at 80 while the bedroom was still 63. Trucks rumbled loudly past, and the water pressure was extremely low. Walking across the floor made the closet door groan like something from a cheap horror film. The fingerprints in the photos were there at check-in. We couldn’t connect a laptop to the Wi-Fi, though phones worked, and the signal in the bedroom dropped from 25 to 1.5. The main room sleeper was woken from 5:30 a.m. because the room shared an entry with a maid closet, whose door kept slamming. I went down for coffee at 6:45, 8:30, and 9:40 at checkout, and the pot was empty each time. The hot food bins were also empty, except for one pork sausage link in one of the two bins at 8:30. At checkout, I asked for hot coffee and was first told it would take 10-20 minutes, then told hot drinks weren’t offered after breakfast. At check-in, they put us under someone else’s reservation and tried to get me to sign a form folded so only the signature showed. The clerk sighed when I opened it to read, and I found I’d somehow become a woman traveling with a dog. This wasn’t originally a Holiday Inn Express, and the rebranding shows. I booked the “one bedroom suite” for kicks on this trip, and this was the second worst room of the week. Don’t believe the 4.4 stars. Based on this stay, Holiday Inn Express isn’t worth the price, and feels like an overpriced Choice hotel run by sketchy people who don’t follow IHG standards. Pictures and videos don’t lie.

We’ve usually been happy staying at the Ashland hotel, but this visit was disappointing. Our room, 204, was normally quiet, yet a large machine moved under the window twice at 6 a.m. I’m guessing it was a street cleaner. We had trouble with the TV and called the front desk four or five times between 8 and 9:30 p.m. without an answer. The next morning, guests waited to check out with nobody at the desk from 8:25 to 10:10. I was eating in the dining room and eventually asked the kitchen staff to find someone, but she couldn’t reach anyone either. There’s a place to leave keys, but no instructions at the desk.

I stayed a couple of nights while traveling. The front desk staff were really friendly and helpful, and breakfast was great. The hot tub didn’t smell of chlorine, but the pool was much too cold for me to get in.