Staybridge Suites Durham/Chapel Hill by IHG

The manager, Shadrika, was polite, but the hotel wouldn’t help when I got sick. I had the flu and called around 12:30 PM on check-in day to ask for a refund or a date change. I offered medical documentation because I didn’t want to expose other guests, but both the hotel and the manager turned down the change. Priceline also called for me and was refused. Corporate reservations said the hotel was close to full, so selling the room again likely wouldn’t have been a problem. A hotel’s refund policy shouldn’t punish someone for being ill, but that’s what happened here. With no flexibility or effort to work with a sick guest, this is an easy one star. If you book, expect no help when something unexpected comes up, even with notice at midday on the same day.

The desk and cleaning staff are good, but the room and property condition let them down. Several things in my room were broken, reported, and left in the hall without being replaced. The pool was closed because of rain and stayed closed on the sunny days that followed. The place also didn’t feel secure, since the exit door at the far end of the hallway was usually propped open for non-guests. This hotel seems perfect for construction workers, dog owners, and pot smokers.

People were partying outside my window until 2:00am and smoking marijuana. When I switched on the A/C, the smell poured into my room. The front desk dealt with it promptly when I called, though, and this wasn’t the staff’s fault.

The main problem was the shower: there was no hot water, and the showerhead was stuck on a narrow single-stream setting. I let the tub run for almost 10 minutes; the water went from ice cold to about room temperature and never got warm. My shower was very brief and chilly. The room was clean, comfortable, and convenient, the staff were personable, and breakfast was good. If you’re staying one night and can skip a shower, it’s a nice place. For a longer stay or if you need a good hot shower to start your day, I’d look elsewhere.