Holiday Inn Express Huntington

We changed our plans while visiting family and going to a festival in Huntington because our other reservation didn't have a pool. Our granddaughters loved the indoor pool, and we stayed two nights. The room was clean and comfortable, and everyone on staff was very nice.

The bed was comfortable, it was quiet, and the location was good, but the place felt run down and dirty for what we paid. We arrived around 1:30am for a late check-in, and they knew we were coming. The bedding didn't look clean, with stray hairs on both beds, though I was exhausted after driving for hours and tried to tell myself I was imagining it. The tub drained so slowly that water reached my ankles during my shower. Over our four-day stay, nobody cleaned the room, made the beds, or replaced the towels. We had to keep going to the desk for fresh towels, and they even told us to bring the dirty ones down. That's their job, to clean the room.

It was quiet, but a bit expensive compared with other places. There's no hot breakfast, and what they advertise as a spa isn't what I'd call a spa.

They charged me for an extra night even though I'd arranged a late checkout for 2pm. I was traveling for work with my wife and newborn, so I went to the desk at 5am and explained they needed to stay until then while I worked. The employee said there was no extra charge, wrote a note for the next shift, and asked for tips, so I gave him $10. When I returned from work, we had more than ten bags to carry out. I parked my green work truck right out front, saw nobody at the desk, and left my key card in the bucket marked for checkout cards. I got home and found out the next morning they'd charged me for another night because I hadn't told anyone I was checking out. They saw me leave, and I hadn't signed anything. Don't leave out a bucket labeled for checkout cards and confuse people.