Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Lander by IHG

My family booked two rooms for August 25-26, 2025, after seeing the positive Google reviews. I was shocked by what we found. Parking was full, so we had to leave the car off-site and hope it would still be there in the morning. My room, 212, had a thick, foul smell I can only describe as urine, with yellow splatters on the walls. In my dad’s room, 230, it smelled strongly of chemicals, and when we lifted the mattress we found live and dead bed bugs. Maybe the rooms had recently been fumigated. There were also clumps of food on the curtains and carpet. I don’t understand how housekeeping could miss all that. The employee who checked us in didn’t seem surprised and said to raise it with management in the morning. I contacted IHG through the app and was told management should get back to me first thing, but nobody did. At checkout I asked for the manager and was told they were busy. When the front desk woman asked what was wrong, she kept coughing aggressively as I described each problem, without turning away or covering her mouth. She stopped when I stopped talking, then started again when I mentioned how dirty the room was. It felt like she was trying to drown me out so other guests wouldn’t hear. No one seemed to care, management was nowhere to be found, and customer service through the app didn’t resolve anything. We left without bites or getting sick, fortunately, but this experience cost IHG a longtime customer.

I’ve tried to stay here three times. The first visit went fine, but on my second trip they called while I was on the way to Lander and said maintenance meant my room wouldn’t be available. Nearly a year later, I showed up to check in and got the same news, this time with no advance warning. They said renovations were underway. Save yourself the hassle and book somewhere else in Lander.

The parking has always been a problem here. It looks like they finished building the hotel and only then remembered cars need somewhere to go. The renovation has brought some other issues too. The first-floor ice machine is open to guests but covered in dust, and there’s no ice machine on the second floor. Breakfast is just different kinds of bread, which is a letdown. This used to be a better-than-average hotel, and hopefully it will be again once the work is done. So far, they haven’t handled the changes very well.

Renovation work was going on, but the crew had left shortly after 6, so it barely got in the way. My room was clean and housekeeping did a good job. All in all, a good stay.