Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suites Mankato East by IHG

We ran into the bomb cyclone on 12/28, and my son and I limped into this hotel at 6 p.m., completely wiped out. The people at the desk were kind, checked us in quickly, and offered snacks and drinks. We really felt looked after, and the view was beautiful. The rooms felt open, modern, and sleek. There were plugs and USB chargers beside the beds, although the USB didn't work well. My family stays at Hilton Hotels almost exclusively now, though some are better than others. This is a very, very nice budget hotel. Pictures on checkout.

Our one-bedroom suite was clean and well equipped, and the breakfast had plenty of good choices. The pool and hot tub were relaxing, too. Noor was on the front desk and made us feel welcome with how friendly he was. Our son will soon be attending MN State Mankato, so this will be our hotel of choice for visits.

The only drawback was that breakfast and the fitness room didn't open until 6:30 a.m. Otherwise, it was a comfortable, quiet hotel, and everything was nice. Breakfast was better than the usual hot breakfast, and the coffee was freshly ground.

I cancelled a week before my planned weekend stay, following the policy that said to cancel by the 17th. I had booked a month earlier and was charged $189 plus 40,000 points on Sept 6th for a visit planned for the weekend of Oct 18th. The fine print says cancellations are refunded in points, but doesn't say clearly that only the 40,000 points come back, not the other 30,000. So I paid $189 for a trip I never took. I spent an hour on the phone with the hotel and IHG guest services without getting anywhere, and was hung up on twice while being transferred. I'd avoid booking through IHG with points and cash, and steer clear of Holiday Inn Express-Mankato East because the customer service was awful. I travel every weekend for six months of the year, so that's a lot of stays, but from now on I'm sticking with Marriott and Hilton. No more IHG.