Holiday Inn Long Island Islip Airport

Sometimes this is the only hotel with rooms left, so I end up staying here. Every time I hope the earlier problems were a fluke, but it’s the same story. The front desk staff are extremely rude and nasty. Once, while I was in the lobby speaking with the older Indian woman at the desk, I said I was about to book and wanted to check whether they took cash deposits. She said there were no rooms and they were full, but online there were plenty I could book. The younger Indian woman and the man at the desk passed notes back and forth. I can only imagine what they were saying instead of saying it in front of customers. The rooms are always bug infested. I’ve never stayed there without seeing at least five bugs in the disgusting sheets. The towels smell mildewy, water pressure and toilet flushing are awful, and most vending machines are abandoned and empty. The ATM rarely works. I think I’ve seen it operating only once in about five years. They’re notorious for keeping your deposit if you’re even 30 seconds late leaving the room. They’ll keep $50 of your $100 deposit. It feels like they have schedules for doing everything they can to take your money and avoid giving it back. The place should be burned down and started fresh. Every stay is horrendous, and often I don’t sleep because I’m paranoid about bugs crawling over me. If you shake the beds, bugs crawl out from the mattress. There are holes in the bathroom walls with mold and bugs coming out, and they do nothing to fix it. They make no extra effort to improve your stay, offer no accommodations, and do the bare minimum while charging ridiculous rates sometimes because they’re the only hotel left in town. Nobody would choose to stay here.

We got our key without any directions, then had to find a room at the back of a large hotel that’s difficult to navigate on your first visit. Don’t be fooled by the nice lobby. The rooms were old, smoky, smelly, and dirty, and our bed was lumpy. We asked for a non-smoking room, but it was surrounded by smoking rooms, and the cigarette smell was everywhere. We were really worried about bed bugs. They also charge everyone an extra $50 for incidentals. I’ve stayed in $50 motels that were better. Do yourself a favor and stay somewhere else.

The lobby at the Holiday Inn looked fine, but once we reached the room hallway, it felt like a run-down, abandoned Motel 6 and smelled of urine mixed with cigarettes. There were questionable characters around, and I didn’t feel safe. That part of the hotel had no elevator, so you had to carry everything upstairs, which is hard with small children. Our prepaid Priceline booking couldn’t be refunded, but we left anyway and checked into the Hilton Garden Inn up the road for $200 a night. We were happy to pay it. The room was nasty, dirty, and tiny. As soon as we saw it, we turned around and left. Even our eight- and eleven-year-old boys were disgusted and didn’t want to touch anything. It seemed to me they’d put money into the lobby but had no housekeeping. The people behind the counter were gross and rude too. Spend a bit more and stay at the Hilton up the road. Don’t believe me? Ask to see the hotel before you pay. Stay away!

We came for a wedding, but our room wasn’t ready until 4:00 and the shuttle left the hotel at 4:15, so we had to get ready at record speed. The hotel staff didn’t seem to care and forgot the gift bag the bride and groom had left for us. The bartender was great, though.