Holiday Inn Springdale/Fayetteville Area by IHG

The lobby looked nice, and so did the room apart from the headboard, which had greasy marks where someone had rested their head. I set the thermostat to 60, but the room stayed at 75. In the middle of the night I called for help and got AI. It said maintenance wouldn't be in until morning, then transferred me to the front desk, where the phone rang unanswered. I went downstairs and couldn't find anyone there either. I tried to sleep in the hot room. The next morning I explained everything in response to a text asking me to rate my stay, but got an automatic “Great!” reply. When I went down again, the front desk woman seemed not to care at all.

Breakfast had great choices, and I liked having different coffee creamers. The bar keeper/waitress was especially sweet. Our corner suite had comfortable beds, but there were small blood drops along some furniture edges. The housekeeper we tried to speak with didn't speak English, which was fine; we just put towels over the edges when we needed to sit there. It looked like the water hadn't been run in a while, since the shower came out black for several minutes before clearing. We were told we couldn't practice our dance final routines at the hotel, which was inconvenient because we had booked for the dance competition there. I presume the team members who need to stay overnight will have to use the Hampton across the street, since they allow it.

The hotel is beautiful, and everyone we dealt with, from the front desk to breakfast, was kind and welcoming. The staff were remarkably friendly throughout. We did have to wait for an engineer because the key card mechanism had a dead battery, and after a long day we just wanted to get into our room and relax. The engineer was already on site and came very promptly, though, so I don't count that as a complaint. The beds felt a little too firm to me, but that's a small thing. I'd give the stay five stars.

I went down to ask the front desk about breakfast vouchers while my kids played with other children in the big open lobby. The worker interrupted our conversation to ask if those were my kids. When I said yes, he explained that flight crews were staying there and the noise carries upstairs. I asked if he wanted me to stop talking to go quiet them, and he said I needed to. He also told me to take them outside. This is not a family-friendly hotel, especially for young kids.