Holiday Inn Express Durham, an IHG Hotel

I booked this hotel based on being Pet Friendly per my search request which showed this Hotel on Hotels.com site. I read the Holiday Inn policies on this site Before booking my room. Under Pet Policy it states Pet fee is $50.00 Check out time listed on Hotels.com states 12 noon When reviewing Hotel information and policies, a potential guest Expects information presented is going to be exactly same upon Arrival. That was NOT the situation we experienced. Not to mention the Hotel is located in an unsafe area of town. Issue #1) Upon arrival, Guest Services clerk claimed there were No available rooms for pets because the 4 rooms allotted were already occupied. She claimed she would need to call mgr to get override/permission for us to stay there. I had a reservation already Issue #2) I was charged $75.00 for pet fee vs $50.00 and was told they don't have control over "misinformation" shown on Hotels.com site. Clerk refused to honor price shown in writing on this site. Issue#3) Check out at Front Desk shows 11:00 am vs 12 noon as written on Hotels.com site Issue #4) Drug addicts loitering on property at night asking guest for Cash for food. Scared US to Death to get out of vehicle to enter hotel. I offered food i had brought back from my family's house, but homeless addict didn't want the food and kept insisting on cash. He finally walked away after my husband made it clear several times we didn't have cash available. I advised night mgr at front desk how scared we were!!

Front desk agent did not even acknowledge our special request, I had to bring them up , she had us on the first floor And I requested top floor. When we checked out the woman behind the desk couldn’t even get off the phone to take my keys and say goodbye ... it’s a shame because the beginning and the end of a trip is what you always remember , the room itself was wonderful , so was the hotel breakfast ... and we come to Durham often because of family.

I loved my stay here. The staff was so friendly and the rooms were nice and clean. My kids enjoyed their breakfast . We are going to stay there next time we are in town .

My family and I booked a hotel room for Friday and Saturday night. We did not come until Saturday morning. The hotel receptionist would not let us check in until 3:00 Saturday, even though our reservation was for Friday. The lady at the front desk could not help us and had to call two other people to figure things out. She couldn't "find" our reservation in the system. We called them Friday night to make them aware, so this exact situation didn't happen, but it happened anyway. We left the hotel and made reservation somewhere else and still paid for our reservations. No call back, no apology, no reimbursement, nothing.

We stay at IHG most of the time when we come to Durham because it is close to the family we are visiting, it is clean, and it is remarkably quiet despite being next to 85. We used to stay at a nicer hotel, but the convenience is hard to beat! The complementary breakfast is pretty good compared to similar hotels that offer complementary breakfasts; the one thing they might work on there is that the complementary coffee is not the best.

Hotel is convenient to Duke and Durham, and despite being next to a highway, relatively quiet. Complementary breakfast was acceptable (better than Hampton Inns I have stayed at, though Hampton Inn may have the edge on the coffee quality.) Cleanliness is probably the most important issue to me, and there were a couple of issues with cleanliness -- smudge marks on the microwave, and a stain of the sofa which gave us pause -- but the rest of the room and bathroom appeared to be clean. We have stayed here before, and probably will again when visiting family in the area.