Holiday Inn Express and Suites: Corsicana Texas

I recently had the opportunity to stay at the Holiday Inn Express in Corsicana, Texas on two separate occasions. One was when I interviewed for a job in Corsicana and the other time was when I stayed in town for a couple of days while looking for a house since I did get the job there. The first stay was very satisfactory, alas the second stay was less so. I have talked to both the hotel that gave the unsatisfactory service and to the corporate office and neither seems to care about keeping their customers. Holiday Inn's customer service lacks a lot to be desired.

Price: The first trip was paid for by the place I was interviewing with so I don't know the cost. For the second trip, I booked my room through Expedia.com and it was $89 for one night and $80 for the other. This is pretty high considering the area. The Hampton hotel right across the street was cheaper, and according to my parents who stayed there at a later date. It was just as nice as the Holiday Inn Express.

Location: The location was convenient for on and off freeway access. It is right off the exit for I-45. However, it is way at one end of the town which makes it not as convenient for getting around the town of Corsicana. But since Corsicana is a smaller town, it is not that bad.

Restaurant Locations: Traditionally, a Holiday Inn Express has no restaurant in the hotel; therefore they are supposed to be near easily accessible food locations. The nearby food establishments include: Subway, Sonic, and Denny's which could be considered walking distance. There is also a Chili's a short driving distance away.

The Room: Both rooms I stayed in were very nice and spacious. They were tastefully decorated in creams and browns with abstract art on the wall. The first room I stayed in featured a king sized bed, a nice desk, a nice overstuffed chair, and an entertainment center with a flat screen TV, a microwave, and a refrigerator. The second room was a variation on that theme with two queen beds instead. The bathrooms were very nice and spacious. The tile was the expensive looking textured tile and it had the faux marble on the counter. Everything looked kept up well. There were no nasty stains, or peeling paint or wallpaper. The air conditioning worked well. The room also featured a coffee maker, hair dryer, iron and ironing board. They also had free internet.

Other Amenities: They have what looks like a nice indoor pool and hot tub. They also have an exercise room with 2 treadmills, an elliptical and a bike. I didn't use either one of these services. They also had a washer and dryer on our floor that could be used by customers (one of those pay to wash deals). They also had a continental breakfast which was good.

Other Information: It was a very nice hotel. Looked nice and I felt good staying there. Alas, they are not a pet friendly hotel. They do allow for late check in and the person manning the desk at midnight was very pleasant. What I disliked was the overall manager of the property. On my second trip, we ran into a bit of a situation. During our second trip we stayed two nights. On our second day, the room did not get cleaned even though we took down the do not disturb sign in the morning around 10-10:30am. The maid was still on our floor cleaning when we took down the sign and left but somehow our room didn't get cleaned. When we expressed our concern, all we were told was well, your do not disturb sign was up when the maid came through and we will clean your room tomorrow. That didn't do us any good as we checked out the next day. When I asked for some clean towels, I was told I had to go all the way back up to my room and bring them the dirty towels and then they would give me some more. Needlessly to say I was a bit miffed. The manager did not seem to care if we were satisfied or not and didn't even come out to talk to me. She stayed in her little cubby hole office and had the nice girl at the front desk deal out her news. Furthermore, when I email the corporate office about the experience we had, they sent me a form letter stating they would forward my email to the hotel (which didn't seem to care in the first place) and they hoped they would make it right. I never heard from the Holiday Inn Express in Corsicana. So I sent another email to corporate expressing my concern that I had never heard from the hotel. They sent me the same form letter saying they would forward my concerns to the hotel and put it in their file for corporate review. I guess Holiday Inn doesn't care about its customers or customer service. I definitely will not be staying in the Holiday Inn Express Corsicana again or probably any of their affiliated properties. There are as nice places to stay that have better customer service.