Holiday Inn Express Denver Downtown, an IHG Hotel in Denver, CO

Their rooms are too hot to sleep in. They know this is and has been a problem so they have purchased an abundance of box fans to placate guests! Dirty cleaning cloths were left on our countertop and the linen and cleaning supplies door was left open. I guess extra towels are self-serve.

I was on the 16th floor facing west when I checked in recently at 3 PM. I quickly realized how warm the room was, tried to adjust the thermostats and realized I couldn’t. I asked at the front desk if it was broken and was told they would send maintenance to come take a look. True to her word he showed up, went through the motions of checking the vents to make sure they weren’t blocked, and then told me the climate control in the hotel was centralized, and not able to be adjusted by room. He offered a fan which I gladly took. Friends who were also staying there told me the same exact story, I guess they figure it’s cheaper to buy fans for every room than to fix their air conditioning. If you are a person that likes it warm, this may not bother you at all, but I like to be cool rather than hot. My in room coffee maker did not work my first morning. I took it downstairs and the attendant at the desk was aloof. It was Friday morning and this person wore no staff uniform/markings at all. When she looked at me like I was crazy I asked if she worked there. She said yes, and took the machine saying she would have to get housekeeping to replace it. Which happened later in the day. I did enjoy the bedding and the hot breakfast with protein. The location is good and the price is reasonable for the area but you get what you pay for.

Unfortunately, I had a last minute work trip and didn’t realize the Nuggets had a home playoff game. Every single hotel I would typically stay at was booked and the only other options were to stay at the Ritz or outside of downtown. I figured since I was arriving at 11 PM and checking out at 8 AM, anything with a convenient location would suffice. At the risk of sounding like a snob (and I’ve stayed in some random hotels off of highways in rural areas) - this was a mistake. First off, when I arrived the staff was sitting on the bench in the waiting area (I hesitate to call it a lobby) on their phones. No biggie, but I was confused who was checking me in. Then one of the duo (still on the bench while the other was checking me in) said, “Thanks for making us wait - you’re one of the last people checking in tonight.” I couldn’t tell if this was meant to be funny, but after a cross country flight I wasn’t in the mood. I will give an extra star because I forgot toothpaste and the employee that checked me in graciously gave me two pouches. This brings me to the room. I genuinely considered asking if they meant to send me to this room because it looked like it had been “tidied up” but NOT cleaned to even the standard of a Holiday Inn Express. The towels were haphazardly folded, the bathtub was dirty, the bed looked like a teenager made it. After doing a sniff test and thoroughly checking to make sure there was no evidence that someone had actually slept in the bed, I decided to let it go since I just had to make it through 8 hours, shower as quickly as possible and GTFO. Nevertheless, my primary reason for this review is the fact that once I dropped my bag off and accepted my fate, I immediately looked for the air conditioning to cure the intense muggy, humid, stale atmosphere of the room. Now, I am not from Colorado and haven’t spent much time here outside of winter months , but it never occurred to me that a major hotel chain in the middle of downtown charging $300 a night on a Tuesday would not have air conditioning. I arrived around 10:45 PM and called the front desk about 10 minutes later to ask how to turn the air conditioning on. The receptionist said, “We have to have someone turn it on, do you want it turned on?” And I said yes. I assumed this meant someone had to turn it on somehow in the room. No one shows up after 20 minutes. I try to be patient, but surely it can’t be that busy right now and I’m desperate to go to sleep in a comfortable temperature. I call back and now I receive a different response. During this call, the receptionist says, sorry it’s central air and we don’t have anyone here that can turn it on. I push back on this a bit because surely I cannot be the only person complaining. I am then placed on hold for another 20 minutes. Finally, she returns to the line and says they can either move me to another room (but she can’t promise it will be better because the air conditioning cannot be turned on - duh) or she can bring me a fan. Mind you, this is not an unfortunate situation where the air conditioning suffered a failure and they’re trying to mitigate a problem. It’s about midnight at this point and I’m exhausted so I agree for them to bring me a fan. As on brand as you’d expect, the fan never arrives. Now I see why this was the ONLY hotel in the $300 to $700 a night range that was available - because most people are smart enough to read the reviews, unlike me!

Room was WIDE OPEN when we got to it, which freaked me out. Housekeeping/maintenance knocked 3 TIMES, why I have no clue, but it was ANNOYINGT!! There were big chunks of paint chips from the ceiling over our bathtub, causing major clogging. Had to stand in 2-3" of water to shower. GROSS! Coffee maker DID NOT work, no hair dryer, TINY room for 2 people! NEVER EVER again!

This hotel appears to be trying to cut corners in the weirdest ways. No trash bags in the room cans. No plates (bowls only) at the breakfast buffet. And here is the really good one - you have no say in your room temperature. You must call the front desk if your room is too hot or cold. Ours was 78 degrees, so they brought us a fan… The a/c isn’t on. Heat only. It was impossible to sleep, so we left the next morning and went to the Hilton a block over - I was able to set the temperature in my room there and was comfortable. We weren’t the only people complaining about the room temps and the idea that a fan will fix it.