Hotel Holiday Inn Express a Douglas

Let me start this review by saying something pleasant. This Holiday Inn Express has some of the nicest, friendliest staff I've ever encountered in any of the chain. The bed was roomy, comfortable, and well stocked with comfy pillows. The hotel Internet was easily accessed and fast. Let's look now at the rest of the stay. This was not the hotel's fault, but the city had suffered a broken water main on the day of my arrival. There was no water. None. No ice. No swimming pool access. Outside, only a limited number of restaurants and fast food places were open. The hotel staff kept up with news about the break and could give up to the minute updates. It was about 3 a.m. before there was a good stream of water from the taps. When you're driving in through the entrance to the hotel grounds you may notice a pothole that has been there for quite a while. I hit it once by accident and thought for a second that another car had struck mine. Be aware of its presence. There appears to be no intention of filling it in or otherwise correcting the problem. The carpeting in my room was vacuumed well. However, there were smudges of some kind here and there. The one in this room needed either shampooing or replacing. I stepped out of the room a while after checking in and almost trod upon a cockroach, something I've not seen in Holiday Inn hotels before. It scurried under a door marked staff only, which turned out to be the laundry and linen room. There are stains on this face cloth. (See picture.) I don't like to speculate what they might be, but it should not have been put out with the other bath cloths. I almost washed my face with it before noticing something wasn't right. The express breakfast in this chain is geared to the guest who is up and about to be on his way in the early morning. The scrambled eggs were good, the sausage links were a bit on the hot side, and the biscuits were good. There are usually bananas, but this time the offering was what looked like, maybe, I guess (?) oranges. Whatever they were, they looked shrunken and I suspected they were able to legally vote. There is almost always a dispensing machine with two or three kinds of fruit juice. This hotel has one too, but this morning it had an out-of-order sign. (Here's a tip, Holiday Inn: Get it fixed.) I don't drink coffee, but there were little cartons of 2% milk and they were all right. So for the friendly and helpful employees I'll give this hotel 4 stars. The rest of the it, well, not so many. I was sort of glad to be on my way later in the morning.