Hotel Holiday Inn Express a Westchester

I have been with IHG group for several years and I have always enjoyed staying in one of your hotels. I never experienced any small issue with your brand so IHG group had always been one of my top choice whenever I planned to travel. However, I just had one of the worst experiences with one of my recent bookings, which changed my impression about IHG group and I would like to share this with you. I made my booking on September 9, 2021 at Holiday Inn Express Cincinnati North – Liberty Way for one night from 9/18/2021 to 9/19/2021. I was with my 2 kids (2 and 4 years old) and arrived at the hotel around 8:30pm after a very long drive and a full day of outdoor activities. Due to the busy schedule, the kids had not yet eaten dinner at that time. We grabbed dinner to-go and was planning on eating at the hotel after check-in. When I tried to check in, they could not find my name on the list and I was told my reservation was cancelled. The receptionist asked me if I received a call from her manager but I did not receive any call, email, nor voicemail. As far as I could tell, there was absolutely no attempts to notify me of the cancellation. I was so frustrated when I was informed the cancellation. In my previous experiences, I always received the call and they would at least transfer me to another hotel. I would not be so frustrated if I at least received an email notification so I could plan ahead. With two young kids, it is extremely important for us to be able to rely on the plans we have set. We had been counting on our room being available (otherwise what is the point of a reservation) and it was both extremely disappointing and beyond inconvenient to find out the hard way that perhaps the IHG brand was not one that we could rely on. In the end, the receptionist simply said there was nothing they could do to help me. When asked to speak with a manager, I was told there was no manager available. They made no attempts to locate a manager, no effort in trying to transfer my reservation nor did they bother to make any calls to other hotels to check availability on my behalf. I was more or less told to leave and that there was nothing they could do to help me. I had to scramble to find another hotel much further away while hungry kids were crying in the back seat and I had to pay significantly more ($200+) for a last minute room elsewhere. I am shocked that my reservation was cancelled without any notification at all, there was no manager at the hotel available to speak with me and there were no attempts made by anyone at the hotel to try and fix or ease the situation in any way.