Holiday Inn Express Middletown

Typical HI Express, comfortable and clean. Water pressure good, although I had to duck to get under the shower head. Front desk was very helpful, pool looked inviting, room was missing Kleenex, and the breakfast area was too small.

Despite staying at this hotel, on average, two visits per year (and in total easily 30 nights over the past several years), I feel that it’s going downhill in service and hopefully the owners will do something about it. I agree with other reviews that this HIE property is not quite up to standards of others in the chain (I stay with this chain almost exclusively), including the slightly smaller one down the road near King’s Island.
My last stay, just last week, was likely the final straw. I was willing to tolerate the ice machine not working for two of the three nights and hot tub jets (again) not working for two of the three nights (this is a frequent problem at this property and other reviewers have noted it). However, the real problem was in dealing with a front desk clerk named Kim. If management is reading this: please dismiss her. She was completely confrontational and argumentative with me in every situation and request I had. (I was the one traveling as a single dad with 4 kids in town to visit a grandmother dying in the hospital; one of the kids was a niece; one of my kids is special needs and between having to cut up his pancakes to keep him from choking, my other kids running off, etc etc I could have used a little understanding.) When I asked about the ice machine and hot tub, Kim asked if I was sure I wanted to continue my stay at the hotel as «it sounds like you’re not satisfied and we want you to be satisfied.» I’m pretty sure that if a manager heard her say this, in this situation, she would have been fired on the spot. When I replied that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stay but that it’d be even less convenient to switch hotels – looking around at my kids everywhere – she then launched into a condescending tone. I told her that I was a frequent guest and hoped for a little better treatment. She actually had the audacity to check her computer and argued that «no, I see you listed with one previous stay with us» which is incorrect, I’ve stayed numerous times, even reviewing the place positively in Travelocity reviews several years ago (I’m the dad who loved the place and said that my kids loved the place too… but too frequently raided their fruit bowl at the front desk). Who does this? What could she possibly gain by arguing with me repeatedly about everything? My 12 year old daughter came up to the front desk and volunteered how she likes staying there… I asked if she had stayed there very much and she said many many times for several years. My smirk only infuriated Kim. Now she got my daughter involved by saying, I’m not making any of this up, «boy your daddy sure likes to argue about everything, doesn’t he?» I replied, only when I think I’m correct… now just seeing if she would let it go or continue, having to get the last word in – and hoping all of it was on closed circuit tv for her manager to see. No, she continued telling my daughter «your daddy thinks he’s right about everything doesn’t he?»
This was incredible. Does she do this with everyone. I’m sure she thought I was an ass. At a hotel front desk you probably get MANY people having bad days, staying there because their house burned down, got fired from a job, all sorts of terrible situations and feeling terrible. Does she then go out of there way to make their days worse? She did for mine. Clearly Kim doesn’t enjoy working at a hotel front desk. I’m sure it’s not for everyone. HIE needs to get rid of her as this is not the proper line of work for her. I travel a lot for my job, on average once every month. I’ve never ever had any experience remotely like this. Frankly, I’ve never had an experience where any sort of vendor /​purveyor has been confrontational with me like this.

Rooms are good, not as good as some Holiday Inn Expresses across the country I’ve been in. But room rates are reasonable and it’s one of few hotels remotely close to Miami University.