Holiday Inn Express Durham - (Unh)

After a night during which some big group made a lot of racket inside and outside late into the evening, our family got up after a rough night's sleep. Our son went to take a shower and found a broken metal lever on the side of tub in front of the shower handles. It was the lever that allowed the water to come from the shower head, which had clearly been discovered by housekeeping to be broken. Evidently no one told anybody and they gave us this room. After we noticed it, they did offer another room where we could access a shower, but that meant our family of four (in a rush to move on for the day) had to walk one by one with our shower stuff to another floor of the hotel just to be able to use a working shower. While the attendant was very nice and we got by, this made our morning much too hectic and unpleasant. OK, mistakes happen, but after paying a lot of money ($360 for a Holiday Inn Express) I kind of expected to be delighted with the response. We got a meek offer for $30 off. (They're saying we should pay 90% of the rate for a room that should never have been offered to a customer) There was no one there to escalate to, but I was told a manager would be in touch shortly after we checked out. No one ever called or e-mailed back, so I called. The manager I talked to said any further escalation would have be done during the week during business hours. As a busy professional, ugh! Ultimately it took about five phone calls, e-mailing, and about three days to get 21.7% off for the room. We therefore paid $282 for a room at a Holiday Inn Express that didn't have a working shower. We also went through a bunch of aggravation just to get that. Won't be back.

The hotel, apparently sharing a small parking lot with an apartment building, was quite different from other HIE I’ve stayed at lately. Fine, but people not staying at the hotel seem to congregate at the middle entrance (not visible from lobby area. Some come in and sit in the chairs by that door and play on their phones for extended periods. The rock propping the door open is a giveaway. If I were homeless, this is where I’d come for bathroom and wifi and AC. And maybe that explains why the room I was given had an unmade bed? The desk clerk was good about getting me another room (on the humid 3rd floor and smelling too much of Fabreze). A lot just seemed a bit sketchy.

Great location for visiting UNH. Room was clean, bed was comfortable, check in and out was quick and easy.

Convenient to UNH.

Very nice place

Great staff,