Holiday Inn Express Sarasota East - I-75 by IHG in Sarasota

Our stay was creepy and gross. We checked in at 11:30pm and as soon as we walked into the lobby, it looked like a "one star" low budget hotel. Our bed was ok and offered decent sleep. The carpet had few large dark stains. I get that it's a hotel, so you will hear people talking and walking in halls. I even woke up in the middle of the night and heard a lady next door making "noises," if you know what I mean. Before we left our room in the morning, the lawn maintenance was blowing leaves outside at 8:30am. Good thing we didn't try to sleep in. For breakfast we had cereal and yogurt. You can't go wrong with those. My husband had a bite of the eggs and said it tasted like cardboard. I can't believe we paid $152. We had a better stay at DoubleTree for $115 and that was a one star hotel as well. We wouldn't stay again.

This past Saturday, I had one of the worst hotel experiences I’ve ever had, and that’s saying something. I’ve stayed at Holiday Inns before, so I walked in expecting the usual clean, decent, family-friendly environment. Instead, this location felt more like a chaotic pit stop with zero control.
From the moment we arrived, the lobby was crowded, loud, and full of people drinking their own alcohol right out in the open in front of young kids. I had two teenagers with me, and honestly, it didn’t feel safe or appropriate. There were also groups of unsupervised teens yelling, pushing each other, and slamming doors and walls. Not exactly the welcome you hope for after a long drive.
We booked two rooms. When we opened the first one, the nightmare began. The bed was filthy and undone, as if housekeeping never even touched the room. They moved us to the third floor, telling us we couldn’t get rooms close together if we wanted to move upstairs. The room we ended up in smelled like mold, but we were exhausted and didn’t want to deal with the lobby chaos again. The guy at the front desk mentioned the hotel had just been acquired and they “didn’t know what was going on.” Look, that’s not the guest’s problem, and it didn’t feel like they made much effort to keep things under control. The only person who showed absolute professionalism was the manager, Joe. He apologized and genuinely tried to help, but even with his efforts and free water, the situation remained horrible and worsened. Then

Bed dirty. After changing rooms, the second room had a faulty a/c and leaky shower head.

The room was iffy. The carpets definitely need to be replaced, they were stained and just felt crusty. There were beer bottle caps left under the table from the previous guests. The hot water did not work for our first shower, it was ice cold!! My husband went to get in and brave the water and it was scorching hot and would not change. Booked on ******* and chose the “pay at property option” (paid additional fees for that option) to pay cash, like we always do… and they said they “did not have a register and couldn’t accept cash” then proceeded to run my card I booked online with without asking or confirming that was the card i’d like to use.

Shouldnt be so greedy and let people have a credit to use at the location for another time if their trip gets canceled/rescheduled