Holiday Inn Knoxville N Merchant Drive an IHG Hotel

The general manager Carol went above and beyond to make our stay enjoyable, without her personable service our stay would not be as remarkable. The room was well cleaned, the A/C worked very well and was quiet. I could hear extremely little to no noise what so ever from the nearby Interstate and the other guests were quiet as well. The bar service and restaurant were beyond reproach and had us dining in every night. I highly recommend this hotel, my wife and I will definitely be returning.

Filthy hotel in complete disrepair. This is the second time I have stayed here. This stay I was given a room that shouldn’t have even been in service. When I first entered I noticed the sofa was pulled away from wall crooked. Of course a pair of dirty socks behind it. The sofa arms of the sofa were completely shredded like a cat had been at it. The faux leather cushion, desk chair and headboard had all claw marks. Someone had a cat and it destroyed the furniture. The bathroom sink handle is about to fall off it is so loose. The stopper arm on the faucet was broken and stuck in the closed position. The bathroom floor was covered in long black hairs. The shower had black mold everywhere. All over caulk and door joints. Then there is the busted mattress. Literally a sink hole easily 6 inches deep on one side. The springs are busted. Frankly the sheets were so wrinkled I wasn’t confident they were clean. When I told the front desk in the morning of all my issues I wasn’t even offered an apology. Instead the woman looked at me and my two chihuahuas and began to berate me how the dogs weren’t on the reservation, not paid for and not on a pet floor. Like I was trying to cheat and not pay the pet fee. I had the dogs with me at check in. The lady who checked me in said nothing at all. Just threw me a room key as fast as she could. Zero customer service. How is this my fault? My room is disgusting and instead of any apology I am yelled at for my dogs who did nothing wrong nor did I. As a a platinum member and I am beyond furious how I was treated and the unacceptable accommodations I was given. An embarrassment to ihg and makes me want to take my business to another hotel company that actually treats customers decently. I had to call ihg customer service was assured hotel would contact me within 4 days and also refund me. A week has passed and absolutely nothing.

We were excited to come here for the UT vs Alabama game but quickly disheartened by the room we booked here. To begin, the desk manager announced our room number which should always be private. Then we walked in the room and it smells like urine and smoke. The bathroom sink is separated from the bathroom, so it does not have a vanity or much space to put personal items. The sheets were too short for the king bed, and the window curtains do not close so that the streetlight shines in the room all night. The second day we went to the city to explore and were gone for more than 11 hours. When we came back to the room at 10 pm, there was no housekeeping done, overflowing trashcans, no clean towels, no coffee or tea, and at $400 per night plus tax we should’ve had stellar service. The electricity turned off in the middle of the night and the hotel, blames it on a storm that did not occur. We had perfect weather! The hall lights and other room lights were on . Now the management is stating they will not provide any type of refund or discount because we should have told them we wanted housekeeping. They said the policy is to only clean rooms every other day, but we were not told that and the IHG Clean Policy does not state that. We were not told at check-in that we needed to ask for housekeeping. Extremely poor customer service on top of poor conditions!

This was not one of our best experiences and we travel a lot for work. They charged $8 for a subpar breakfast. The coffee was barely drinkable. The room was ok. The bed comfy so there's that. But there were no trash bags in the trash cans and 1 Lil k cup of reg coffee, so I went without. They accept dogs, yet have NO dog walk spaces or bags to clean up after your pets; luckily I come prepared. We usually stay in Staybridge suits which give you soo much more for your money. Stay in comfort stay at Staybridge. As an IHG member you can stay at either for basically the same price.

We have come to expect more from a Holiday Inn as IHG members. After 14 hours of bumper-to-bumper traffic, we arrived at 1 am. We had two rooms for two families. Check in was uneventful and easy. Beds were comfortable. It was my mistake to not read the fine print BUT breakfast was not included with our room. Upon re-reading the website, I now see that it is available but there is no mention of a charge or payment required. The bar is clearly mentioned but the wording for breakfast is not as clear. I should have been more diligent but it certainly was not obvious when I booked. We are accustomed to having breakfast included at IHG locations. One room had an incomplete sofa bedding package that was open and crumpled. It looked obviously used. I called the front desk but got a phone message that the extension I called was not valid. Huh? So I went to the front desk and was told that housekeeping doesn’t zip up the bedding bag. “It’s how they do it.” I stated that it obviously crumpled and she gave me fresh bedding. The other room had dried urine on the back of the toilet. It was soooo late, we cleaned it ourselves. (It always pays to pack travel sized Lysol and wipes.) Personally, we did not like the room layout. The bathroom sink and mirror were outside of the small bathroom, with the light shining directly on the bed. For families like ours that have someone who likes getting up first to get dressed, it makes it hard for the rest of the family to sleep. I have learned my lesson about doing due diligence before booking.