Holiday Inn Express Mesa Verde-Cortez, an IHG Hotel

I generally enjoy IHG hotels. What I loved about this one was that the place is themed beautifully since it’s so close to Mesa Verde & unique in that. I’ll also offer the disclaimer here that we arrived late in the evening. The front desk staff helped us check in quickly which was nice after being on the road for many hours. Unfortunately the room we received seemed to be in various states of disrepair. The lamp was askew because it was broken, the curtain rod to shut them was broken off & the toilet was broken - no water was coming in & we couldn’t flush nor could we turn the water knob to get it back on. We appreciated the front desk attendant giving us a quick solution in that he was able to open the adjoining room & offered for us to use that restroom. When we tried to leave, the elevator seemed to be stuck so we had to take the stairs. So it wasn’t an all around bad experience, but it wasn’t the best, or consistent with my usual IHG experiences.

Booked the family suite for our trip to Mesa Verde. The bunk room was fantastic for our kids but I specifically booked this because of the pool, only to find upon check in that it was closed and had been closed for weeks. I expressed my frustration to the clerk only to be told "it's on our website" but I had booked this back in January in preparation for a 2 week trip. She asked if I wanted to cancel but we'd driven from Wisconsin so what was I supposed to do? Holiday Inn should have to send out a notice to those people that already had reservations when it's going to be WEEKS of not being able to offer an amenity I am paying for. The TV took forever to turn on, figure out, and then direct TV had to do a bunch of updates before it worked. Edited to add: a few hours after getting settled we discovered the shower didn't work. Spent an hour moving rooms. New room was smaller, lamp broken, and the microwave and fridge were plugged into a power cord that wasn't turned on so fridge was hot and I had to move furniture to get it turned on. No apology, no offer of compensation. Several homeless people wandering in and out getting coffee and using the bathroom and even heard one trying to lie about losing a room key. Does NOT feel safe. Next morning, 8:30am housekeeping is knocking on the door. My kids are still sleeping! Breakfast had a lot of options but that doesn't matter if your guests have to go find your staff sitting on the counter in the kitchen and tell them they're out of stuff

First thing you notice is the beautiful design, inside and out. The common areas are decorated beautifully. Second, warm friendly staff. All of them we’ve encountered are. Third, nice rooms. We had a king standard, and though it was fresh and in exceptional condition, theres not a lot of space for two standard checked bags. Sink counter space is limited, but the additional shelf helps. The bed was comfortable, and the other furnishings seemed new also. We felt good returning here daily, and would definitely stay here if we return.

The location of this place is fantastic, offering convenient access to nearby attractions and amenities. However, there were a couple of frustrating issues during our stay. The swimming pool was under maintenance, which was a big letdown since we had planned to spend some time relaxing there. To make matters worse, the housekeeper knocked on our door before 10 a.m., which was extremely annoying and disrupted our morning. It would have been much better if the staff respected a later time for housekeeping. While the stay had its positives, these inconveniences definitely took away from the overall experience.

When we checked in the power was out (had been out for a while). The clerk was amazingly calm and checked us in, the door was open so we could go in the dark room. The power came on about 2 hours later. There was no compensation for the dark room (it was an hour before and after sunset), which was disappointing. Thankfully we thought to turn "on" the light so we'd know when the power came back on. There was no notification, no one checking on people, etc. Kind of like - whatever - we aren't sorry (they had no control we were told when we needed a light bulb a couple minutes after the power came on). The room wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible. It was just a hotel room with some wear and tear on it over the years. The windows were old, so maybe built in the 1990s? Beds were comfortable and blankets and pillows were good.