I wanted to start writing about this place after an hour here but I have so much more to say now... and none of it is good.

CHECK-IN: No big issues here, the girl at the desk (no badge) was mostly pleasant. I was recognized as a gold elite member and offered either a bottle of water, a bag of chips or a bag of peanuts. Choice of one item, that's new. She did point out what exterior door would be more convenient to use since the walk from the lobby to my room was approximately half the distance of the Boston Marathon.

ROOM ARRIVAL: Overall initial impression, dinghy. No dresser with drawers to keep my clothes just a sofa table with two small drawers. This would not be enough for a long trip. The bathroom floor was sticky but to be fair I paid attention as I went back through the lobby to see if it was my shoes... it wasn't my shoes. I also noticed hairs on the floor and that the base of the toilet was wet.

ROOM FEATURES: The bed was comfy enough and in the minimal room light the sheets appeared clean. There is a small shelf above the sink just big enough to not hold my toiletry bag and just big enough to eliminate any useful counter space around the sink. The desk chair would be more comfortable it it were switched out with two stacked milk crates and there is no channel guide for the TV so I had to hunt down the news channel I prefer to watch.

The air conditioner is noisy. When I first turned it on you could clearly hear what sounded like pipes rattling on low. When I turned it to high the rattling went away but the fan sounded like an MD-88 getting ready for take-off. I set the fan to low again and fiddled with the dial to try and select a comfortable temperature. When I awoke the next morning and stepped into the bathroom I was greeted with a running toilet. Apparently the handle sticks and the flapper doesn't close. Housekeeping left it running for me when I got back to my room after the first day out.

The next morning I had the distinct impression that the shower wasn't very hot but it was hot enough. This morning it wasn't even close to being room temperature it was COLD at 8:30 am. I called the front desk and they suggested that I let the water run longer. Then they sent maintenance to start tapping on my door while I was trying to take an unnecessary cold shower. After confirming that there was no cold water he tried to tell me that they had just replaced the entire hot water system yesterday. I am going to have to call BS on that or the response from the desk would have acknowledged this as I would expect for them to be flooded with calls this late on a business morning. I truly believe that their system can't keep up with the number of guests they have.

HOTEL IN-GENERAL: The lobby is okay but not impressive, the facility is typical to a Holiday Inn, very spread out. Vending machine prices are outrageous but I don't travel the northeast often enough to know if $2.00 for a bottle of Coke is outrageous. It is to me. It has been raining for two days and the parking lot should have sailboats in it by now as the entire right side of the building is nearly under water.

End result, I will finish out my stay here but only because I booked this hotel through my travel service at work and it takes an act of Congress to change something on the fly. I can guarantee that if I have to come to Peabody again I will give up the opportunity to build points and stay elsewhere.