My sister and her family of seven have been displaced from their home due to a fire. They have spent 9 weeks at this hotel. The manager and staff have been so kind to them. The manager, Larry, even cooked them a homemade dinner last week. This is something that he nor his staff had to do. This act of kindness meant so much to my sister and her family. They have had to deal with insurance, contractors, ect..which can be very exhausting. Larry and his staff have made all of this more bearable.
Thank you for taking such good care of them.
Sister from Colorado

Althought I was traveling with my husband and two kids (11 &3), I booked the "girls night out/shopping package". We got a $25 AmerExpress gift card, $15 Max & Erma gift card (in the hotel-kids eat free if you stayed at the hotel) and a coupon book for the outlet (we didn't use).

The front desk staff was freindly and helpful. The hotel was clean. There is a restaurant and a seperate lounge/pub which had live entertainment on the patio the night we were there. I was worried about the noise but we didn't hear a thing! We did not have time to use the pool, but I did take advantage of the free internet.

My only complaint was that I thought I reserved a room with Queen beds, but we were given the standard full size. I had my confirmation number, but didn't write down details, so I had to take their word for it. The beds were comfortable and we got a good nights sleep after a day of shopping at the outlet.

Location is marginally adequate for a single night while passing through or temporarily in the area on business. The Holiday Inn at the Roberts convention center on interstate I71 is more convenient to everything but the local college, and offers a far nicer property at comparable, single night rates. If you're planning on a longer term stay-renting by the week, or month, the rooms at the Holiday Inn Express in Wilmington leave a lot to be desired in terms of cleanliness & price.

The continental breakfast isn't bad, pretty much typical of all Holiday Inn Express properties. For a semi-rural location, the pricing for semi-regular guests isn't competitive with other area hotels in the luxury budget classification. The local Hampton Inn, or General Denver ( a Wilmington area B&B) have better rates, nicer properties, equal or better breakfasts with far cleaner rooms. Dominated by the local college, the Wilmington Inn is far less expensive, but a bit older with fewer amenities.

The main saving grace for this property is a tremendously friendly, outgoing and competent evening shift staff at the front desk. Based on the prospect of a faltering to completely failing economy in the Wilmington area, the staff isn't enough to keep the property financially viable-they will have to step up and offer at least the industry average in terms of cleanliness and value.

We booked a 2 bed suite because we have a special, medical needs child. Our friends booked a regular room to be near us. When my husband arrived to check in, he was told our reservation was cancelled that morning at 7 am. I guaranteed it with a credit card. Later, after 10+ conversations with the staff, it was discovered the morning clerk had granted an extended stay to the people who were in the room the night before. This in turn, cancelled our reservation and left us w/o a room which would accommodate our needs (hence the reason we booked the suite with the refrigerator for medicine, space, etc.). I requested to speak to the manger 3 times and was told he only works M-F 7-4 but she called him at home and he said giving us $30 off a plain room was the best they could do. They "threw in" 3 1,000 point vouchers to help with the unavoidable situation (how can someone extend their reservation if someon else is booked in the room for the next day)??? We discovered the 1000 point vouchers expired a year ago so they aren't even valid anyhow. When I expressed this was unacceptable to me, it was explained take it or leave it, this is the best we could do. We were so unhappy but it was late at night and we had driven for 2 hours in a snowstorm due to a convention in the area. We will NEVER stay at the Wilmington HI Express again. We love the HI Express chain and have stayed many times. Depending on how this situation works out, we may never stay again. BEWARE - just because you have a reservation/confirmation and have given them your credit card, they don't have to honor it per Larry Hall - General Manager.

P.S. my credit card was charged twice on 2/21 - once for the original room and once for the room we actually were "allowed to stay in". Amazing.