Stayed here for two nights in early December while visiting Colonial Williamsburg. This is a pretty typical Holiday Inn Express (I've stayed in several other Holiday Inn Express hotels).

The positives included:

1. Good, helpful front desk staff. Nice fireplace in reception area.

2. Good breakfast, particularly enjoyed the ham / Canadian bacon one moring. Plenty of seating for breakfast and good layout (unlike others whether the food and dining area has been crowded, this was well-designed and spacious).

3. Excellent, modern high-speed PC set-up in lounge area for those who don't carry their laptops with them.

4. Nice, modern, clean hotel in safe area. Housekeeping, however, could have been improved in the bathroom in my room. The tub tile walls and the toliet needed a thoroug scrubbing as there was some dirt and mold.

The negatives were limited to:

1. No real spa / hot tub. There is an indoor pool area that was nice and clean. The pool room itself was well-heated, but the water could have been warmer. This may have explained the lack of activity at the pool. The major disappointment (and a big NEGATIVE) in my view was there was no separate spa. You could turn jets on in a part of the pool, but the seating arrangement was awkward and the water temp was no warmer than in the rest of the pool. This is not a spa, in my view! I enjoy relaxing in a spa and this was not available here.

2. The location was OK, but there was no where that you could easily and quickly walk to a restaurant and / or bar without crossing a major highway. The Express hotels do not provide facilities, which is fine, but many are better located with a nearer source of evening food and entertainment. There are many other hotels in Williamsburg that at either closer to Colonial Williamsburg or other attractions or next to places to dine.

I would like to commend the Holiday Inn Express for the excellent customer service I recieved while visiting. From the time i checked in until the time i checked out, i was treated like royalty. Everyone was kind, friendly and most helpful when i needed help. I could not have asked for better accommodations. I would recommend this hotel to anyone looking for a nice get-away.

I would also like to give special recognition to the General Manager (Tracey) for her assistance.

Zeke Craddock

Room 221 is Haunted. "Someone" called 911 from our room making the cops show up and bang on our door twice in the middle of the night. However our phone was dead everytime we checked it. Cops said this is the 3RD time since labor day that this has happened from the same exact room. We ended up getting our room comped though which was nice.

If you have to pay full price, don't bother. It's an older hotel that shows its wear.

The good:
-We only paid $62/night through Hotwire. That made it a good deal for us.
-Seemed pretty clean.
-We liked the location...places to eat nearby, and not too far from Colonial Williamsburg.

The bad:
-Our first night was on the first floor at the end of the hall near the door. People using it woke us up *way* earlier than we wanted.
-If you don't want room service, be sure to put your do not disturb sign out, otherwise, they will come pounding on your door at 9:15am. That was early for us with the schedule we were keeping at the time.
-The towels were ROUGH! My two year old complained they hurt.
-The housekeeping staff were super loud...yelling from one end of the hall to the other -- not professional.
-Housekeeping staff smoked outside the side and back entrances, allowing the smell to make its way into the building, and causing us to have to walk through it with our two little ones.
-No vents in the bathrooms. Any temperature shower makes the bathroom steamy.
-Normal wear and tear could be better maintained.

We spoke with the front desk about the noise due to the door. They allowed us to change rooms to a much quieter location the next night. We were happy there.

We also addressed the issue with housekeeping pounding on the door. They said that is policy because some people just check out and don't tell them when they leave. I've traveled a lot and never encountered this elsewhere. I think another approach would be better, one that doesn't bother the guests until after checkout time, at least.

Because of the price, we would try Hotwire for this location again, but we would not pay the full price the hotel asks.