We recently stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Anchorage for three nights in late October. There are many things about this hotel to recommend it but a few things that the management should look into. Lets start with the good: Nice comfortable lobby, a tasty hot breakfast incuding a pancake machine (never saw one of those before), scrambled eggs, biscuts and gravy and some type of breakfast meat (bacon, ham or sausage). The rooms are fairly spacious and comfortable and everything seemed to be clean and well maintained. The room had a good sized fridge and a microwave (which we did not use and frankly I would prefer the space be used for a room safe instead).The price was reasonable for the area and the hotel is certainly conveniently located.

The staff was friendly and tried to be helpful. This leads me to the not-so-good, although the staff tried to be helpful, I feel that they lacked the training needed. On almost every interaction the person at the front had to go get someone else to help. Another negative occurred when quite early in the morning the maid came to our room and asked us if we would like it cleaned. I responded yes but could she give us a few minutes, She said yes but apparently forgot to return as the room was never cleaned. In the late afternoon, after returning to our room, I called housekeeping with no answer and then the front desk explaining our room had not been cleaned but we at least needed clean towels. Someone did bring up the towels and emptied our trash. She explained that they had sent the cleaning staff home early. Shouldn't the maid have told them she hadn't cleaned all the rooms before she left?

In the balance, the good outweighs the less than good and we enjoyed our stay. We will definitely return.

All of the hotels in Anchorage were expensive. This one was a bit cheaper at $180 a night and a bit closer to REI where we wanted to shop before heading on to Seward. So we selected it since it was a fast easy trip from the airport, too.

It was my first stay as a platinum priority club rewards member. I asked about the complimentary upgrade upon arrival as is a benefit of my level. I was told I had a very nice room with 2 beds already. I didn't push it.

We settled in by unpacking our necessities for the night. I opened the window to see I had the worst view in the entire hotel - a view of someone's backyard shed. I did ask about my member level at the desk on the way out to the store. She said my reservation said I was club level - the lowest. Apparently she decided I was making it up when I told her my level and she didn't allow the upgrade. At this time she said she could move me to a better room on a higher floor. I declined since we were only staying one night and after the long flight from FL we just wanted to get our shopping over with, eat and go to bed.

I did see them handing out bottled water to others at check in later. I asked about that. The response was "oh, did we forget to give it to you? " And then they gave us some.

The breakfast was better than I remember from HI express in the past. There was a large selection of hot and cold foods. Some were even healthy choices. This and the clean room have kept me from giving a terrible rating which is deserved by the next complaint alone.

Upon checkout we were told we had a long distance phone charge. Really? Well we didn't even make a local call, much less a long distance call. We explained that we both have cell phones that work in Alaska on our full coverage AT&T plan. We were told the charge was removed and given a bill showing no phone charge.

A few days later the same $8+ charge appeared on our credit card statement on line. It took 4 calls to finally get through to the manager who said it would be removed right away. A week later it was still there. I called back 2 more times and was put off with statements that the manager was not there. I asked them to leave him a message, since I'd already left one, requesting the charge be immediately removed so I wouldn't need to call Holiday Inn corporate guest services. A few more days passed. We tried disputing the charge with the credit card company but because this hotel is on their "special" list of some sort for being trustworthy, it wasn't disputable on line.

I called corporate Holiday Inn. I told them the story about the overcharge. It was cleared within 24 hours after this. The local Anchorage Holiday Inn was supposed to call us either way within 48 hours according to Holiday Inn. That call of apology was never made. At least the charge was eventually removed but not without a lot of time and effort on our part. All for $8 and a few cents.

Even if all had gone well, I'd say this hotel is a bad value. $180 plus tax for a Holiday Inn Express? Next time I'll use priceline and take what I get at 4 stars in downtown at a better price. Or book the Sheraton direct for a few dollars more.

I'm usually so good at picking hotels. I messed up this time. Welcome to Platinum priority club level.

Spent one night, clean and comfortable room, was very convenient for arriving late at night at the airport

Stayed one night on reward points before a cruise. Reservations were in order on arrival. Room was clean and quite even though hotel seemed pretty full. Great shower for budget hotel. Airport shuttle was very prompt for pick-up on arrival and to drop us off next morning to get our coach to cruise ship. Free breakfast was good (decent coffee, scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy, cereals yoghurt).