Holiday Inn Auburn-Finger Lakes Region by IHG

The hotel had a nice indoor pool. We had good beds. Staff was great especially Ke’Shawn he was very kind and helpful please let him and his manager know what a good job he does.

I have been staying at this hotel for years, had birthday parties here, celebrated Christmas's and holidays, and a long long time ago I even used to work there, but it has been awhile since I stayed there prior to Valentine's Day 2026. I am a travel agent and I travel a lot and stay at a lot of hotels. I love to swim and there are only 2 options in Auburn, NY, unfortunately, and I don't care for Hilton's pool the next block over because it is surrounded by windows so the room is cold. However, after last weekend, I will never be staying at this hotel again or any Holiday Inn. We arrived at 4:00pm on Valentine's Day, check-in is at 3:00pm, and the front desk attendant proceeded to tell us they didn't have any rooms ready. Uh......what? It's 4:00. I could understand if we were early or even 5 - 10 minutes after 3:00pm, but we were not. So, he calls housekeeping and finds out that room #203 is ready, directly to the side of the service elevator. Ok, fine. All night long it was "Boom Boom Boom Boom" from the elevator doors slamming shut and mechanical clanking noises etc. and when we turned on the air conditioner to cool down the sweltering room, it sounded like a freight train for the duration it was on. This clunking symphony continued all night (and morning). Fine. I'm not usually bothered by much, but I was definitely annoyed. Then we went to get in the pool, but there were a bunch of kids/people in there, so I decided to wait. Being a plus-sized girl I am not really a big fan of running the hallways in my bathing suit for everyone to see, so my fiance checked the pool every 1/2 hour to see if it had cleared out any. No. Ok, I guess I'll get up early in the morning and go swimming. It should be quieter then. Well, when I got up in the morning, I went to use the black make-up washcloth they give guests to use for makeup removal and when I opened it up, there were crusty bits of God knows what in it, but it looked like morning eye crusties.....not from me or the fiance.......so I couldn't use that disgusting thing. I then realized that we had only been given one set of towels, including one washcloth, for a room for 2 people. Since I couldn't use the makeup washcloth and my fiance had already used the one and only regular washcloth, he had to go hunt down the non-existent housekeeping staff to find a washcloth for me. After this, we finally head out to go down to the pool, and when we get to the main elevator (that comes out right next to the pool..........it is out of order. Are you kidding me? At this point I am starting to get really frustrated that I stayed here and I am about to check-out and go home, but I really still wanted to go swimming since I paid just under $200 to do that, so we headed down the stairs across from the elevator and tried not to freeze to death in our swimming attire while the stairway area temp was about 10 degrees because it is also connected to an outside door at the bottom and the stairways are clearly not heated. Now, on the IHG (Holiday Inn's parent company/owner) app, it states that the pool operating hours are: 9:00am - 8:00pm. Ok, it's 9:30am and we try to open the gate, and it's locked. The sign on the front of the locked gate states that the "Atrium quiet hours are 9:00pm - 9:00am." Ok, it's 9:30am, so fiance heads to the front desk to inquire about getting the gate unlocked. While he is gone, a family with little kids all ready with their bathing suits and swimmies on, comes down to go swimming too. Fiance returns from the front desk, who is refusing to open the pool, and he un-velcros the sign from the gate to take to the front desk to show them what it says. I double check the IHG app to make sure I read the pool hours correctly and the manager at the front desk, Carrie, says that she has to "Verify that" and also that "she has no idea who put that sign there" and proceeds to do nothing but refuse to open the pool. Oh, and by the way, the actual Holiday Inn website also lists the exact same pool operating hours as the IHG app, Carrie. Quiet hours were respected, 9:00pm - 9:00am, there was absolutely nothing else going on that day, and you had multiple people waiting to get in the pool and yet, the great and wonderful Carrie could care less about the little kids excited to go swimming, hospitality or customer service of any kind, or actually knowing what Holiday Inn's own website and app actually say, and was more interested in being rude and inhospitable. Hotels are a part of the hospitality industry and customer service is my number one priority. Without it, you shouldn't be in this business. Without it, your value proposition is ZERO. I am more than happy to spend my money elsewhere and recommend all my clients do so as well during their travels. Thank you Carrie, for not having any idea how to represent the hospitality industry.

We stayed 2x and loved it thanks to the wonderful bartender Roxanne. The front desk manager Carrie was also great and the rooms clean. Pool was a highlight and Roxanne made a special waffle for the kids!♥️ Hospitality on point, thank you!