Holiday Inn Express Bakersfield Central

Will not return! When we checked in we were greeted by multiple homeless people in the entry doorway walking the parking lot. They were talking and yelling strange things and talking out of their heads. I was surprised the hotel allowed this behavior on private property. Was not a good first impression. The lady at the front desk at checkin was SO rude. Not friendly at all. We checked in late, around 10:00 pm after traveling all day and she acted like it was an inconvenience for her. They were not busy and parking lot was not full, but she appeared to be doing other things at checkin and didn't have time for us. When we entered the room, part of the window was broken. Normally, we wouldn't care, but the lady at the front desk rudely stressed we WOULD be charged for any damage to the room so we called the front desk immediately. She said she would "try" to note the damage on the account. The damage deposit is a normal thing at any hotel, but because of her bad attitude and not sure if she could make a note, we took a time stamped video and pictures showing the damage at checkin just to be safe. Breakfast was terrible. Food was cold and not refilled. There was only one other couple besides us at breakfast until multiple workers came to eat breakfast and changed the giant tv to a rated R movie with violent scenes when we had our 10 year old daughter with us. We asked the front desk to change and they said they would, and never did. We checked out and about four hours later, we realized my daughter left her toiletry bag in the room. We called the hotel immediately when we realized it. Gave them the room number and the exact location of the bag. They said they would check with housekeeping and call us back. We never received a call so we called them back an hour later and they said housekeeping was on lunch and we couldn't talk to anyone. Called again two hours later and they said they were gone. Called that evening and asked for a manager and they said they would check with housekeeping the next day. Called the next day and the same exact runaround happened. First call, housekeeping on break; second call, said they had to check with housekeeping; third call, housekeeping gone for the day. Called the next day (this was our seventh call), they said they didn't have the bag and nothing they could do. Normally, this would not be a big deal, but our daughter was in tears because it contained her jewelry. Nothing of much value, but jewelry her friends had made her and things that meant a lot to her. Obviously, nothing of any monetary value, but clearly we knew that housekeeping had either taken the bag or thrown it away and we couldn't get the truth or even a straight answer from staff. After eight calls, we eventually gave up which I am sure they were happy about. The entire visit was very frustrating. So disappointing that this is an IHG hotel as we are priority members and always choose IHG properties on our vacations. I will add that this is in a VERY bad part of town and the next day as we were driving through Bakersfield we saw other hotels in better parts of town that we wished we had chosen. Would DEFINITELY not stay at this one again and wish I could give less than a one star rating, but it will not let me in the system.

Pros: kind staff, breakfast in the morning, free parking, nice location off the freeway. We went on a weekend and were pleasantly surprised that the hotel wasn't too busy. This made parking, breakfast, and elevator access easy. They also cleaned our room daily, which was nice. Cons: one of the two elevators is broken, construction in lobby, walls are super thin. At night I could hear the stomping of feet above throughout the night. The walls are thin and I could hear the passing trains in the night. There was a noise in the room that was loud. I think the refrigerator was broken. Sleep quality is the only area where I wasn't satisfied.

This hotel is easy on/off highway 99. Close to so many restaurants. Very clean, quiet and spacious. Complimentary breakfast area very clean. Small fitness area. Nice lobby area with a nice sitting area.

The front desk agent today at the Holiday Inn Express and Suites I stayed at last night was horribly, horribly rude. Her name, I believe was Maravella. She was stressed out by guests who arrived too early and took it out on me and my autistic daughter. She called at, by the clock in the room, 1:03. We had arrived at after 3 am and they had given us a 1 pm check out. When she called we had our back packs on and I was trying to get us out the door. I told her I was trying to get us out of the room and she continued to rudely berate me and threaten to charge me for another night. I explained I was trying to get my autistic daughter out and she said, "I don't care. What does that have to do with me? You need to get out so that the people checking in can get it." She has 0 customer service skills. When I tried to talk to her about it at checkout she doubled down on the rude. All I did was say, "By calling and being rude, all you did is make it take longer for us to get out of the room." She immediately got super defensive and loud and said she wasn't rude, I was. I said she acted the same on the phone as she was acting now and she then blamed her behavior on me and me being rude. As I was leaving she muttered Karen underneath her breath. Which I am not. I have never, ever complained about any of my stays in IHG hotels. I have stayed in this one several times and never complained. You can even see my positive review from 2020 below. She was HORRIBLE. She wouldn't even check me out and was just an awful person. She didn't even know who I was when I walked up but there was no smile, no greeting, no "how may I help you?" Just stared at me. I didn't inform hotel management because the awful woman at the front desk told me to leave. I never raised my voice but she definitely raised hers. She yelled at me. She called me rude, and then when we were face to face when I tried to explain that we were a few minutes late because my autistic daughter was having a hard time, she again said, "What does that have to do with me? I don't care about that." She clearly lacks not only all customer service skills but also lacks common human empathy. My daughter was literally right there with tears still in her eyes. She needs to learn about how to treat people who are different, like my non-verbal, high care needs autistic daughter, with kindness and respect. If she can't, I can only imagine the problems she will continue to cause with other disabled people.

Be careful about rates. This hotel will charge you $50 per person extra if you have more than 2 people. The booking websites won’t show you this. The IHG website will show this but it looks like other IHG hotels in the area won’t and I know other brands won’t. I’ve never had a hotel charge extra for 4 people in a two queen bed. I’d choose another hotel.