We spent a one-night stay at Holiday Inn Express Albany Airport for a quick trip to Albany to visit some relatives. There are quite a few hotel options in the area but we opted for this hotel as it was reasonably priced and included such amenities as an indoor pool and hot breakfast. For our purpose, the location wasn’t too far, approximately 15 minutes from the area where we spent most of our time.

The hotel is located in a very densely commercial area full of stores and restaurants, including a mall right across the street. The property is not big but offers ample parking for guests. However, the spaces are tight so extra care would be needed for those driving new or higher end luxury vehicles.

Check-in was quick and painless with the reception staff being courteous and friendly. I believe they offer coffee and cookies in the lobby during the day (on a first-come, first serve basis, of course). The hotel does not appear old but it does not look new either. It did not look in disarray and had some modern furnishings but it certainly could use some updating. Our room, much like the hallway and the rest of the hotel, have a low ceiling, which, in these days is standard, I guess. I am not that tall but I can reach to the ceiling inside the bathroom. It did not smell of any smoke nor any foul odor but could have smelled fresher, for our preference. The bathroom is quite tiny and the shower water pressure, even though we were located on the first floor, was non-existent. It appeared that they did renovate the vanity and sink, which was located outside of the bathroom, since it is quite new (likely the best part of the room). Our first floor window looked out to a walkway through the hotel property. Guests can use this walkway to get from one side of the parking area of the building to the middle part of the hotel. We mainly saw staff using this to push garbage containers in and out of the hotel (so not really much of a view). The indoor pool, according to our companions, is about the size of their room (which really is the size of all the rooms, just varying number and/or size of beds inside). Their breakfast, is one of the better ones in the industry, as they offer a few hot dishes including (self made-to-order) pancakes, French Toast, eggs, omelet, sausages (both regular and turkey), a variety of breads and juices and, thankfully, coffee.

I would say our one-night stay was a non-event except it wasn’t. At 3:00 am, on our only night, one of our child woke up in discomfort. Upon trying to figure out the issue, we discovered that she had broken into rashes/welts. Her back was full of them. We immediately had our children move into our bed and gave our child another shower to wash whatever she was exposed to. I wouldn’t think it was bed bugs as we did not see any for the amount of rash/welts that she had. It is more likely the uncleanliness or dirtiness of the sheets. As we were leaving the room, we did not necessarily see room service in the hallway as one would usually see during checkout time in most hotels. So not quite sure when room service cleans the rooms to turnover for the next customer. We notified the reception staff of our experience when we checked out and even showed her pictures of our child’s back. She apologized for our bad experience.

So…..

The GOOD:

The breakfast. Quite a variety of choices, including hot dishes.
Hotel location. Not too far from a number of restaurants, pharmacy and a mall.
Cable TV, to help you sleep as you watch commercials.
DOVE. They have Dove (pump bottles) products (i.e., lotion, soap, bodywash, shampoo and conditioner) attached to the bathtub and sink wall for easy use.

The BAD:

The hotel should update/renovate from the ground up. Maybe a fresh coat of paint, some new carpets, etc.
The driveway into the hotel is somewhat of a steep angle and a bit narrow for two cars to navigate at the same time while entering and exiting the premises.
The parking spots are smaller than usual.
The indoor pool which resembled a jacuzzi in size just without the bubbles.
The TV is one of the smaller ones in the industry. Likely 38 inches (again, one of the items that may need updating).

The UGLY:

The bedsheet/bed incident where our child broke out in rashes/welts.
The smell of smoke (both cigarette and illegal substance), while not totally discernible inside the rooms, was evident throughout the property. The odor of cigarette smoke is one thing but the smell of the other substance can be associated with some safety and security issues and it is a concern you’d rather not have there being no obvious security on-site.

At the end of the day, was the hotel successful in providing the basic service that it (not promise, but) said it would afford at the price that the customer paid? If you call passing out because of exhaustion due to having to deal with an issue caused by the hotel premises sleep, then, I guess it would count. Not for the majority of us, I would think.
Was the breakfast good? More than edible and was actually better than what most hotels serve.
Was the pool acceptable? It was indoor and good enough for small children.
Was the place safe and secure? It was not dangerous but the people milling around the back in the middle of the night and smoking something illegal did not necessarily evoke safety and security.

The hotel understandably gets most of it’s business from travelers just needing a place for a one-night stay like us. And they likely don’t have any issues getting reservations from these types of customers. For us, lesson learned, as we will spend the extra $20, $40 or even $60 to actually get somewhat of a good, safe and enjoyable experience staying somewhere else next time (which is sooner rather than later as we have some business to attend to in the area).

We’ve stayed at other Holiday Inn Express properties including those in El Segundo, California, and Montgomery, NY. I must say, the experience between those and this property was night and day, almost so that those branches could have been from a different brand entirely.