Holiday Inn Express & Suites Carlsbad

Clean spacious room. Very friendly front desk staff. Stocked and clean breakfast room. Great pancake machine.

For the price, I expected more. But, the hotel staff was nice. The pool was smaller than the online pictures look. I would be happier if their hot breakfast would better. At least that would make up for the high price for a room. The other hotels in town looked decent, so maybe we’ll try one of those next time. This one didn’t really leave me with anything to make me want to recommend it to others or stay again myself next time.

We arrived late & ac was off in our room. Room never cooled off the first night. Breakfast was good. Lots of items hot & cold. Great service from the breakfast ladies. Pool was nice & clean & hot tub was too. The window in our room leaked when it rained. We were offered another room but declined-​it was late. We were given extra points for our troubles. I think $ 200 a night is too expensive-​we used our points for free nights. Nice staff.

Rooms decent size. Nice maids. Not spotless but clean. Front desk welcoming. Breakfast ends very early. Nice menu but never got to partake. Short drive to caves. Mall and food in walking distance. Pricey but oil town. Halliburton is regular at hotel but no mud and mess that normally come from oil company workers.

This IHG property GOUGES. No other way to characterize their rates which are TRIPLE the national average. This is NOT a destination resort. I pay $ 339/​night at the Four Seasons at Nevis in the Caribbean, but naïve tourists will pay that at this non-​destination rural town. IHG corporate is aware and has done nothing. Let the oil and gas companies keep paying their ridiculous rates (yes, there is some kind of «oil boom» in area). For the tourist/​traveler SUGGEST YOU DRIVE ON TO NEXT TOWN where you won’t be highway robbed for a basic Holiday Inn EXPRESS room!

Price quoted in
was $ 159 when inquired about AAA, military or senior rates, was told there was a special deal for weekend, holiday and seniors of $ 259! Asked about why, Barbara said there was an error or an old booklet. Hmm. Got the booklet today at Las Vegas, NM visitor center. Are also IHG members. Had much better experience in South last year at H Express!

Room was great until a bug slipped out from under the sheets. I caught him in a tissue and took it to the front desk. They moved me, but I’m not comfortable with the hygiene here now. Gross.
I tweeted IHG to tell them about the situation, and they asked for an email. I sent it (with bug pictures), and they told me to talk to mgmt. In the AM I spoke with the asst mgr, who didn’t seem overly concerned and told me to contact IHG if I wanted my points refunded. So not really their problem other than they said they’d call an exterminator. I emailed IHG again and told them it wasn’t the hotel’s concern, and then got an email back from the office and IHG. Points refunded from stay and exterminator called. Holiday Inn Express is way down my list now, but I appreciate IHG followed up on my second email.

First off, folks, this hotel is going to be extremely pricey. The reason? LOTS OF CONTRACTORS. There is oil, gas, refining, mining… all kinds going on around this town. It is the only town for miles and miles around these plants, so we contractors have to stay somewhere. You are going to be gouged at this hotel, because, well, they can. They are franchised, so there is nothing you can do about the price gouging (corporate will not enforce pricing on franchisees).
Second, this is not the best Holiday Inn Express out there, making the cost/​benefit ratio horrible. I’m sure this hotel looked lovely when first built, but like all HIE, it was built cheaply, and is now showing its age. Floors are uneven (I even felt it sag when I walked down the halls), dents, scratches, dirt, falling apart around corners, etc. The hotel appears clean when just glancing, but is actually quite dirty if you pay attention to detail. I was rather disgusted and afraid to touch anything after a few hours of looking around.
The bed is moderately comfortable. The pillows were the best part of the whole experience. The air conditioner is old and doesn’t do a good job keeping the room cool. Just turn it down to 65 (lowest it’ll go) and leave the fan running (not in Auto mode). You’ll freeze if you’re next to it, but the rest of the room (and bathroom) might get to a comfortable temperature.
The shower disappointed me. It is small and dingy. The faucet had awesome water pressure, so I got excited, but then found the shower to have dismal water pressure. What happened to all the pressure?
The buffet was standard for these cheaper hotels, except there were almost no healthy options. Apples, sugar-​infested yogurt, and instant oatmeal. Nice. *eye roll*
The wifi is fine if you’re just checking email or whatever, but try to stream Netflix, and you will howl and cry in frustration.
Staff was friendly. However, when we went in and explained that although one person made the 4-​room reservation, we were each paying for our own room and needed it separated out (this is not uncommon for business travelers). They did it… only to get our receipts the next morning and it hadn’t been done right; the rooms all stayed in the one person’s name and charged to his card. They had to re-​do all of it before we could leave.
There is a Fairfield here now, and they are currently building a SpringHill Suites, which should be nice. It will be good for this hotel to have some real competition, to force it to lower prices and maintain itself.

Outraged! We made reservations at the Holiday Inn Express because we were going to be in town for a friend’s wedding. When we were quoted the price of approx. $ 250, we were not surprised as we were staying for two nights. The morning we were leaving to drive to Carlsbad, my husband checked our bank account to find out we had been charged over $ 500!!! We promptly called to make sure we hadn’t been double charged. We hadn’t been and needless to say we were not pleased to discover the rate was $ 250/​NIGHT! We tried to cancel but could only cancel the second night without being charged due to the 24-​hour cancellation policy. Now, being from the D/​FW area, there are so many resort hotels we could stay in for that price (Omni, Gaylord Texan, Great Wolf Lodge, etc.) We inquired with our friends as to the reason for such exorbitant prices and they suggested it was because of so much gas drilling in the area. We accused them of such price gouging upon check-​in and they did not deny it. The room was very nice but still not worth the money.

Beds are comfortable and clean. The rooms are spacious. They have HBO and Showtime. Breakfast was pretty decent for a free hotel breakfast. The staff was great. I forgot some items and the hotel offered to ship them to my home. I plan on staying here if I drive through again.

Pricey, but you’re paying for the convenience of staying at a halfway-​decent hotel near the caverns.
The good:
Staff was courteous and professional
Internet access was fast and trouble free
Nice TV with full DTV package
Beds were clean, pillows comfortable
Vending machines are well-​stocked and reasonably priced
Eh:
I’m not sure why others are raving about the breakfast. It was below average in my opinion: barely edible eggs, suspect breakfast meats, strange pancakes (though the machine was cool). However, can’t really beat the price.
It’s a bit dated compared to other comparable chain inns. No central lights, shower pressure was adequate, the heating/​cooling system was noisy. Fine if you’re paying ~50 a night, but we expected a little better with the creature comforts and details at the price paid.
Overall:
This probably is the best place to stay in the area as others have noted, but docking one star for (lack of) value.

Fair price, person at front desk with a smile and rooms are not bad.

I am now of the opinion that Holiday Inn Express are victims of their own success. After staying at two of these Express hotels in less than a week both had the same issues. The positives:
— nice rooms and décor
— breakfast buffett had enough for most tastes
— friendly staff
negatives:
— attention to detail in upkeep was lacking. Carpets in the hallways were vacuumed but along each wall there was a distinct line of dust and stuff.
— stairwells were not clean.
— coffee was really weak.
Fairly minor negative comments but just expect more from a solid hotel chain which I have used quite often.

Wife and I stayed on a road trip on 11÷25÷11
The good: Bed was awesome, breakfast was good, free wifi had good reception, room was big and everything worked fine. Very clean throughout the hotel.
The bad: Coffee in the room sucks, the rate was really high ($ 129) but the rest of the places we saw in Carlsbad on the way through town to the Caverns look rundown so I don’t second guess the choice. There’s only one elevator and three floors so it can get backed up at times.
I would stay again despite the high rate, the free breakfast was adequate and the pancake machine worked at this one. Very clean facility.

Stayed here last minute, due to some poor planning by my friend.
I called about 20 minutes before I arrived in Carlsbad, and was treated like royalty. Patricia was extremely friendly and helpful. She held a king suite for us and only charged for a basic room. Besides helping with the price (which may have happened anywhere, given the time), Patricia even helped us plan our Caverns’ tour for the next day. Great service aside, the room was one of the nicer ones we stayed at on our road trip. A pleasant surprise given the last minute room and the fact that we were expecting a low end motel in Carlsbad. Much better than even Bally’s Las Vegas.
If I am ever back in Carlsbad, I will not hesitate to book this hotel again.

We planned a road trip from Albuquerque to the Caverns with an overnight stay in Carlsbad. We originally had planned to stay at the Super 8 Motel in Carlsbad but I canceled the reservation the day we left Albuquerque after reading online complaints about bed bugs! The Holiday Inn Express was expensive for the area BUT all the other places seemed to have bad online reviews. All the online sites said they were booked solid so I called them directly and they were able to give us two rooms for the four of us. Once we got to Carlsbad, from the looks of things, we made the right decision. Most of the other motels in the area looked run down or just downright creepy. The staff was friendly and courteous; and the breakfast the next morning was surprisingly good. Unfortunately the breakfast ends at 9 am, which, in my view is too early for a place like Carlsbad. The juice, biscuits, cereal, yogurt were tasty. And the coffee was very good too. Didn’t try the omelettes but was told they were very good. Missed out on the cinnamon rolls too (one woman walked off with the entire tray!)
The whole place is non-​smoking, which we liked. The king sized bed in our room was very comfortable and the bathroom was fine — immaculate. I’m subtracting one star only because the A/​C unit in our room kept switching off and on (A/​C & fan) all night which somewhat disturbed our sleep.

In May of 2009 my husband and I stayed here while driving across the US in a road-​trip/​cross country move. I was a little skeptical at first, as I usually try to stay in Courtyards, etc. but this place was AWESOME! Immaculate and huge room (we got a small suite) and very nice staff. I think the price was around $ 100/​night.

No complaints with this Holiday Inn Express. Located on the northern section of Carlsbad. It’s about 30 minutes to Carlsbad Caverns from here.

Planning our recent road trip through New Mexico, I noticed that this was the only hotel in Carlsbad that had all positive reviews. I booked a one night reservation through the HIE website as it was the same price as the online hotel finder websites.
After spending the day driving from Houston to Carlsbad (do you know how many freakin’ hours that is? About 12!) then touring the Caverns (which was 3 hours on foot), I was one tired puppy by the time we got to the hotel. The front desk staff was so nice and helpful. They found my reservation quickly and I had the room keys within 5 minutes. They advised me of the free breakfast, the location of the gym and indoor pool. This perked up my niece’s ears. «Can we go swimming?» asked the niece who languished as a passenger for the whole 12+ hour car ride. **Sigh** «Yeah after dinner.» (with a evil look directed at the desk clerk). But seriously a refreshing dip did sound good after a long day on the road. ;o)
The room was pretty and clean. The beds were extremely comfortable and each had soft and firm pillows (there was stitching on the pillowcases advising which was which). The bedding was pretty but the sheets were a bit too crisp for me. The bathroom vanity was wood with a granite top and very clean as was the shower. Plenty of towels & toiletries.
The indoor pool was saltwater which was a surprise. Being indoors it did get a bit loud when a family w/​oodles of kids joined us. They also have a jacuzzi which was a blessing to my aching muscles.
The breakfast at the hotel was surprisingly good! They offered oj, apple juice, milk, hot tea and coffee to drink. For food cold cereals, oatmeal (instant), yogurt, biscuits with gravy, hot cinnamon rolls and small cheese omelets. The cinnamon rolls were really, really good. The only thing they lacked was the availability of fresh fruit. They only offered apples. But I was satisfied with the other offerings and since it was free I really can’t complain much.
This hotel is further away from the Caverns but passing the other hotels /​«resorts» I noticed they all looked old and tired. I think I’ll drive 15 minutes further for shiny & new.

It was hard to find a well-​reviewed hotel in Carlsbad, so we took a chance with the H.I.E. and it paid off. It was obviously a brand new building, the rooms are big and clean, and the staff unusually helpful for a small NM town.
Don’t stress trying to find a hotel closer to the Caverns, this is where you want to be.