Holiday Inn Express & Suites Cooperstown

My family of 5 and I just left this hotel after a 2-night stay and I’m only giving it 2 stars because of its proximity to the Hall of Fame, the spaciousness of our bunk bed suite, and the free coffee in the lobby. Everything else was awful and we will never stay here again. Upon check-in, the front desk staff was not the friendliest, but we chalked it up to our late arrival. The drapes in our room did not fully close and our husband had to use binder clips he happened to have in his briefcase to clip them closed. The TV in the kids’ bunk bed area was not working. The shampoo ran out while I was in the shower and there was nothing I could do but use the body wash to wash my hair. I understand that giving out mini toiletries is probably not cost effective and I have no problem with providing larger bottles in the shower, but if hotels are going to do that, the cleaning staff needs to check the bottles daily to make sure they are not running low. But the worst experience for us was that from about 5:25 AM until 7:30 AM on our second morning, a woman sat on an outdoor bench that was right underneath our window and talked VERY loudly on her phone using very colorful language. She woke up our entire family, which made for a very horrible morning for our kids. We get it, that wasn’t the hotel’s fault. But when we were checking out, my husband very kindly mentioned the incident to the man at the front desk and instead of apologizing or even SOUNDING apologetic, he just said, “Oh yeah, she’s out there all the time,” and shrugged it off. Our issue is, if she is out there all the time talking loudly on her phone and waking people up at 5:30 AM, why has she never been asked to stop? Why does the hotel continue to leave a bench right outside of several rooms if there is an issue with people talking loudly during sleeping hours? And why we’re not even offered a simple “I’m sorry” when we raised the issue with the front desk worker? That just shows us that this hotel does not value their customers. Our baseball-loving family will certainly return to Cooperstown, but we will be finding somewhere else to stay.

This felt like a new hotel bc it was clean and looked well taken care of. I liked the extra desk where my kid could finish her homework on comfortably. This place also has an indoor pool and small fitness center with free weights and cardio machines. The fitness center smelled very much of rubber though so it wasn’t too pleasant to huff and puff in there. The complimentary morning breakfast was very nice as well with a pancake machine. The staff there was friendly and knowledgeable as well. We enjoyed our stay there very much!

Booked and confirmed a king suite. After checking in I went to the room and it was a suite with 2 queen beds. Returned to desk and was told king suite was not available so I was put in queen suite. Was told it was same size. I said I wanted the king suite I reserved and the queen suite had less room in it because there were 2 beds in it. They finally put me in a standard king room which was smaller and did not have as many amenities. Upon checking out I noticed I was billed for a king suite not a standard king which I used. I was told the queen suite I was originally offered was the same price as the king suite. Even though I stayed in a standard king room they would not adjust the price. I was told by a desk clerk that they do not guarantee the type of room you booked. I was also told the way their reservation system interfaces with the online hotel reservation services like Expedia can lead to overlooking. He told me there were occasions where people showed up with booked and confirmed reservations and they had no rooms whatsoever available for them. Si I was overcharged for a room that I did not use and did not get my reserved room. If you want a specific type of room and want to ensure you definitely have a good reservation, I would skip this place and look elsewhere.