Holiday Inn Express Athens-University Area

Let me begin this review by saying I have never stayed at a Holiday Inn property that I wasn’t happy or even excited about. This location is NOT that.
Had you walked me into my room blindfolded, I’d have thought I was in a sub-​par, low-​budget roach motel where they «leave the lights on,» and I’d have supposed it was to keep the mildew, musty aroma and grit away. And failing MISERABLY.
After having driven 8.5+ hours, the first thought upon walking in, was that I couldn’t wait to use a clean bathroom. The clean-​factor was bare minimum. That could have had something to do with the fact that I opened the bathroom door to see it was the size of a matchbox. I can quite literally sit on the toilet (leaning to the right because to the left, the toilet paper dispenser is rubbing my arm/​chest and my right foot is grazing my ankle. The shower curtain would be halo-​ing my head, had I not pulled it back. The contortions you have to make to get toilet paper would be amusing were it not so frustrating. A 2^nd grade designer/​architect could have planned the space better.
And the brown stuff crusted on aforementioned TP dispenser? Is it rust? Or some much more nefarious and disgusting??? Because… GROSS! A 4×4 bathroom cell was not what I had in mind when I booked this $ 125 per/​nite hotel. Make no mistake — this is a ONE PERSON bathrom you can’t share with anyone.
Let’s get back to the room. When the door opened, I was assaulted with the smell of mildew. Gag. In looking around, grime is everywhere. I am skeeved out. Musty, musty. Musty.
The towels are stiff and unimpressive.
There is no fan in the bathroom either, so a quick hot shower results in the shoebox becoming a sauna and condensation drips everwhere!
After have specified on my reservation that I wanted a room as high up on the floors as we could get, imagine my surprise when I am given a room merely one floor up from the lobby. Ick. Customer requests are ignored apparently. And it wasn’t like this was a last-​minute reservation with a special request.
Then when I want to just call down to the front desk to ask what local channel was carrying the ONLY Nationally televised NFL game the verging-​on-​rude male clerk, told me to just «check the guide» Really? I would never have thought of that. But wait, I did. You were lazy and should’ve put me on hold while you found out. But nooooo. Instant tip-​be-​gone. #EPICConciergeFailure.
Give me $ 125 per night and I could have slept in my car more comfortably.
Seriously — if I can find a cleaner hotel tomorrow, I am going to pull up and move quicker than you can say HI Express!
DISAPPOINTED BEYOND BELIEF. I want a refund!

VERY clean and great for my over night stay. It’s in a great location. Down the street from downtown and close to lots of restaurants.
Would definitely stay again

Clean, clean, clean!!!
Love the continental breakfast! Everything is fresh and hot! Rooms are nice and cozy. Soft beds too. Staff is very friendly too.

What a great Town (I love Athens, GA.), and the Holiday Inn Express is great.
Wonderful staff, great management. Breakfast is class act. a two minute walk from downtown. Best of all the AC is powerful. I hate warm rooms.
Thank you Holiday Inn Express Staff!

A bit older but definitely a-​ok. Got a room with a hing bed and it had a couch, desk, entertainment center, and chair and the room was so cramped. If you’re going to stay for a while, I would suggest somewhere else where there is more space. Also, the bathroom was teeny and I almost fell over the toilet getting out of the shower!

Pretty standard college-​area hotel. Nice breakfast, great staff and service and the location is fantastic if you have work anywhere on the north end the UGA campus. That being said, the rooms are almost completely devoid of outlets, a/​c on the fritz, and the bathrooms were a bit dinky. Not sure if I’d stay here again for work until they have enough spots to plug everything in…

Great location near downtown, yet also quiet and restful with no street noise. Good customer service, clean facility, fridge and microwave in room, plenty of options on the free breakfast buffet. Bathrooms were small but well stocked. Only oddity was constant Mexican radio station particularly noticeable at breakfast when maybe salsa music was not anyone’s first-​choice, day after day. Pleasant desk clerk was most helpful in everything, but stumped on changing the radio station. We felt like we were well-​served and getting a great value for satisfactory service.

Decent hotel. A bit dated. Seems old and tired. The key issue for me was the lack of friendly customer service. It just left me stunned. No interest in helping me sort out my reservation issues. I had to call central IHG reservations on my own, so very sad. I would caution anyone before staying here. Go elsewhere.

I loved it. I had spent 2 nights on the Marriott hotel right across and while their staff was absolutely sweet, Marriott cannot compete with Express’ amenities, it has a fridge and microwave, cost and complimentary breakfast. Definitely the best hotel on Athens for the price. Make sure to book early enough as they are quite popular.

We’ve stayed here a couple of times on blind Hotwire purchases. Clean, good breakfast, nice facilities, adequately sized rooms. I resisted the opportunity to buy an Erk Russell poster in the lobby. I don’t know what it’s like on a game weekend (and I hope never to find out) but it was a great location for AthFest or just for exploring the shopping and eating delights (Branded Butcher. Yeah.) of downtown Athens. Wi-​Fi is included, which is nice (and typical of mid-​priced chain hotels). I imagine we’ll end up here again.

Great hotel. Close to downtown and UGA campus. Short walk to restaurants and downtown Athens shopping. Great complementary breakfast, and free wifi.
I will definitely stay here when in Athens, GA.

Super clean, ridiculously friendly hotel staff, quiet rooms even during graduation week for UGA, 2 good-​sized beds, very reasonably-​sized rooms, clean towels constantly, no fee for parking, very close to downtown, free wi-​fi that’s a perfectly reasonable speed… the list goes on and on. Not sure at all why others are saying it’s an older hotel — looks like it was all quite new, in my opinion.

It is an older hotel but spotlessly clean Great bed. It is also a big plus that there was a fridge in our room.
The manager, Mr. Figueroa, checked us in, was very helpful, and checked in on us at breakfast to solicit feedback and see if we needed anything. Breakfast was great as well.
Highly recommended.

I love this hotel. It’s super close to downtown Athens, the food in the morning is filling (boiled eggs, pancake maker, french toast, bagels, cereal, assortment of danishes, sausage), and there was a mini fridge in our room (score!). What I liked the most was the service. They were really accommodating to our requests and made the stay a pleasant experience.

Location, Location, Location! This was a great place to stay for the weekend for a football game. The rooms were clean and in good shape. The bathroom is very small but there are much more fun places to be in Athens. The front desk staff was friendly and helpful even with the hotel being packed and busy. This hotel served its purpose

My rating is actually a 2 ½. My family stayed there because we ran in a road race and needed a place to stay the night before. If your business is short, and will be spending most of your time elsewhere, the place is fine.
Pros: 72.00/night. Although a little aged, it is at least clean. That’s a plus, in my book. Express check out — just drop your room card in a slot, and you’re done.
Cons: That room card… we were given 4 sets of them before we finally were given a different room, as none would open the door. Other guests had the same type problem. We were a little miffed after the 2^nd set didn’t work and our 7 year old is wondering why he has to wait in the hallway for 20 minutes before we can enter the room.
There were two phones in the room for some reason, neither of which worked. One of the lamps was plugged into an outlet that didn’t work. This wasn’t as bad as another couple who said their lamp randomly flashed on for a second or two during the night (it got unplugged).
It sounds worse than it was, though. After all, we weren’t there very long (less than 18 hrs), and the place had decent towels, soaps, etc.