Charged for a Party in the room we stayed in Day after we left.

We checked into the hotel at approximately 9pm on the 29th of Nov. My husband had an angiogram that day so because we live outside of Calgary we had to stay overnight since he could start hemmoraging and we had to be close the hospital or he could bleed out if we were on the highway. We chose the holiday inn as it was close to hwy 2.We checked in and took our luggage to our room then we went to the restraunt for dinner.We had one drink for dinner and then we paid cash for our meal. We went back to our room after and decided to go to bed and watch a little TV before we went to sleep. We shut the lights out and went to bed at approx. 10:30. We got up in the morning and got ready to drive home and I went to the front desk at about 10:00 am. The desk clerk gave me my reciept for the visa charge and I checked out.The charge on my card was $110.00 for the one night stay. We then drove home.The day I recieved my credit card bill in the mail I had that charge for the $110.00 but underneath I also had a charge for $577.00.I called the hotel right away and asked to speak to the manager and I proceeded to tell the manager that these charges on my bill were not from us and they had made a mistake.He put me on hold and told me when he came back on the line that he spoke to the staff and they remember us being in the restraunt and also that we were in the lounge and we also ordered room service all night. I told him he must be mistaken as my husband and I couldn't have partied all night as my husband and I spent the day at the hospital and he had a catheter in his femoral artery to his heart and that was a very evasive procedure and he was pushing his luck having one drink at supper let alone drink all night. The manager then got very rude and said that his staff remembered us and I told him how could they as he doesn't even know what we look like and how many people do you see everyday in a hotel. He said that we charged all this to our room. I have a reciept that proves I checked out that morning and my balance was 0 at the time. He was arrogant and he wouldn't listen to me at all. I have handed it over to my visa company as a fradulent charge.Hope this doesn't happen to often as some people don't even check there charges on there bills. It's something of a lesson not to trust hotels not to make big mistakes. I don't think the hotel closed out my visa before the next people checked into the same room and then all there charges went onto my credit card.

Word of warning don't stay at the Holiday Inn by the Calgary Airport.Managment is not someone you want to deal with if you have an incorrect charge as he will remember you really did charge that!!!!!

Value for your money

The hotel was a nice place to stay. It had a great little swimming pool which is good for young children and teens. A real family place. Other than the noise (loud clunks and the sounds of bottles breaking late at night) this hotel definitely gives value for your money.

It's all in the attention to details

It's the little things that make the difference. This was a typical mid-range hotel near an airport with not much to distinguish itself except in its attention to the details.

As we were checking in at 4 in the afternoon, another guest was at the desk complaining that his room on the executive floor had not yet been cleaned. The desk clerk had to call housekeeping twice to find out if our room was ready (the room was ready but they didn't bother to respond to her request).

As we brought our luggage to our rooms on the executive floor, it was near impossible to get the hotel luggage cart down the hall because we had to dodge cleaning carts, housekeeping staff and trays full of dirty dishes and stale food. What a welcome! The same trays were still there when we left for dinner an hour later even though the cleaning staff had departed.

I called to report that chain on the toilet flush had snapped and needed to be repaired. They said, "Okay, we'll try to find someone to fix it." No way of knowing from that response what to expect. I was so unsure that I then walked down to the front desk and explained that I was very shortly leaving for the evening and did not wish to return that evening to find that the toilet had not yet been fixed and that it was too late to do anything about it. It was fixed before we left. Unless the chain had just snapped when the maid cleaned the room, it should have been reported and fixed before we occupied the room.

We wanted a GST tax refund form but the only ones available at this hotel were ones from private firms that charge hefty processing fees to get you the rebate that you can get directly from the Canadian government free of charge. It's not like the GST refund is a new concept and hotel front desk staff should be able to answer basic questions on the topic; they should not be shilling for the private firms.

As I said, it is all in the details and they make the difference between a good experience and a not so good one.

An Excellent Overnight Stay

My wife and I arrived here on March 6, 2005 after coming back from a wedding in Field, B.C. We needed a place to overnight before we caught a flight back to Winnipeg the next day. We were aware that renovations were going on and the lobby was in that state but when we got to our room on the newly renovated 5th floor, what a wonderful surprise. It was a nice, clean and comfortable room with a comfortable king size bed, exactly as ordered. As we did not have a car, we arranged for a 6.30 A.M. wake up call and an 8.00 A.M. ride by the hotel van to the airport. We had an excellent dinner in the hotel restaurant. The wake up call was right on time. We went to the hotel restaurant and had an excellent breakfast before leaving. We had an excellent view of downtown Calgary and the mountains from the 5th floor lounge. And as promised, the airport van picked us up and got us to the airport right on time. We highly recommend this place and would come again.

Under Construction, but still good

We stayed here after arriving early in the morning at the Calgary airport on February 18/19. The shuttle picked us up at the airport as requested. If you are looking for something really close to the airport, this is probably a little further out, you can get closer. However, we checked in and shuffled through the construction area up to our room. The room was newly renovated with a small kitchenette. The bathroom wasnt that spacious, however, we were just there one night, and there were just two of us, so that really didnt bother us. The room was exceptionally clean. We had breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel and found it a little on the pricey side, and the food to be of average quality. The staff were friendly and we had no problems with this hotel.

We liked it!

Well, we are obviously in the minority but we liked this hotel. We stayed there last night for one night to catch an early flight. It is true that the hotel is undergoing a major renovation and we were quite horrified when we first pulled up in our car and saw the construction, but once we got inside our fears were unfounded. We arrived at about 9:00 in the morning but they immediately checked us into our room, no problem. They also arranged for a van to pick us up from the airport so we could return our rental car, and they took us to the airport the next morning at the time we requested. The room was nothing special but it was comfortable and I thought the bedroom was quite nice for what we paid ($87 or so US$). The bathroom reminded me of my hospital stay but it worked. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant and thought the food was quite good and the service was excellent. There is also a very nice bar next to the restaurant that we didn't go to, but it looked very inviting, with a fireplace.

Holiday Inn, not!

I stayed at this hotel in August 2004 before starting out for a hiking trip in the Canadian Rockies. This hotel is a disaster. The first room I was placed in was grungy and moldy smelling. The hotel's solution to the mold smell was to spray Glade in the room. That is a great solution if you are not asthmatic (which I am). The air conditioning did not work, and it was hot outside being summer.

Around 12:30 a.m. one of the hotel's desk staff arranged to get me into another room much to the manager's chagrin. This room was renovated and much nicer. The a/c still barely worked even in the renovated room. I left the next day and was glad that my return reservation was not with this same hote. The chances that I will ever stay at a Holiday Inn again are slim to none.

Not Your Typical Holiday Inn

Stayed here for 1 night (thankfully) due to early flight the next morning. Took over 30 minutes to check in at 5:00pm because not enough desk help. Agree with 2 previous reviews - still a work in progress. This had to be a Motel 6 or similar before becoming a HI. Tiny, tiny rooms and the bathroom is so small, you can't even turn in a circle without bumping into either the bathtub or sink counter. The only good thing is the rooms are well soundproofed.

Go across the street to the Radisson - actually cheaper and much better.

Also, the rates are $125-$145, not $58.

Agree with Previous Review-Stay Elsewhere at least until Renos are Finished

After reading the TripAdvisor review of this hotel, which would have been my first choice in Calgary based on location, I phoned the hotel to check. Apparently the hotel is "under renovation". They have just started on the top floor and will work their way down until the entire hotel is redone. That means it will probably be a great place to stay by the end of 2004, but right NOW all rooms are in need of renovation and the hotel is probably noisy and dusty due to the renovations currently underway. We decided to stay elsewhere, and were very happy that we did. Our thanks to TripAdvisor and the people from Saskatchewan who took the time to write the review that alerted us to the situation.

Bad service

Rooms are decent enough. BUT ... I couldn't control the heat -- we had to leave the window open all the time just to leave it reasonable. The toilet overflowed and never worked well to begin with. The room was not cleaned at all on the second day we stayed -- the morning the toilet overflowed -- that part was semi-fixed, just the rest of the room was not cleaned. When we brought it to their attention ... all we were offered was towels for the next morning. And there was also renovations going on that woke one up in the morning. The lounge is tiny. There are much better places then this in Calagary. Decent price -- but not worth it.