Holiday Inn Express & Suites Baltimore West – Catonsville

I reserved 5 rooms at this hotel for a funeral. The reservation was easy to make on the phone, and the CSR was very helpful. Members of my group were checking in at different times, and they made the process easy for me.
The pros: hot breakfast, free parking, free WiFi, good part of town, close to shopping, clean rooms, newer hotel, comfortable beds, nicely flushing toilets (seriously, they were great!), friendly staff
The cons: WiFi in rooms was slow, made very clear we had children when making the reservation, but none of the rooms had a bathtub
If I’m in town again, I’d definitely stay here, provided I could have a room with a bathtub. I travel with a toddler.

Beautiful and brand new hotel. Spacious and comfortable room. Nice décor throughout the lobby and rooms. Great price… would definitely recommend!

Okay so I walk in after a 5 hour long car ride and go to check in, I am tired and hungry and just want to get into the room to start getting ready for the event I came for. I called ahead of time to get all the details and the woman seemed annoyed and couldn’t be bothered. So when I arrived I was ready for an issue but I had no idea how frusturated I would be in time. So I go up to the counter and there is a woman who looked middle eastern (not that that was a problem, very sorry, don’t want to sound racist but I need a way to indentify her to you all) I didn’t get her name but I realize from her voice that this is the woman who I spoke to on the phone. She asked me how I would like to pay and I say half on my card and half with cash. She then looks at me impassively and says that «We don’t do that.» No explanation just «We don’t do that» So I get annoyed but keep myself pleasant because I too work with a lot of angry customers and know how it feels. So then I ask her if I can pay in cash, she doesn’t verbally answer, only nods yes and thats it. So I go back outside to my car and get the cash from my boyfriend. When I come back inside I hand her the cash and say okay. She then says «Oh I need your card as well» and I’m thinking okay she needs it on file incase anything happens to the room. But then she says, «I will also need to take $ 100 off your card.» When I ask why, she doesn’t even answer me she just pats on this little photo with all the information and stares at me waiting for me to read it. Now I’m pissed and I’m showing it because I work with people all day and you should be giving them all the information the first time they approach you and you should be doing it nicely. So I ask her if she knows where the nearest Chase is and she simply says, «I don’t know.» So now I walk out fuming because I’ve been patient and cooperative and this woman is really testing me. I check my phone for the nearest chase and the nearest one is 20 mins away and I have no time to go there and back because my event is starting soon and I still need to get ready. I come back in with the cash and my card in hand and I say okay when will I be getting this $ 100 deposit back, and she says 1 week. At this point I have had it because it was like each time I walked in she had something new to inform me about and now I’m like okay I was nice before now I’m not going to be. So at this point she puts the transaction through without saying a word and I knew at this moment I should’ve asked to speak to someone higher up but had very little time. She then hands me my rooms keys and does not say another word. The hotel itself was pretty nice, the rooms were beautiful, but the nearby fast food and restaurants were a nightmare. When I checked out it was another girl who was much friendlier and I liked her a lot more. Also forgot my blanket and my pillow there and they said the would not ship it back unless I paid for it. She also gave me a wifi code but none of them would work so I had no wifi in my room.

This was quite a surprise as with any reservation made sight-​unseen. We have been staying in the Holiday Inn Express hotels for 2 years in various Florida locations after a very pleasing stay.
The brand has come up from the days of being like *motel-​nightmare*. They have been remodeling all the locations in the US and have done a great job. Not only in the redesign but the better than breakfast selection that is a step up from the juice, coffee, and muffin-​only offering. The breakfast selections consist of cereal, eggs (some locations vary the way the eggs are made daily), pastries, an assortment of juice, coffee, tea, bread for toast, pancakes (not IHOP but still tasty), yogurt, and fruit (apples and bananas).
This hotel proved to be the same as the Florida locations in that it was clean, well designed, staff on hand to assist always with a pleasant greeting, good location (considering that the 2 downtown locations in the Inner Harbour charged for vehicle parking $ 15 per night) across from SAMS Club, Walgreens, and a short distance from 695.
It was quiet and we did see a number of people during our week long stay. The bed was very comfortable and the room itself (2 queen beds) including the bathroom was very roomy.
We did encounter a breakfast no-​no. Another patron touched the bread and cereal toppings (nuts and berries) with her bare hand. That’s how germs spread. The 1^st morning I witnessed this I had already used the tongs to retrieve my bread. The 2^nd morning she did the same thing and unfortunately I was behind her. The person working for the hotel saw this and I looked at her and said «did you see that». She said yes, waited for the woman to finish touching all the bread (I kid you not) and then removed the bread and bought out fresh bread. I suggested they put up a sign so people know that tongs are available, although, the tongs are directly in front or on the side of the case.
I would say one thing about our stay regarding the front desk person that was insistent on getting our permission to allow the maintenance person to *fix* something in the closet. When we looked we didn’t see anything of what this person was describing and we surely didn’t report an issue. We declined and said that they could have access after we vacated from our week long stay. He was very insistent and continued to try and explain why he felt this should be done while we were occupying the room. This was disruptive for our stay. When anyone checks into a hotel room they don’t want to be bothered unless there is something they themselves called about. We felt this was something they could have done after we checked out.
When we were packing our bags the night before check out, I realized there was a shelf in the closet propped against the wall (not sure where it goes) that they wanted to put up and was doing this in other rooms. Since the hotel was recently remodeled they apparently left off some things that needed to be finalized. We still didn’t feel this was something that needed to be while we were occupying the room.
I would recommend this hotel it was clean, breakfast was good, the hotel itself is nicely decorated and it was within close access to where we needed to travel.