Holiday Inn Express & Suites Watertown-Thousand Islands

Best check in experience EVER! Sam is amazing! An actual genuine person make all the difference!

The king Jacuzzi suites are awesome! Friendly service and good breakfast! :) we came here for a couples night out and the staff gave us a dicount on the room we wanted! Overall great experience here would definitely come back!

I’m giving this a bad review only because the bed was terrible! I was sinking into the bed –farthest from the window in Rm 216.
Service and breakfast were great. Do not stay opposite the elevator. It gets noisy!
The bed is key. The bed was bad.

Another great Holiday Inn Express!
My husband and I stayed here recently and had a great experience. The front desk staff are really nice and helpful.
I loved that they had cookies at the front desk starting at 4pm until they are gone. The cookies are from Otis Spumkmeyer and they had chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies. The different flavours were in different baskets (and individually packaged) at opposite ends of the front desk counter. I thought that this was considerate to limit cross-​contamination for people with peanut allergies.
On they day that were were there between 5pm and 7pm they also brought out a freezer by the main entrance with free ice cream (creamsicles, fudgesicles and ice cream sandwiches). This was awesome. I think they only do the ice cream and cookies on weekdays (and not on Fridays).
Our room was really large. We had a king-​sized bed, a little dinette set, a microwave, a mini fridge, a couch, a desk, and 2 televisions. There is also free wifi.
The room was clean except for some dried urine that was on our toilet seat. Yuck! Looks like housekeeping didn’t do their job properly. I really had to pee when I arrived in the room, so I just took one of my disinfectant wipes that I travel with and scrubbed it off, but I should have reported it to the front desk. This is why they get 4 stars instead of 5.
The hot breakfast is awesome. Hands down the best of all the Holiday Inn Expresses that I’ve been at. They had 3 types of breakfast meats! They had bacon, turkey sausages and regular sausage patties. They also had scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy. And they had the pancake making machine! It’s so funny that on the machine it says «bet you want one of these at home» and it’s so true. I totally want one for home! They had cinnabon buns, bread, English muffins, bagels, several types of cereal, several types of yogurt (including Chobani Greek yogurt), oatmeal, oatmeal toppings (walnuts, raisins, brown sugar) and much more. We went down for breakfast around 7:30am, so everything was fresh and hot.
This Holiday Inn Express is conveniently located on Arsenal St which is a main street with lots of shops on it. It’s also close to the Salmon Run Mall.
Parking is free and there’s lots of it.
Overall, a great experience. All the positive things do overshadow the gross toilet seat situation (which says a lot coming from me since cleanliness is a huge deal for me).

Another excellent experience at a Holiday Inn Express! All the usual positives– fitness center, pool, complimentary parking & Wifi, and hot breakfast. This HIE offered ice cream treats (drumsticks, ice cream sandwiches, and a couple of others) for dessert. They also had a sauna. The room was roomy with a recliner seat, work desk, microwave oven & mini-​refrigerator, as well as LCD TV. They also honored the state tax exemption certificate. Very enjoyable, recommend, and one to repeat whenever work takes me back to this area!

Staff was very helpful. Room was clean and comfortable. Pool area was clean.
My only complaint would be the breakfast was really bad. Most of the cooked foods were dried out and nasty.
They even have rabbits that live out front near the bushes that come out and feed. As you come into the hotel they will let you get right up close to them. Hotel manager said they are the hotel mascots. Kids think its great.

One would expect a friendly front desk but the staff at this Holiday Inn Express takes this task to a whole new level. The entire front desk crew exhibits an exemplary level of friendliness and helpfulness that really stays on your mind long after you checked out. From remembering your name to stellar points of interest recommendation as well as cookies at the end of the day, everything punctuates what a customer service aspires to be.
The hotel room is large, modern, clean and very comfortable. The cleaning staff keeps both the bedding and towels well laundered. Free breakfast is a nice perk along with hot water available 24 hours in the dining room for tea. The hotel is surrounded by restaurants that are mere yards away and the commute to Fort Drum is 12 minutes to the main gate. I recommended this hotel to be listed as first preference for future travelers going to Fort Drum to both my admin as well as our corporate travel agent. I would definitely stay at this hotel if I return to this site.

Well what say. Great hotel, great complimentary breakfast, close to shopping, and a great little zoo. I recommend this hotel if you are passing through. Clean and rooms are a decent size. With a clean pool. Great staff!!!

Loud.noisy.dirty sheets.
They put us in a room the called «the quiet room» and asked us to let them know if there was any noise (it’s located right next to the restaurant). Clearly they knew it wasn’t going to be acceptable, and it wasn’t.
No discount offered… just an «oh well».
Booooooo! I’m booing you HIEH Watertown.

Still new. We’ve been staying here since 2008. Yes, noisy, especially near the elevator & on wkends. We’ve stayed in a few different types of rooms. Lately the rooms have switched the 2^nd/​dining table for 2 stuffed chairs & a little end table. We need the 2^nd table for more work (there is 1 desk already) & dining place, but people not working just visiting might like it. The staff has been so nice to get us a room with another table. Internet is free & pretty fast. We could even webinar smoothly.
Parking can be full, especially since another hotel is under construction right next door. Front desk staff is wonderful.
We would have given a 5 star, but issues with housekeeping prevents that. We had the «do not disturb» & late checkout (2pm-we’re platinum) for one stay. We were on a webinar & needed the late checkout (& quiet). Housekeeping bangs on the door & attempts to enter. Not cool. Normally we tip for housekeeping, not this trip.

Let’s put this in context: it’s the highest profile property in a fairly depressed area where the economy is kept afloat by a huge military base. So when the rates are higher at this property than one might expect in a more balanced area, it could have something to do with everything being more expensive when billing the Pentagon (directly or indirectly).
That said, one wonders about the shoddiness of the details. The perpetual damp spot in front of the fridge and the disconnected toilet handle (not user-​repairable when the tank lid is bolted on) are inexcusable. Come on, if jobs are scarce, everybody should be at the top of their game. If this is the best in a town where a Holiday Inn Express is battling a Best Western for top spot, we should be able to expect the details to be fully-​functioning. The heating/​cooling unit rattles just like one would expect in an aging Fairfield Inn. (They did come straight up and fix the toilet when we told them about it in the morning.)
Then there are the beds. Two doubles in the two-​bed rooms? What country do these people think they’re in? A double bed is barely large enough for one 21^st Century American. Double beds might make the room appear larger, but the illusion isn’t worth the compromise in comfort.
There’s a nice small pool where the kiddies can romp (rough on the bottom, causing more than one boo boo) while the grownups can chat.
The breakfast bar is a step up from the straight-​from-​the-​fridge «continental breakfast» offered so frequently. They have a pancake machine! Push the button and out from between some rollers pop a couple of pancakes that passed the seven-year-old’s test. The rest of the hot line included a breakfast meat of the day, an egg selection, and a biscuit (all prepared somewhere far away, and reheated and served from a warmlng box).
The staff were kind and friendly. (How many are military spouses?)
All one can say us, «Well, at least it isn’t the (insert name of one if the shabby motels up the street).» And it is convenient to a Starbuck’s.

I spent 8 nights in this hotel so I got to experience just about everything possible a hotel has to offer.
Room — 1^st floor room near the exit closest to BWW. Enjoyed being able to park right there and walk 10 feet to my room. Parking a lot of the time was full and had to park around back as the parking situation is pretty poor. Shower head was kinda lame and worked best when it shot a laser beam of water at you. Hot/​cold water was never an issue which is a big deal. The a/​c control unit has a blinding blue LED on it when it is on and in cold air mode. Its seriously brighter than the sun and sucks at night when your trying to sleep so I would opt to rock no a/​c even thought i prefer freezing at night. TV worked great, good quality pci
Housekeeping — Did an excellent job, only used them twice and after 3 days went by with my do not disturb sign up they left me a vmail to check on me to make sure I didnt need anything.
Breakfast — Pretty normal for a free hotel breakfast but atleast they would change up a few items every other day. The normal scrambled eggs were very boring but some days they had cheese omelets which were better. They offered english muffing, bagels, bread, and muffins. Eggs of some sort were always there, sometimes it was ham, sausage or bacon or all. They always had biscuits available but never saw any gravy: (, The fruit was usually banana and apple sometimes a orange was avail as well. Overall good options and didnt head out in the AM starving ever.
Location — Great location right next to major highways and conveniently placed right next to BWW, starbux, ruby tuesday, and a few other smaller places across the street. Enjoyed staying here and spent a lot of time at the bar at BWW.
Gym — Was tiny but had 1 of each cardio machine you need plus a sauna and pool right there as well. Can watch tv while doing cardio which is nice if you dont have any music device to play.

I agree with the other reviews, great new hotel, I didn’t have a chance to enjoy the breakfast, but it looked great! All sorts of hot yummy foods, cereals, pancake machine, juices, etc– the usual continental but I thought it looked like more. Also, they had just near the front desk, a microwave with a basket of Otis Spunkmeyer cookies you could warm up for free– very nice touch.
The rooms were super clean, beds comfortable, loved the soap. Had the ginormous king and it had the firm and soft choices for pillow. The only reason I can’t give 5 stars– as pointed out by others– the highway noise is a bit distracting and although I could sleep through it, I’m sure many would fins it a little challenging if they’re not heavy sleepers.
The pool looked nice and they have a sauna, nice to realx at the end of the day. Free wi-​fi, free newpaper– nice common area.
Otherwise, great service and staff. Close to tons of restaurants and stores. If there was a 4 ½, I’d give them that.

We stayed here for 4 days and 3 nights. It was a wonderful stay with great staff, an awesome, hot continental breakfast (they offered cinnamon rolls, eggs or cheese omelettes, sausage and/​or bacon, toasts/​other breads, coffees, juices, teas, fresh whole and cut fruit, applesauce, yogurt, oatmeal and cereals), and convenient location. It is close to several restaurants and just across the interstate from the mall and other shopping areas. It is tucked away from Arsenel St in their large parking lot, so you never hear any noise in your room from the busy road or the interstate (our windows faced the interstate and I never heard a sound). Not only did they have a great breakfast, but they served complimentary soup from 5 – 7 and had a variety of cookies offered every night in the lobby as well! Very pleasant stay.

The Holiday Inn Express is brand new and conveniently located off HWY 81 exit 45.
The pluses: it’s brand new, meaning: clean spacious rooms with free Wi-​Fi, decent indoor pool with a fitness center (2 treadmills, 1 ellipitical, 1 recumbent bike, 1 sauna), nice breakfast: hot and cold stuff which will please anyone, free computer and printer access, friendly staff.
The negatives: it’s located right next to the highway, meaning absolutely noisy rooms especially if your room is facing the highway. So if you are a «light» sleeper, the complimentary earplugs provided in your room won’t do the trick! That’s too bad, otherwise it’s a comfortable hotel with good service at a reasonable price.