The Holiday Inn Express in Longview, previously called for overcharging and excessive traveling, continues its path of mediocrity in this report.

HIE-L provides more than the standard hotel TV selection of channels, including ESPN2, ESPN Classic, The History Channel, and Cartoon Network. The desk has adequate working room for a laptop, phone, and a stack of papers. The bed is a standard hotel firmness with standard pillows. Cleanliness is a virtue of this room, with no scents of overpowering air fresheners or cigarettes (the latter is a major annoyance in older Holiday Inns). The bathroom is spacious and clean enough, with shelves built into the wall for three rolled large towels, three face towels, and four washrags. The room had no refrigerator and no microwave.

Internet access is free, but when it comes to web services, managed by JetPort, I got what I paid for. While non-web services such as ssh, FTP, and instant messenger services such as ICQ and AIM work flawlessly, web pages are correctly served less than 20% of the time. Sometimes the HIE-L website came up instead of the sites I wanted. This disruption forced me to use Semagic and Avantgo over 24000 dialup or wait and use them at work. Technical support was deficient. The first call led me to a tech who asked me to reboot my machine and call back. After doing so with no results, I called back. They said that they remembered my situation and that they would call back after they took care of another customer. I got no call back.

Laundry is cheap enough that I held my laundry from Week 1 in Houston to be washed last week. Of course, it helped that the dress code is different in a field camp. :) Breakfast is standard Holiday Inn Express fare, with cinnamon rolls, hard boiled eggs, bagels & yogurt.

The fitness room is terrible. The treadmill’s belt is too loose, so that when I plant my foot towards the front of the belt for a stride, the belt locally moves forward while the general belt velocity is backwards, making for some scary stepping. The exercise bike had a broken display. The elliptical’s flywheel was out of balance, sending hard vibrations across the entire machine when pedaled. I had to go buy another Tae Bo DVD (which I’m getting good results with).

There is one access to the hotel, on the on ramp to I-20 East out of Longview. For you Columbus buffs, it’s a less hilly version of the I-70 E on-ramp from Hamilton road, where it is two way at the top of the on-ramp to handle traffic from the access road. Parking is all open-air.

The staff is friendly, but it would seem that I’ve been spoiled by the likes of the Marriott, Hilton, and Omni in Houston. There was no sense of employees willing to go the extra mile to make sure the customer was satisfied. If it were my choice, I would be staying at the cheaper, closer-to-my-field-camp Holiday Inn Express in Kilgore with the better rooms and customer service.


Show On Map