This last week I had been staying in the Holiday Inn Express in Kilgore, TX. The Holiday Inn brand is one that I look at with some degree of uncertainty; there are terrible ones, such as Duncan, OK, and there are really good ones, like Corpus Christi, TX. I have not had as much experience with the HI Express brand, but in the few that I have stayed in, the level of quality has been more consistent. It seems to me that the Holiday Inn Express brand was launched to compete for business travelers with the links of Wingate Inn and Best Suites.

The HIE in Kilgore is relatively new; I don’t remember seeing it on my first trip to Kilgore a couple of years ago. I asked for a nonsmoking king bed, and they put me in a king suite, which was one of the larger rooms I have ever been in. It was so large I expected to see a hot tub packed around a corner, but I didn’t get that lucky. With no hot tub, that left plenty of room for Tae Bo.

The internet access, when it worked, was first rate: there were no forms to fill out online to get access, like what happens in a Wingate. The internet access had gone down twice, and modem access only allowed a 16.8K connection–14.4 was SO 8 years ago. The second time the internet went down, the staff stepped up. Instead of waiting for Comcast to come down from Longview to fix it, the clerk (an older female who claimed to know nothing about computers) somehow FIXED it. Maybe she just hit the reset on the box (cringe) but she got it going. Kudos to the staff.

The continental breakfast was average: the only way you could get eggs was hard-boiled. Other hotels offer scrambled, poached, even eggs inside breakfast burritos. I ended up eating a bagel and yogurt each morning, and this morning it was clear that the bagels were getting old. Juice selection was OK. The rolls were always “warming up” instead of “already warm”.

The hotel was VERY clean; another good thing. The staff INSISTED on watching CNN on the big screen in the mornings, and I only got to change the TV to ESPN once. I cannot stand CNN’s morning show. The talk show host from Philadelphia was worse than Katie Couric.

The exercise room was good, but it seems most hotels are packing more equipment in a smaller space. This hotel had a treadmill, an elliptical walker, a standard four-station nautilus and an exercise bike. The room had an elevated TV and an in-room air conditioner; things I consider required in an exercise room. The equipment was relatively new, but the treadmill posted a notice that the belt skips at high speeds. Comforting.

I may probably stay here again, but Holiday Inn has been terrible concerning its policy with points. On multiple occasions, they’ve offered me hotel rooms at a discount rate, but they don’t give you credit for those nights on their frequent stay program. Each brand has a minimum rate, usually around $70 as a policy by which they credit your nights. Sometimes you can fight the policy and get credit for the rooms, but the repeated effort is frustrating. It is enough to make me consider another hotel chain in the area for my next three-week stay.

If one has to stay in Kilgore, I recommend the HIE over the Best Western here. The HIE has hotel doors on the inside, hi-speed internet, and the rooms are generally larger, newer, and cleaner. There are more options in Longview, only 10 miles away.


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