Necessary Roughness

Plans for me to spend my third week of this hitch in Duncan were halted, but now they’re back on.

The Holiday Inn Express in Fort Smith has been my hotel the last two weeks. As with most of the newer Express brand, the facilities are well-maintained and better than average. Other than a platinum upgrade to a King Suite, the service could have used some improvements.

The room I got is spacious; one might think of it as double-long. The bed was near the window with the wall-mounted heater/air-conditioner. Both the heater and the A/C worked fine. The middle of the room contained the desk, loveseat with hide-a-bed, an extra chair, and plenty of room for calisthenics. The bed was firm but quite comfortable, much better than the Oklahoma City Holiday Inn. The room has a refrigerator, a microwave, and some cabinet space.

60 channels were available on the TV, including SciFi, Food Network, VH1, Disney, and Lifetime, channels one usually doesn’t see in a hotel room. Instead of EWTN we get a Baptist Channel here (no not TBN ). One outlet was available for the laptop, leaving me to plug the phone in the outlet on the other side of the middle section. Broadband was available through ethernet and functioned very well; there were no login/sign-in screens to fill out before using it.

The bathroom was average for an Express, which is larger than most. The shower had their trademark bowed-out shower rod. The shower shelves didn’t leave a lot of width for large bottles. The shower control was touchy, but hot water was ample. Bath towels were fluffy. The hand towels were on the small side. Two mints accompanied the normal provided shampoo, conditioner, etc.

The fitness room contained two treadmills and an exercise bike, in a room about half the size as my room. One could almost reach out and touch the TV from the near treadmill. No remote for the TV. The treadmills had contact plates to measure heart rate.

A Holiday Inn Express has no room service, but the local pizza place, Gregorio’s Specialty Pizza, makes a good meat lover’s. The hotel had the standard continental breakfast. A popcorn cart graced the lobby, except the nights a church youth mission group ran the place.

The laundry service was less than average. The first time I submitted my laundry, it took two days to come back instead of one. The second time it came back the same day, as it should. They use a soap that smelled a little off. Tags were affixed with plastic ties that easily broke off.

Parking is close to the hotel, all the way around. On the corner of an intersection, access was nice and easy from both streets. One has to drive several blocks to the restaurants.

Several of the hotel’s magnetic credit-card keys couldn’t hold their encoding more than a day, no matter what pocket I put the key in. The hotel clerk refused to exchange keys for the first couple of days. One time the manager refused to give me change for a twenty. One time the maid cleaned one of the trash cans but not the other—a pizza box isn’t normally hard to miss.

At $65/night, the facilities are good, but the service could use some shaping up. I’d stay again but plan accordingly for services, perhaps trying another laundry company.

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