For the last two weeks I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Acme, MI, just east of Traverse City.
The hotel is in the middle of a renovation, so the first two-thirds of my stay was in a cramped, double-twin room, and the last third was spent in a jacuzzi room with a king-size bed. The bed alone was a difference-maker, as I didn’t sleep too well in the small bed.
Heater and A/C worked well, the window unit controlled from a thermostat on the wall.
The desk was spacious enough, with two electrical outlets and an ethernet jack within easy rich. Internet had good speed coming down but was pretty slow going up. The single-screen login behaved normally. The television had good channels, including ESPN/2/Classic, Disney, and the BigTen Network, which was showing classic football games in the evening.
The bathrooms were standard HIE and pretty spacious, but the water was pretty poor quality. While it lathered up without much problem, the water had an iron and sulfur smell to it, hence the “foul” icon. The water smelled a little better in the upstairs jacuzzi room, but it was still there.
The jacuzzi worked well, but they included an interesting feature: a switch across the room not only operated a fan above the tub but also prohibited the jets from running if the fan wasn’t turned on. There was also a jacuzzi room above me, which rumbled my room a little bit.
Laundry service was same day and letter-perfect, except they pressed my jeans. Slacks and Dockers, I get, but only in Texas and Oklahoma are jeans considered “dress.” Thankfully they did not smell of bad water.
The hotel had the standard HIE continental breakfast with no miscues such as watery eggs.
The fitness room had an elliptical, a treadmill, and a bike. It was a fairly small room only accessible through the indoor pool. The elliptical worked properly. The pool had a separate hot tub that looked like it could hold eight people comfortably.
Access to the hotel is a little deceptive. The hotel sits on Mt. Hope Road, which looks like it is the driveway to the neighboring Sleep Inn. The HIE entrance should be marked better. Parking was adequate.
HAL paid $69/night, which isn’t bad. I am very tempted to try out the Holiday Inn in Traverse City proper and see if the water is any better there.
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