Hotel berhampiran Flint Hills Discovery Center, Manhattan

The hotel is modern and new, with clean and comfortable rooms, and a convenient location adjacent to shopping, dining, a magnificent holiday lights display, and not too far from KSU. The pool and hot tub were plenty fine (and a delight to my two nephews and one niece staying in another room). The fitness center was spacious with good, well-maintained equipment. Normally, for these sort of ”cookie cutter” hotels, I'm happy to award 4 stars if they ”check all the boxes” (and 5 if they go ”above and beyond”). However, in a few areas, most notably the breakfast service, this hotel came up a tad short. I stayed two nights and had the complimentary breakfast on both mornings. I showed up for breakfast about 45 minutes after it opened (i.e., not 5 minutes before close), and experienced the following: (1) oatmeal almost empty one morning (I scraped the last bits out of it); totally empty the next morning (2) cinnamon rolls cold one morning; out the next morning (3) scrambled eggs down to a few unappetizing ”crumbs” one morning and the next morning were replaced by some pre-fab ”omelets” (both egg serving trays were allocated to ”omelets” that morning) (4) pancake machine out of batter one morning. HI Express's cinnamon rolls are an emblem of their brand; the breakfast area attendant should be monitoring them and replenishing when necessary. And it was not like it was especially busy; the breakfast area seats were perhaps 25-30% occupied. ALSO: they ran out of pool towels. And, it seemed like every time I walked past the front lobby, the front desk was unattended. I know desk attendants might need to leave the desk now and then, but it seems like a hotel should strive to keep the desk staffed except during the wee hours. I am fairly loyal to the HI Express brand. One reason for that loyalty is that its complimentary breakfasts are a cut above those of their competitors in the mid-tier lodging category; it's an area of differentiation in a category where differentiation is difficult to achieve. I would therefore suggest that all HI Express locations try to be diligent in keeping their breakfast experience positive. Yeah, once in a while, one item will run out or run low. But it should not be almost every warm item.

I had booked a pre-paid non-refundable rate for this hotel 2 months in advance. I know this hotel gets busy on football/event weekends so I made sure to book as early as possible. When I arrived at 8:30pm to check in after 13 hours of travel, I was told that a pipe had burst “in the room I was assigned to” so I was out of luck and they had no other rooms available. I asked to see a picture of the room and it was completely under construction with the wood studs exposed. This clearly wasn’t a last-minute issue and there was no forewarning. Since I booked through *******, the hotel didn’t do anything to try to help. I spent 2 hours on the phone trying to find a new hotel room since the city was basically sold out by that point. I had to move to a hotel a few miles away which required driving to my meetings instead of making the short walk which was the whole point of staying at this hotel. I was not offered any help from the hotel staff. I tried to call the manager the next day and was sent to voicemail. I never received a return call, apology, or better explanation as to why I was the only room that couldn’t be fulfilled. Multiple people checked in after me & I had colleagues arrive the day after me and they received their rooms. It was a very shady experience with terrible customer service. Why book a hotel 2 months in advance on a pre-paid rate if you will then get booted from the hotel?!

My experience was very good. The hotel is being totally renovated and will be completed in October. The halls smelled fresh and clean and everything in common areas was clean and in good condition. My room was clean and also in good condition. The couch and drapes, wallpaper and paint looked so good, I thought it had been remodeled, but they told me it hasn't been, yet. Bed was comfortable and internet and A/C both worked well.