Introduction
Welcome to my second hotel that I’ll be reviewing.
In this post, I’m going to review the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Byron, located in Byron, Georgia off of I-75.
Like the first post, where I’ve reviewed the Tru By Hilton Macon North in Macon, Georgia, I’ll focus solely on the accessibility issues that I’d faced, in which, surprisingly, I didn’t face many issues at all except for the key cards that deactivate when it’s close to an electronic device, such as your phone.
Reserving/Checking Into The Hotel Room
Reserving my hotel room through the IHG App was easy and straightforward.
After arriving to the hotel via a Lyft, the front desk agent who was on duty helped me check into my hotel room by confirming my information in the system and providing my ID for verification.
After I signed a paper, I was given the keys to my hotel room. The front desk agent told me where the elevator is located, and it was very easy to navigate to it. It was even steps from the front desk.
Navigating The Hotel
Navigating this hotel was very easy. However, when I’m in a new environment such as this hotel, I tend to go past landmarks. This is how blind individuals like myself get to learn a new layout before finding the correct place to go.
After getting to my assigned floor with the labeled elevator buttons, I was able to find my room via the braille signage provided on the walls on the left or right side of doors, depending on where the door handle is facing.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to explore the rest of the hotel. Once I’m able to stay at the hotel, I’ll be sure to check out more of the features, such as the business/fitness center.
The Hotel Key Card
Unlike other hotels where I can use Digital Key on my phone, at this hotel, I had to insert the card into a slot and remove it to unlock my hotel room door. It took me some tries to get the door to open. Also, one of my hotel key cards might’ve gotten Demagnetized due to it getting close to my iPhone. I found out after inserting the Demagnetized key card in all of the ways that I can think of when I accidentally put one of them close to an electronic device, such as my phone. The good news is that I had a spare hotel key to use.
Overall, I hope to see the door locks upgraded in the future where instead of inserting the key, you can just scan it to open the doors instead. While I haven’t experienced a scanning hotel key card getting Demagnetized yet, I’ll let you know if these cards get demagnetized if it happens in a future review.
The Hotel Room
The hotel room was clean when I arrived. It was easy to navigate and explore to get used to the surroundings.
The bed was very comfortable to sleep, and the TV was easy to navigate with tactile up/down buttons, with the phone-style keypad. I was able to find one of my channels that I liked.
I thought that there was water in the hotel room due to the coffee maker. I had to go down to the front desk to ask for water. I didn’t use the coffee maker at all. I ended up taking the coffee/other free complimentary items with me.
The Breakfast
The next morning, I went down to try the breakfast that was provided free of charge. It actually smelled good when I stepped out of my hotel room. It might’ve traveled upstairs to my floor or someone might’ve brought their breakfast to the same floor.
Once I got to the breakfast area, they assisted me with getting a plate of what I wanted. I even wanted to make sure that everyone gets a plate, but they told me that there’s enough for everyone, meaning that I was able to get enough food. I even had seconds!
Also, the pancake maker was not working correctly. They had to put a sign saying that it was out of order.
The Meal
I’ve decided that I wanted to try the cheese omelette, bacon with diced fried potatoes, with a bowl of grits, a banana, and a hot coffee.
While I enjoyed my breakfast, what I would like to see improved is the crisp/texture on the fried potatoes. It was a little soft and still editable to eat. I don’t know how to describe it. The good news is that the salt helped it get more flavor.
Also, this picture was taken after I ate the bacon.
The Dessert
This was honestly the best part of breakfast. The cinnamon rolls was very hot and good. I wished that I could’ve gotten more, but I was very full.
Checking Out/Conclusion
Checking out was a breeze. They read my receipt to me to make sure that everything was correct after asking them to read it for me.
Overall, I’ll hopefully return to this hotel in the future. The staff was nice and helped me every step of the way.
One More Thing
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