The room was good for the price and clean/quiet. The location was also convenient. However, a few employees of the Holiday Inn Express front desk staff /?managers? were extremely misleading when I questioned them about transportation options to return to the Seattle Airport for our return flight home. My partner and I rode the public transit Link Light rail when we arrived in Seattle to get to our hotel at the HI Express Seattle Center for $5.00 total (40 min. ride) and easily took a free 5 minute bus ride from the train station to the hotel. Therefore, we wanted to do the same exact thing upon our return to the airport to fly back home since it was straightforward and very economical. Why waste money taking a shuttle or taxi for $35-40 each way? On Saturday 9/11/10 night I asked the front desk what bus my partner and I needed to take to get to the Link Light Rail station in Westlake Center that goes to the airport and that our flight left at 10:15AM. The front desk ?informed? me that the Link Rail train did not start running until 9AM and we would have to take the Town Car service for $35 to get to the airport. The employee then stated HI Express has a relationship with the Town Car/Shuttle company and would book the ride for us for $35. I grudgingly agreed since they emphatically advised me that I had no other lower cost options to get to the airport in time. Since the Link Rail Train didn?t begin until 9AM on Sundays. I informed my partner about what the front desk told me and we both concluded it was nonsensical for a public transport train to start that late (9AM) since numerous travelers and Seattle residents need to take the train early. I checked the Link Rail website on my on at discovered the train begins at 6:20AM on Sundays! I also called the 24 hour transportation hotline and they confirmed the train begins running at 6:20AM and they also gave me directions to the 2 minute walk behind the hotel where we could catch the bus that would easily take us directly to the train station. I truly believe the hotel makes money off booking Town Car/Shuttle services to the airport and purposefully deceives tourists into paying the $35 each way instead of advising cost effective and easy ways to get to the airport. My partner and I were extremely upset and wanted to voice our complaint to the hotel manager. I called twice from the room to try to speak to a manager and was put on hold for extended periods and had to hang up both times in order to have enough time to begin our transit back to the airport. On the 3rd call from our room I was told a manager would call back quickly, we waited an hour an never heard back. There was also no manager present at the front desk. I also called the HI Express when I returned home and was put on hold again and unable to speak to a manager. I would not stay at Holiday Inn Express again.
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