Holiday Inn Express Xalapa by IHG

The good: location is central next to Parque Juarez and convenient to restaurants, cafés and shops. Easy to get a taxi. The staff is unfailingly polite and pleasant – in particular Vanessa, who was fluent in English, helped me practice Spanish, and gave a recommendation for a lovely restaurant in a part of town I wanted to explore (las Arias). The breakfast buffet was simple but more than adequate. The room was spacious, and the bed was fine, but otherwise nondescript. But… The keys needed to be replaced every afternoon – I was told that they sometimes demagnetized – but why only in the afternoon and for both our keys kept separately? The food was not marked and the staff did not always know if the meat was pork, beef or chicken, or what was in the eggs. Our room 104 was adjacent to the small gym and I could hear the daily 6am workout from one of the guests. The hotel lobby was two levels up – next to a movie theatre. No charm at all. This would have been a 4 Star review except for Vanessa who gave Holiday Inn Express an extra star. As a matter of comparison – HIE Xalapa was marginally better than HIE in Philadelphia, but far short of the luxury HIE in Medellin against which I measure perfection for a budget hotel. On the other hand, in spite of the five stars, I doubt I would stay here again, except maybe on IHG points.