Candlewood Suites Bessemer - Birmingham SW, an IHG Hotel - Hotel in Bessemer - 5430 Academy Way Suite B, USA

This hotel is half Holiday Inn Express and half Candlewood, it is fresh and new but I believe they forgot to put any insulation in the walls. You can hear neighbors entire conversations. People in the hallway sound like they are in your room. The heavy doors dont have any springs to slow them down so constant slamming doors. We had 2 rooms to accommodate our family and neither were a good experience. We all left tired. The a/c unit is on and off all night loud clicking noises, the fan will NOT run continuously, so you cant even try to drown out the noise. The mini fridge made loud squeaking sounds every time it turned on so I unplugged that. Breakfast was meh. Not a great place if you need rest.

The rooms overall are very nice. Great lay-out of the room. My gripe is the hotel itself is advertising on-line “two queen beds; however, in our particular room, both beds measured 54” x 75”—which makes it two full beds (false advertisement), which certainly would have been a game changer for me in booking this particular hotel. My encounter with staff has not been positive, some staff border on the line of being rude.

My husband and I are IHG Platinum Elite members. We used points for our one night stay when making the reservation two weeks prior to our stay. I requested to upgrade from a king suite to a 1 bedroom suite and was told we were guaranteed the 1 bedroom suite but I would need to call the day before, which I did. When we got there they said they had no record that we upgraded. We were frustrated since we were traveling with our cat for the last 8 hours. My husband can't sleep with the cat in the bed so he was going to sleep in the bedroom and I would have slept on the pull out. One of us needed a good night sleep since we had 16 more hours of driving. It didn't happen. So, after a not so good nights sleep, I went down to get much needed coffee and breakfast. They have 3 coffee dispensers and not one of them worked. How does that happen? All three not functional. Also, there was a bus of probably a high school sports team that stayed. While they were getting breakfast, my husband noticed 3 different times tongs were dropped on the floor and picked up and put back in the food. Not really the hotel's fault but disgusting none the less. We didn't eat breakfast there. Third, when I checked our credit card today, I saw a charge of $25.00, which I assumed was a pet fee but an additional charge of $250.00! I called thinking they charged us for the room which we had already paid for in points. Nope. At this point I'm not even sure what the $25 .00 is for because when I called and was told the $250.00 is for the pet fee that was all I was focused on. The pet fee cost more than the room itself!! Unbelievable! When we checked in we were asked if we were aware of the pet fee. I stated "$25.00 right?" She said "no, it's 250". I assumed she meant since we are IHG Platinum members she meant $2.50". Maybe that was naive on my part but never in a million years would I have thought a pet fee would be $250.00. Needless to say I was extremely upset. They said they will refund us $175.00 but I still am feeling like this is theft. Just beware, not so "pet friendly".

We were very impressed with the rooms and amenities!! The suites had a fully stocked kitchen and nice bathroom with such a well designed layout. You can tell this is a property that is cared about because the people were so nice and welcoming! We will definitely be back next time we need to stay in the area.

This is the best hotel for week long stays in Bessemer. The staff are always friendly and helpful. The rooms are modern, and clean.

It was actually the Holiday Inn. The best one I've stayed at. Love the gated parking area. And the breakfast crew was nice.

Nice , clean. Very friendly and knowledgeable front desk clerks.