When traveling for business, which is quite often, I stay at Holiday Inn Express facilities 99% of the time. My recent stay at the Holiday Inn Express, Portage, Michigan was exceptional, however.
The smiling, courteous staff and the accomodations were surperb. The heater/AC unit was the quietest I've had in a LONG time. I could hardly hear it during the night as it cycled on and off. The room was impecablly clean, quiet and comfortable. The comforter on the bed was the best and warmest I've had the pleasure of sleeping under - I WANT ONE OF MY OWN!
As with most HI Express hotels, the one-piece bathtubs creak and squeak when you bathe. This one DID NOT! The curtain bar was at the right height - most of them aren't - and no water got on to the floor because of it. Good construction management here.
The Internet actually worked and worked well! And the television was new and up to date and, well, what else can I say, but a pleasant night's stay to say the least.
Thanks again, to the staff and management.

One of the finest stays I've had in a long time.
KUDOs to the staff and management for a well-maintained and pleasurable experience.

Well pleased with friendly, helpful staff. Breakfast is excellent especially with addition of new pancake maker. Rooms are dingy and mine doesn't smell fresh. Elevator smells strongly of smoke.

This hotel was very nice. It was easy on and off the interstate. The rooms were clean, and quiet. The front desk staff was very helpful and friendly. They suggested a restaurant for us and gave easy directions to it. The continental breakfast was very good and had a good selection to choose from. The price was right and we would stay there again if we are in the area.

We usually stop in Ilinois or Michigan, but I took a chance on a new stopover.
The hotel seemed off the beaten track, but it is close to the toll route, not I94. I cashed in some Priority Club points for our stay, but I wasn't treated like they knew I was getting a 'freebee'. I was greeted as a PC member, and was given one of the larger 'upgraded' rooms. They are renovating all of the rooms but the TVs are not flat panel 'yet'. This isn't a big deal for us, any TV is fine. The room had a fridge and a microwave, sofa and sitting area. It was very quiet and not too far from the dunes beaches. The hotel pool was really small, so we didn't bother to swim.
The room was large and clean. I asked the staff where to order pizza and they recommended the Pizza Shack. The breadsticks were well worth it. For less than 15$ we got a pizza breadsticks and pop, and even had leftover cold pizza for the ride home.
We will likely stop here again.
NOTE one end of the hotel is smoking, so if this bothers you, ask for a room far enough away, we only noticed the 'smokey' smell as we got off the elevator, our room was fine.