Upon arriving at the hotel, there was no one at the front desk. After waiting approx 10 minutes, I had to walk to the bar (which was not great, as I had my 6 year old with me) to ask the bartender where I might find the front desk staff. He advised that they were "around" and would probably be back soon. When the staff did arrive, they did not allow my 6 year old and I to stay in the room that we had paid for and confirmed payment for via email. This trip was very important to my daughter as it was a very special treat, and one we had been planning for quite a while. We purchased it during black Friday sales in order to afford it. My daughter had talked of nothing but this hotel stay for weeks. While the concierge was telling us we couldn't stay, she was incredibly rude and unapologetic despite the fact that my daughter was near tears. She let us know in an unbothered tone and facial expression that "this happens all the time." Which begs the question, why hasn't Holiday Inn done anything to address this problem, which upon further inspection, does in fact happen so much, IT WAS COVERED ON THE LOCAL NEWS!!!!!!! The concierge dismissively told us that if we wanted our money back, we would need to sit through constumer service with hotels.com as this "wasn't her problem", and then aggressively and repeatedly yelled "have a nice day" as we were leaving.
As a Roanoker, I can honestly say I do not care to have a business in our area that specifically discriminates against locals.