Holiday Inn Express & Suites AUSTIN DOWNTOWN - UNIVERSITY by IHG

I'm baffled by how this hotel got such a high rating. The room I was assigned had an air conditioner so noisy and a drain pipe so loud that sleeping was impossible. It was the loudest noise I've ever encountered in twenty or thirty years of staying in hotels. I asked the front desk to change rooms, but the staff insisted that every room had the same AC noise and told me to wait until all other check-ins were processed before they would help me. I waited at the front desk for half an hour until they finally had no choice but to help me. They switched me to a twin room and even offered noise-canceling earplugs, which they clearly had in abundant supply. The new room, thankfully, didn't have the running water noise, but the AC noise was still there, like someone snoring right in front of you. Luckily, it would be loud for half an hour and then quiet for a few hours, so I managed to get through it. They wouldn't let me check out or change my two-day stay to one day. The service was terrible. My colleagues who also stayed here told me they had the same noise and had to turn off the AC to sleep, even though it was 35 degrees Celsius outside.