Holiday Inn Express opens
By Matt Caulder
Published in News on June 28, 2014 10:39 PM
The paint is dry, the tile is set and the beds are made.
The new Holiday Inn Express, constructed on Sunburst Drive, is now open for business.
A little more than a year after work began on the new hotel the finishing touches are going in.
"We are just going through our normal punch list stuff," General Manager Lyn Hagerty said. "Painting, carpet, really minimal stuff. So much so that it isn't much of a concern."
The 92 room hotel features five different styles of room from single king and double queen rooms to single and double suites.
The cost ranges from $119 for the studio style rooms to $199 for the suites, depending on the day of the week, season and occupancy, Ms. Hagerty said.
The push to finish the hotel came following a cold, wet, winter that held back construction across the county.
"We were supposed to be in a while ago but that's okay because we are here now," Ms. Hagerty said. "It's been so long it really hasn't hit me that we're open."
Ms. Hagerty left her job as an assistant general manager at the Hampton Inn in November to begin training to become the manager of the new hotel.
Ms. Hagerty said she is excited to be running a hotel in the area.
She came up in the hotel business from a front desk worker, rising to her new position at the head of a brand new hotel.
"The hospitality industry always fit with me," Ms. Hagerty said.
The child of a military parent, she is used to traveling all over the world.
Ms. Hagerty came to Goldsboro from Seattle and has found an unlikely home in the community.
"When I came here I thought Goldsboro was going to be a little small," she said. "And it is compared to Seattle, but I am an island girl so I know small."
"It's been so crazy," she said. "The shell was up but that was it. There has been a lot of blood, sweat and tears to put up this hotel. I went over to our Smithfield Holiday Inn Express and Suites and did some training there."
Ms. Hagerty said that the hotel has a lot of amenities that many others in the area may not have.
"We have a huge lobby," she said. "No one has the lobby space that we have. And continental breakfast of course."
The hotel also features a temperature controlled pool with American with Disabilities Act compliant aids to help disabled persons enter and exit the pool.
"This is our big sauna," Ms. Hagerty said. "Everything is ADA compliant in here and the whole hotel."