First, a confession: Staying at the Mövenpick (another Accra hotel) will ruin any other hotel experience you’ll have in Ghana. That is what happened to me — after being spoiled during my first night in Accra at the Movenpick, I knew no other hotel would be able to measure up.

However, I wasn’t nervous about the quality of the Holiday Inn, because it’s a chain that I am familiar with. Having said that, the Accra branch of the hotel chain could have been better.

When I entered the well-decorated lobby I had high hopes that my room wouldn’t be as bland as it was, but that wasn’t the case. The positive news is that my room was spacious but the sterile aesthetics weren’t as inviting as I expect hotel décor should be.

The very basic room featured white walls, white sheets and tan furniture, and felt more like a hospital than it did a hospitable inn. My room appeared clean and I liked my bathroom, but it was hard to ignore the damp odor that was possibly mix of residual cigarette smoke and mold, even with the air conditioner running. About that air conditioner: it was permanently set to arctic, which was a nuisance. I couldn’t adjust it, but if I turned it off I’d get too hot. I realize that Ghana is a hot place and that a lot of people don’t like heat but I prefer a temperature that is somewhere in the 70s, so it would have been nice to be able to adjust my A/C.

Standard amenities like a pool, restaurant and bar are available, and it’s conveniently located near the Marina Mall and supermarket. But this place, no matter how hard it tries, cannot be anything other than what it is: an airport hotel. In addition, the amount of indifference shown by the staff was surprising given the nightly rate for this place.