Holiday Inn Conventry Airport, Coventry

...trawling I settled on this Holiday Inn property.

Booking
As a Platinum Ambassador with Intercontinental Hotel Group I book all my hotel reservations through their website at www.ihg.com the website is simple to book through whether you have a profile or not. It took a matter of minutes and I chose a normal standard double bedroom. The cost was £39 for a Saturday night including breakfast. Not bad for a place to crash!

...The hotel is one of Holiday Inn’s rebranded properties but it still appeared rather tired when we got inside and felt very 80’s motel.

Check-In
In all fairness to the hotel check in was a breeze. They had all my preferences taken care of and my room had been prepared. I was asked to sign the form and was then passed a welcome letter with my keys. It was a nice touch to have a personally addressed letter welcoming me to the hotel ... more

Well for those hoping that this will be a review that tells of an exciting luxury hotel stay let me stop you now. It’s not going to be!

During the summer I decided to have a weekend away with my partner and we wanted to visit Stratford, Warwick and the surrounding area, as we had never been before. We wanted to explore the area so didn’t mind booking a hotel that was literally just a bed for the night. So after much Internet trawling I settled on this Holiday Inn property.

Booking
As a Platinum Ambassador with Intercontinental Hotel Group I book all my hotel reservations through their website at www.ihg.com the website is simple to book through whether you have a profile or not. It took a matter of minutes and I chose a normal standard double bedroom. The cost was £39 for a Saturday night including breakfast. Not bad for a place to crash!

Arrival
The hotel is easy to find and is straight off the dual carriageway at Ryton-on-Dunnesmore. Beware of the speed cameras though! There is a large car park that is free for hotel guests. Fields surround the hotel and I would recommend you remove all valuables from your vehicle. The abundance of police warnings would suggest problems in the past. The hotel is one of Holiday Inn’s rebranded properties but it still appeared rather tired when we got inside and felt very 80’s motel.

Check-In
In all fairness to the hotel check in was a breeze. They had all my preferences taken care of and my room had been prepared. I was asked to sign the form and was then passed a welcome letter with my keys. It was a nice touch to have a personally addressed letter welcoming me to the hotel and discussing my benefits as an Ambassador member. Once checked in we went off to the room!

The Room.
Our room was situated on the ground floor at the rear of the property. On opening the door I was actually quite shocked as to the size of the room as it was larger than expected. There was a large king size bed, desk, seating area, TV cabinet and wardrobe. As a special touch we had been given a free gift for being Ambassador members and were given two bottles of mineral water and a box of chocolates. Nothing that grand but still appreciated! The room was clean and a good size however it felt tired. The view from the window looked out over the fields behind but I felt the room was very uninspiring. It just felt like another boring hotel room. The TV had access to a variety of satellite channels and worked well and there was also the obligatory broadband connection found in many hotels these days. Access was £10 for 24 hours.

The bathroom was very spacious and had a shower over the bath. There were few toiletries in the bathroom however you could ring up reception and request further should you need them. Another ploy to stop guests clearing everything out that they don’t need. What a way to cut costs eh! The shower was very powerful and was a good temperature; the only issue was the fact the bath took an awful long time to drain!
That night the bed was comfortable but the room got very stuffy. We didn’t feel safe to open the window due to the remote ground floor location and there was no air conditioning, which made for a stuffy summers night. This was then compounded by the neighbouring room where the guest returned at 11pm to watch match of the day on full volume. The connecting room door was poorly insulated and allowed a large amount of noise to come through. After about twenty minutes I had to call reception to ask them to go to the room to ask the guest to turn the TV down. After another ten minutes we finally got some peace!

Although the hassle at night we did wake up the next day feeling refreshed!

Bar
The hotel has one bar ‘The Lords Bar’. We went there fore a nightcap before bed and it had to be the most soulless bar I have been to. There was no atmosphere and hardly any staff around. It really was depressing. One to avoid!

Facilities
The hotel had conference and ballroom facilities, not that we looked at them and also a gym. The gym was out of action when we visited but it looked like there was a treadmill and bike in there. Nothing too posh!

Breakfast
After our nights sleep we headed to the buffet. The breakfast room was yet another soulless place, rather crowded and basic with the vibes of a little chef. There was a good enough spread and in all fairness the staff were very helpful. There was a full English buffet, continental and a selection of hot drinks. Everything was to a reasonable standard and left us feeling full. It was just rather average.

Checkout
As easy as it was to check in we managed to check out with no hassle. Our bill had been prepared, was charged to our card and we were on our way. The staff were helpful with tourist recommendations and off we went!

Summary
If I needed another crash pad in the area then I would definitely consider the hotel as for what I paid and received I cannot grumble. I would say that my stay left me wanting more and if you wanted a hotel with a bit of atmosphere then I would definitely give it a miss. If you are however, looking for a good alternative to a premier inn or Travelodge then give it a go. It is better than either of those and priced extremely competitively!

 

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