This was our second visit to an Express by Holiday Inn after being impressed by a visit to another location.
On the booking website, it stated that a "water view" was available on request. So, we requested one as this would have been a nice view to wake up to. The water view was lovely. But tilt your head a little further up and all you see is an old docks crane, a huge industrial warehouse (which "churned" all night) and a busy road. None of these were really a problem as the windows blocked out most of the noise. The windows did not need to be opened, as the room had a combined heating/cooling system.
Check-in was easy - although they were very strict with the "2pm check-in" rule. As a Priority Club member, our key was waiting for us when we arrived.
The car park exit was token operated - the tokens were in a jar on the reception desk (which they forgot to tell us about until we attempted to leave) so take a few on your first day to save having to visit each time you wanted to leave the car park.
The beds were very uncomfortable. On both the sofa bed and main bed, you could feel all of the springs - this was not perfect, but we lasted two nights. Any longer and we would have complained to the hotel staff.
A positive point regarding the room was the shower. It was a "double" sized shower cubicle with a removable shower head. The shower room had a bottle of "lux" shower gel and "dove" soap.
The room had a television with the following channels: BBC One Wales, BBC Two Wales, ITV Wales, S4C, Five, BBC Three, E4, BBC News 24 & Sky News. The following radio stations were offered: BBC Radio 1-4 and Red Dragon. It also had expensive pay-per-view movie and adult movie channels.
The hotel's location was perfect. It takes about 15 minutes to walk to Cardiff Bay's Mermaid Quay or 10 minutes to the centre of Cardiff. The hotel is situated next to a bar/restaurant which appeared expensive. Approximately 5 minutes walk from the hotel was a leisure complex - the "red dragon centre". It featured an all-you-can-eat buffet style Chinese restaurant, night club, cinema, "doctor who" exhibition and various bars.
The hotel had an Indian takeaway menu and a pizza menu - both of which they would call through for a £2.25 service charge. We found it best to walk into the centre of Cardiff as there was a large selection of fast food chains, restaurants and kebab shops; all with more reasonable prices. The hotel had a bar with fairly standard prices.
The breakfast was the usual Express continental breakfast buffet. There was a poor selection of food but as it was "all-you-can-eat", it was suitable for small and large eaters. The buffet featured: tea/coffees/chocolates (including cappuccino, espresso, latte), orange/apple juices, selection of cereals, croissants, toast with jams/Marmite, yoghurts, grapefruit and pain au chocolats.
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