Rated 4.0 out of 5.0 by Stephen28 Very Helpful Staff... A few improvement opportuities!
I have stayed at the Holiday Inn Southend a few times now and find it a nice hotel with very friendly and helpful staff.
There are a couple of frustrating areas though that could be easily improved:
Car Parking - every time you leave the car park you must have your ticket validated at reception. This means if you stay 4 days and enter/leave 3 times a day you end up with a dozen different waits at reception and a dozen different validated tickets!! Because the staff are so friendly and in-depth ("How was your journey today?") there are queues at reception at peak times and this wait for validation made me late for a meeting. When I tried to exit by pressing the help button at barrier I discovered the car park is operated by the local airport and the lady was extremely rude. Solution - Guests should be given a validated ticket to come and go as they please during their stay.
Lighting in Room - The lights, particularly in the bathroom, start off very very dim and slowly brighten up. However even at it's brightest the bathroom was very dark making it difficult to shave in the morning. I understand the need to find energy-efficient methods but you really should look for brighter bulbs!
I had room service one night and the food was excellent.
Thanks.
May 15, 2013
Rated 5.0 out of 5.0 by Tony44 Excellent service
No problems except for a leaking basin waste in the bathroom
which i managed to fix with a bit of DIY and some very noisy
guests returning late about 2.30 am.
A bit disappointed with the lack of airport activity as i wanted to
watch the planes, but of course this is not the hotel's fault.
May 14, 2013
Rated 5.0 out of 5.0 by Lindsey1 Continent!
We always stay here when we have an early flight form Southend Airport.
It's a short walk to the terminal, fairly priced and the food in the restaurant is always lovely.
Nice relaxing sleep to kick start our holidays.
May 13, 2013
Rated 5.0 out of 5.0 by Wallsy Great service
Lovely room over looking the runway, don't worry we could not hear the planes land or take off, staff friendly and very helpful, food excellent , would recommend to everybody.
May 11, 2013
Rated 5.0 out of 5.0 by suzyq78 Total luxury
My husband and I hired the Laker Suite for our Ruby Wedding anniversary and we booked a room for the night. We were given a complimentary upgrade to a superior room. Wow!! The room was fantastic with every little luxury. Bed was huge and comfortable and the bathroom was stunning. Excellent view and totally soundproofed. Breakfast was buffet style help yourself with plenty of choice. Can't wait to return and be spoiled again.
May 9, 2013
Rated 4.0 out of 5.0 by Tilly3 Breakfast
Enjoyed my stay. Thought the hotel was excellent and the view from the restaurant and bar was stunning. My only criticism was that whilst the service at breakfast was very attentive the staff did not keep on top of the food available at the buffet. On 2 occasions I had to ask for the dishes to be replenished e.g. only 1 slice of bacon and later no pastries (which then took 6 mins or so to cook and I did not have the time to wait). Having said that the overall experience was very good and I will certainly consider staying here again.
April 22, 2013
Rated 4.0 out of 5.0 by Ozzie7 Great hotel, staff, shame about the food
From the moment we walked into reception Naz and Katy made us feel welcome and that nothing was too much trouble they were good ambassadors for the hotel as we're all the staff, room with view of the airport was an unexpected bonus, as for the bed I think 4 could have slept in it comfortably. The unfortunate thing was the breakfast there was not a lot of selection of bread and pastries-for the continental travellers bacon was like shoe leather, scrambled egg like mush staff tried their best. We would have eaten in the hotel of an evening but didn't want to take a chance if the breakfast was anything to go by. Will be going back not sure about taking the breakfast option, once again staff and rooms outstanding.
April 16, 2013
Rated 5.0 out of 5.0 by Izzie Smashing Hotel
Excellent value for money hotel. This is the second time we have stayed here in the last 5 months. It is a very comfortable and clean hotel. Would highly recommend it.
April 12, 2013