I stop in a lot of mid-range and budget hotels, around 25 a year and this is the very first time I’ve tried a Holiday Inn Express so didn’t know what to expect from this chain, but I have to say I’m
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extremally impressed by it.
Here is my very detailed review which hopefully will answer any questions you may have, I think I’ve pretty well covered everything in this.
I’m a trusted Google street view contributor so I have photographed the room, reception, and the exterior for Google Maps. You can wander through the room and look around the outside in full 360 degrees. I have taken 13 in the room, 8 in reception area and 12 outside the Hotel and nearby area so you can see its location relative to the Railway station. Hope they help you get an idea of what this hotel looks like. Go check them out once you have read my review.
All the staff were very welcoming and friendly. Check in process was quick and easy, there are two quick lifts to get to your floor. Access to the lift area and your room is by a NFC key card, this worked perfectly for my entire stay.
Location:
This hotel is located in the centre of Stockport, just off the main A6 road and also its right next to Stockport railway station which is very handy if you want to go to Manchester etc. There is an NCP car park less than 2 mins walk from the hotel, it has 1000 spaces so had no issues finding a space at 11:30am.
Currently this car park is 19 a day but before you check out the hotel they will validate your ticket and reduce the price to 8.50 a day which is a considerable saving. Once you have validated it at the hotel, got to the payment machine on the ground floor of the car park and pay, this will give you your ticket back but you don’t ned it as the exit barrier lifts automatically due to ANPR.
Its just a 12 minute walk from the hotel to the Merseyway shopping centre and other visitor attractions such as the Hat museum, The Plaza and Stockport Air Raid shelters.
There is a very convenient Sainsbury’s Local on the corner of the building adjacent to the hotel with an ATM.
When I was there, they put out lots of deck chairs, bean bags and lawn games on the triangle of grass outside the hotel which was rather a unique thing to see.
The hotel is pretty much directly under the flight path of Manchester airport but didn’t notice the planes when in the hotel due to good soundproofing.
The Room :
The room was modern, clean and fresh and there was plenty of space. It has a small two-seater sofa which was comfortable.
There was a small movable table which was handy for eating food at while at the Sofa. There was a small storage unit for opening your suitcase on which had a shelf in it and also a footstool stowed away under it.
The room includes an Iron and Ironing board and also a Hair dryer which had a 4 Metre long cable on it rather than being tethered to the wall.
There were a total of 9 free mains sockets around the room, Not only was there a double socket on both sides of the bed but also two integral USB charging sockets on both of them !
It had air conditioning which was a welcome relief in the hot weather. Both the aircon and the lights require that you insert your rooms key card in the activation slot just inside the room.
It had a large wall mounted TV, this is lined up to be viewed in bed.
The usual tea making facilities were on a shelf near the TV with 4 servings of milks, Tea and Coffee.
The curtains were excellent blackout curtains, and the double glazing did a god job of keeping the room quiet. The bed was very comfortable and was supplied with 4 pillows. The bedside lights operate by pulling them out from the wall, they turn off again when you push them into the wall unit. There were 6 Coat hangers and two bins, one in the bathroom.
The bathroom :
One of the best things in the room was the bathroom, most hotels have shower curtains which stick to your leg while your trying to shower or they dangle over the bath and you get loads of water on the floor. If they do have glass shower guards then they only go part way and again you end up with a wet floor.
This hotel is the first one ever to have an actual full shower cubical, not only that but it was very large so no banging your elbows in there. Also the shower head was not fixed to the wall, it had plenty of power and hot water.
The toilet, sink and overall finish was modern and clean with floor to ceiling tiles. The bathroom included a box of tissues, spare toilet roll, drinking glasses. Another unique feature was it had a blue light which wasn’t as harsh on the eyes if you need the toilet in the night.
There was a floor towel, hand towel and a bath towel as well as two spare ones.
Wi-Fi
Another plus point at Holiday Inn express is there was free fast wi-fi 52Mbps download/73Mbps upload with no sign in screens or anything.
Breakfast :
The hotel has a complimentary all you can eat breakfast included as part of your stay. The cooked breakfast was particularly good quality. The three days I stopped there, there was Bacon, Cumberland sausages, Grilled tomatoes, Scrambled egg, baked beans and potato Rosti’s. All of these items were cooked perfectly, Bacon had minimal fat. The Rosti’s were especially nice, never had them before. White or Brown bread for use in the toaster machine. They also offer the usual continental style offerings and cereals etc. the Breakfast area is to the left of the reception and had plenty of seating, ran by friendly chatty staff.
The breakfast serving times are rather confusing and very inconsistent but I’m sure they can sort this issue out very simply, these are the wide range of serving times I found :
07:00-10:30 every day (a sign in the lift)
06:30-09:30 every day (IHG App– This hotels breakfast info)
06:30-09:30 Mon-Fri, 07:00-10:30 Sat/Sun/Bank Hols (large sign in breakfast area)
06:30-09:00 Mon-Fri, 07:00-09:00 Sat/Sun (in-room TV info page)
As you can see that’s a right inconsistent mess.
To sum up, I was blown away by many aspects of this hotel and will certainly consider stopping at a Holiday Inn Express again in the future. I look forward to returning to this one for sure. [Less]
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