 Guest Reviews
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83%
Recommend This Property
Overall Experience 3.9
83%
Recommend This Property
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Comfortable bed shame about street noise
ByBirches
07 August 2016
Well situated hotel., close to Old Street tube. Lovely clean room and very comfortable bed. En suite bathroom fairly new with a good shower.
The breakfast was included in the price and fairly good.
I would have liked to order a light snack in the evening when I arrived but the bar only had crisps and chocolate. However, in view of there being a number of nearly supermarkets, this was not a major issue.
The main problem I had was from street noise - throughout the night I was very aware of traffic noise outside my room. I appreciate the hotel is in central London, but think this is something the hotel need to address.
Hostile staff member- severely lacks customer service skills
ByBajeLL
03 August 2016
Our stay was "okay"- breakfast options could have been a bit more varied. More importantly, it was also, (the main reason for this review), less than "okay" based on the treatment of staff member Mr. Gargari. The encounter was an unpleasant one as his interactions with people of diverse backgrounds from all over the world, myself included, stands to improve significantly. His language, approach, and demeaning questions were embarassing and hostile towards me, and shows that he lacks cultural competence as a professional service provider, and that he significantly lacks customer service skills. In short, I was continually questioned about the legitimacy of my stay at Holiday Inn Express when I walked into the hotel early in the morning and went directly to get some breakfast- this was even after I responded in the affirmative when he asked if I was a guest there. His line of question was demeaning and embarassing as others passed by on their way out of the hotel or on their way to their rooms.
To provide some context, I returned to the hotel (we were about 6 days into our stay there- having had breakfast daily), with us being one of a handful of black people. As I entered through the main door/entryway I checked the breakfast time to remind myself of the window of time when breakfast is served. Upon realizing that breakfast was available and realizing that I was famished, I made my way (for the 6th day in a row), to the breakfast area to grab a light breakfast to take to our room. After grabbing some juice and a croissant, I made my way towards the elevator to go to our room- please note that other people were leaving and entering the breakfast area as well as leaving and entering the hotel. I was then approached by Mr. Gargari. Of all the people entering and leaving- I was approached. He asked me if I was staying at the hotel. Thinking nothing of it, I responded yes as I walked casually towards the elevator. Then, to add insult to injury, as if I was lying or that he didn't believe me, he proceeded to ask me, well what room are you staying in? This line of questioning made me stop in my tracks because now it was clear that though I responded in the affirmative that I was indeed a guest, he did not believe me and further felt the need to dig deeper for more information. Not only was his line of questioning embarrassing, it was annoying and quite frankly offensive. Why? Because of all of the people in the hotel, he decided to question me, a young, black, professional, woman, who from the looks of it, was one of very few staying in the hotel. To his additional question, I responded asking- of all the people entering and leaving, why are you questioning ME and not any of the other people that come through that door or a matter of fact anyone else that enters the hotel or breakfast area period? He rambled off some inadequate response to the extent of him knowing the other guests and not me.
This incident was for me, a no-brainer. What, in his mind, made me stand out from all of the other people in the hotel that blended in, in the breakfast area? (this question is rhetorical as the answer is implicit). What about me and my appearance made him decide that the legitimacy of my visit should be called into question, where I was left to feel unwelcome or like I was doing something wrong, when in actuality I was doing something that I, like all other visitors to the hotel, was entitled to? His line of questioning, his approach, and his persistence with his questions was discriminatory, embarrassing, and offensive as a black woman.
The Manager on duty sought to assuage me with the logic/reasoning that there have been instances where people have walked in off the street to eat. Let's be clear- what other people do, regardless of who they are, have nothing to do with me. I am singular and an individual and should not be lumped with other people. Not only does it not have anything to do with me, it is also making a general assumption about someone, which couldn't be further from the truth for me. In the customer service field, my experience was unacceptable.
In short, there's a way to treat, approach, and speak to other people as humans respectfully, but especially if they are paying for comfort and a service. How Mr. Gargari approached me was unacceptable, lacked professionalism, tact, and decorum, and quite frankly, was discriminatory. We did not invest our money for the legitimacy of my presence at Holiday Inn Express to be called into question, pointed out, or to feel unwelcome in a place where we had every right to be, like all other visitors at the hotel, and simply for being there and utilizing their services, which we were entitled to.
Mr. Gargari's line of questioning was discriminatory, tacky, and offensive, making me completely disgruntled and dissatisfied with our stay at Holiday Inn Express in London City.
Good place to stay
ByTrinimom
01 August 2016
In London for a wedding and needed a location close by. Stayed at London Inn Express, Earls Court last year and would recommend that hotel. This Express is clean, close to the Old Street Station and steps away from the buses. The location is not the best but we found great restaurants, breakfast was well laid out and good. We stayed on the 4th floor after reading all the reviews. It was clean and renovated!! Room 429 was great!! The front desk was very helpful and kind. Special thanks to Abed, Arif, Rana, Juwan, Nimo and Gabriel. We got great places to eat and easy directions for places to visit!! Thank you all!! Excellent stylist within walking distance was Tommy Guns Saloon and Anthony Dunn was the best!! My hairstyle was perfect for the wedding! Restaurants with great food...Dishoom (Persian), Bengal Cuisine plus geeat fish and chips and pizza almost at the doorsteps!! There is a grocery next door.
Noisy air conditioning system
Bygbert973
01 August 2016
Overall a good hotel, located few hundreds meters from the tube and buses. Kind personnel and good breakfast service.
Unfortunately the air conditioning system in our room was very noisy and inadequate.
Très bon hotel
ByDIARD35
28 July 2016
Le personnel est parfait, très pro
chambres confortables, propres et bien isolées
petit déjeuner anglais et / ou continental très bien présenté en self
bonne localisation près de la gare de Liverpool street, proche du centre. quartier sympatique et offre de restauration importante dans le quartier.
séjour très agréable. merci
Comfortable bed and great location
Bytraveler2016Y
28 July 2016
Comfortable bed and great location, a good breakfast and very friendly staff.It is a nice option for a city break.
Great stay
ByJbarreth
27 July 2016
Good location, clean and included WIFI and breakfast. beds and pillows could be better though.
Good for couple of days stay
ByAgs1
26 July 2016
All was good and the staff were very welcoming. I would stay here again if traveling to City part of London. It's great to have a reasonable choice of breakfast food included, the cleaning service of the rooms are very good, the rooms are comfortable, good sized.
However, if you stay here more than a couple of days, you can notice lack of fresh air in your room (it's city centre as well, so opening window might not bring you much freshness, still better than keeping it closed) as well as start to not be excited about the free breakfast (I don't want to see scrambled eggs for a month at least now). Also I didn't have enough light in bathroom and living room, and would be happy about separate toiletries, as in a separate shampoo and shower gel. The mattress was too soft for me, but that depends on a person, I guess. Last time I stayed in the corner and had had a very weak wifi signal, but now more towards the centre it was good.
Huge bed, no dinner
ByLunyLvGd
25 July 2016
Huge bed, pity no dinner service, but great food in surrounding area
Cool hotel on a very hot day
ByAKBS
24 July 2016
Perfect fridge of a room on one of the hottest days of the year.
Non-intrusive but very effective air conditioning and two very very comfortable beds as well
Perfect budget hotel
Expectativa frustada
ByMauro8
23 July 2016
Em relação ao Holiday Inn tradicional foi decepcionante esse hotel, tanto a entrada como a recepção no check-in. O hotel tinha o aspecto de velho, desleixado e sujo. O elevador precisaria de uma manutenção. O quarto era limpo e toalhas limpas, banheiro limpo, mas era pequeno demais para o sofá cama armado. A programação da TV era ruim. Carregar as baterias dos celulares e câmaras foi péssimo. O colchão parecia estar com algumas molas quebradas.
value based
ByStaybridge family
21 July 2016
For the price you get value, but there are issues of internet access, at least when we were there.