Holiday Inn - Birmingham Airport
Stay : Friday 30th December until Saturday 31st December 2011

Purpose : Early Morning Flight to Malaga on Saturday 31st 2011. For a 24 Hour trip to see in New Years Eve


Arrived at Birmingham International Train Station at 4:55pm to pick up free shuttle to hotel. No Sign of Shuttle and no signs at Train Station area. Rang hotel, informed shuttle driver off and they sent a taxi. (Ok, adequate service and substitute provided).

Check-In : Platinum Member : No Pre-assigned room or Keys Waiting, (I booked direct by PC Website).

Room : Upgraded to Executive as only booked standard due to duration of stay in room. Small room on executive size, with very small shower area.

Bar/Eating : Bar small, but comfortable area, booked table atto eat for 9:45 as closed at 10:00. Was asked by member of waiting staff if i could come in early as they have no customers and we are the last ones and would like to close. Food was comparable to Weatherspoons pub chain in UK, but not in price.

The sucker punch : Wake up call booked for 5:15am with reception, double checked with night porter before going to bed. (Background : we were only going for 24 hours to spain with Hand Luggage only, we both have iphones and arrived by train, so what we had with us we were taking on the plane, so decided not to take any phones as I lost a 4s on my previous visit to spain. So we were unable to set our own alarm)

Wake Up Call Never came : Finally woke up naturally - Missed Flights

Went to reception : Responce : That's a new one, once they are in the phone system we dont know if they work or not. Asked to speak to Manager : None on Duty, just given two email addresses.
Asked to check the paper record that they had when we checked in, the receptionist finally found it under mountains of paperwork after 5 minutes searching, clearly stating room number at 5:15 am Wake Up Call.

The resolution to our problem : We can call you a taxi on our account (as the shuttle driver not turned up), they could not even do this properly, when the taxi arrived he would not pick us up from outside until he had gone into the hotel as reception booked it against the wrong room!

Outcome : £120 for HI Birmingham Airport : £296 lost on Monarch Flights : £84 lost on hotel accomodation in Malaga.

Logged call with IHG customer relations : They have responded, but still 3 days after event HI Birmingham Airport Management have not responded to calls or emails. IHG Customer Service are chasing them.

Any Advice ? (Plantium Member with 52 Qualifying Stays in 2011)