- Holiday Inn Birmingham Airport UK


- What is your Priority Club status?
Platinum

- Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
Yes - the Pros outweighed the Cons, but there were a few Cons

- Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
Booked "Queen Executive with Sofabed" and received the same. The platinum welcome letter at this hotel was interesting - to me it appeared to totally rule out category upgrades. The exact text is:"Complimentary upgrades to best available room in their category". Having taken that on board, I find it hard to believe that the room allocated was best-in-category: 3/4 below ground level looking out onto a breeze-block wall 6 feet away..

- How are the rooms?
Fully refurbished in latest dark brown/olive green style. Decent size even with the sofabed open. Water and chocolate bar (standard for UK executive room) replaced daily - not always replaced daily at other hotels in my experience. Ironing board neatly tucked away in seperate cupboard can fold-out for use. Good LCD TV and iBahn guest interface: view bill, alarm etc all working. Bathroom very new and decent layout. Plenty of "seaweed" bits-and-bobs. Hotel was once a Posthouse but not a trace of Posthouse legacy.
Mini-bar (chargeable) was fully stocked. Only shortfalls was lack of in-room safe and only one robe provided (for 2 adults). The single robe did however have slippers tucked into belt - not universal in the UK.

- How is the exec. lounge?
N/A

- What was good and what was bad?
Good:
Breakfast good at £9.95 with voucher. Expanded selection on buffet over standard HI (many more fruits, pancakes, etc.) plus kippers, porridge, eggs benedict, etc, to order with no supplement. All coffee refills are from waiting staff so frequency depends on how busy things are, but this was generally OK.
Very nice clean pool and changing area. Some Tripadvisor reviews mention the pool is small, but it is pretty standard size for a UK HI - but by far the tidiest I have seen for a long time. Great warm towels provided.
The whole interior of the hotel appears refurbished and modern.
The shuttle to Birmigham international I personally found excellent. Some reviews have found this not to be running, but for us (with 1 exception - see later) it ran reliably at xx00 and xx30 from the hotel and back at xx15 and xx45. Clean well-signed large mini-bus and friendly driver. I had understood that there was a lull in service from 1300 - 1500. Maybe I mis-understood, but on attempting to get a 1500 shuttle from the hotel, we were told the shuttle did not start until 1700. Not sure who made the mistake there, but reception organised a complementary taxi. This was handled really well by a great member of staff (not one that had checked me in or out, and not the equally excellent staff member who gave me the residents car park ticket - see later).
All dealings with reception apart from Check-in and Check-out were good.
Excellent choice of magazines in reception, good pile of "i's" and also "Irish Independent"

Bad:
Check-in (and thus first impression which did set the tone for the first night) wasn't great. Long queue and Priority Check-in unstaffed. Other PC members clearly not wishing to 'jump the queue' to empty PC area. Plat letter lists benefit of 'Priority Check in - exclusive check in area... to avoid the queues!'-rather an admission, I would say. I wasn't asked if I wanted a newspaper. Check-in not particularly friendly. I asked about car parking arrangements and was told I would need to go to reception each time I wanted to exit for an exit ticket. Not convenient given location of room & car. (However, on a subsequent visit to reception for an exit ticket, I was given a "residents 2-day" car park pass - from a very helpful receptionist. At least I now know what to ask for if there is a next time.)
Check-out also wasn't great. Long queue again. Plat letter also states another benefit: "Priority Check Out (exclusive to Birmingham Airport)". Not sure what that is (they offer breakfast check-out but that is hardly exclusive). If it is simply going to the Priority Check-in sign, then that was again unstaffed. I made it clear I wanted to settle the bill and depart myself, but that the rest of the family would depart at 2pm. However the key was de-activated anyway, leaving them with a trip to reception and another queue.
Parking charge £7.50 per night. I was told this was a discount for residents. Well I suppose it was better than the £10 per night that the CP up the road at the NEC charges.
No tangible Platinum offer - only standard 'offers' or items where delivery does not live up to the hype.

- Value for £ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
Good value for the price paid (even including parking) when you factor in the shuttle and pool. Yes I would return and now could avoid the very few pitfalls. The 'hard product' was excellent; if some reception issues were ironed out and true upgrades were offered this could be an excellent hotel.