Holiday Inn Belfast City Centre

What is your Priority Club status?
Diamond

Were you (or for multi-stayers are you generally) happy with the hotel/stay?
Yes

Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
I booked Double Bed Premium and there was no further upgrade.

How are the rooms?
The room was an adequate size with opening windows. I could not get the air con to work (even when windows closed), but it wasn't really needed.

There was a box of chocolates with my name written on it, but I think this comes with the room type rather than for status.

The desk was wide but no sockets were available without unplugging the lamp / hair dryer / TV.

There was a fridge with complimentary water, fizzy drinks and a Kit Kat.

Drainage of the sink was extremely slow.

Toilet paper was poor quality.

After using the wifi on my laptop on check-in day, the captive portal would not let me pass in the morning. But my phone did not get sent to the captive portal in the morning, so I was able to use it as a bridge.

How is the exec. lounge?
No lounge

What was good and what was bad?
Location is fine, to the south west of the city centre, from Great Victoria Street / Europa bus station (for buses to the airport), you have to walk out of the car park entrance which is easily missed, and then run across a road (or take a 60m detour to the crossing). If you need to go back and forth from the main city streets to the hotel, the walk gets a bit repetitive.

The entire time I was there, two large coaches obscured the hotel front door so I was initially confused about how to enter.

Check in was friendly but a bit brash (normal for Ireland IME), I was presented with about 5 pieces of card (welcome letters / introduction to hotel etc) with my name on them which were kind of unnecessary, there were more in the room. I asked for and received a Diamond breakfast voucher.

One lift was out of service half of the time I was there.

Breakfast was chaotic. Only one member of staff seemed to be qualified to check people off the list, so when she was away several people just walked in. She did not take my voucher or ask for my room number. I was seated at a table in front of a cupboard with some supplies, so they made me get up when they needed to retrieve some items. The restaurant is quite small and they wanted to hold some tables for larger parties, so people were seated out into the bar area.

The self-serve Ulster fry was good quality. There was a basket where I would expect pastries, but this remained empty throughout. When I got up for a second helping my cutlery (despite arranging in the manner to signal I was not done), a full pot of tea and a full cup of tea were cleared away.

Value for $ or Priority Club Points? Would you return?
I paid £150 and got £75 back from Amex. Normally I would book the cheapest room which was £140 in this case, but I had £150 left to spend on Amex and this was the final stay I could book during the offer period hence I booked a more expensive room.

I would say this HI is worth the usual £60-£100 I've been paying in GB this year, but even the Hampton (opposite here) wanted £140, while the CP is too far away and more expensive, and the HIX I've stayed before and is not that good. So not sure about returning.