Holiday Inn Express Newcastle (Australia)
Holiday Inn Express Newcastle (Australia)
What is your IHG One Rewards status?
Diamond Ambassador
Which room did you book and which upgrade did you receive?
1 Queen Bed Standard, received 1 Queen Bed Standard
How are the rooms?
On the smaller side but clean and fitted out with everything you would need for a short stay.
How is the exec. lounge?
N/A
What was good and what was bad?
The Good- Efficient check-in
- Good location with easy access to Newcastle Interchange for trains, buses and light rail.
- Raised some issues (outlined below) in the post-stay survey and received a very prompt response from the duty manager, acknowledging the concerns and crediting some additional points to my account, which I thought was nice.
The Bad- Hotel took a full deposit at the time of booking when the rate was refundable. I have used the same rate at plenty of properties and all have charged me either at check-out or just before check-in. Didn't query it as it was only a one night stay and not a huge amount of money.
- No room upgrade provided despite more expensive categories being available. interestingly the same happened during my last stay, perhaps they just don't like upgrading people at this HIX?
- Choice of welcome amenity not offered, despite this HIX having an all-day lobby bar. 500pts automatically credited to my account.
- Not sure if it's just my luck but this was the third hotel I've stayed at in 2023 (and second IHG property) where despite being full, the pump on one of the shower toiletry bottles didn't work. This one was particularly annoying because they are pretty firmly locked in the holder so it took a bit of twisting and turning to pull it out of the holder and pour it out. Starting to think I need to test the refillable bottles at the start of each stay and hotels should make this part of their housekeeping procedure prior to the commencement of a new stay!
- Breakfast whilst fine was not as good as it was last year. Quality and variety of the food on offer had markedly declined. Breakfast room staff were also not as friendly as they were on the last trip.
Value for $ or IHG One Rewards Points? Would you return?
Paid AUD $162/night. Overall for the price paid it was decent but I wish they could get breakfast back to where it used to be and work on the couple of small issues I encountered.