Great Family Hotel (Holiday Inn Chester West)

Member Name: Pharmtastic

Product:	Holiday Inn Chester West
Date:	07/05/09 (175 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good base for North Wales, Chester, Liverpool

Disadvantages: No pool

Holiday Inn Chester West is situated in North Wales, at Northop Hall, near Mold, just off the A55. [So, not in Chester at all, but I'm sure you'll agree that "Holiday Inn Chester West" has a better chance of selling itself than "Holiday Inn Mold"!]

The hotel is on three floors and was renovated in 2003. Interestingly, the hotel is owned by a local company which runs it as a franchise from Holiday Inn. On the whole, we got the impression that the staff were friendlier than usual for a Holiday Inn - this may be due to the different management structure.

There are 81 rooms. We stayed as a family; usually we would have a double bed and a sofa-bed the children. On this occasion, though, the room had two double beds which was more comfy [especially for the children!]. When booking, you are offered the choice of a two double-bed room or one with a sofa-bed.

The room had a kettle and tea and coffee facilities; there was a minibar, which on this occasion was empty. I'm sure if this was usual, or if it had been emptied as a family was in the room. It wasn't a problem for us - I often ask for the minibar to be locked to prevent the children accidentally moving an item and getting charged. There is a TV, which had Sky Sports in the rooms. There was free wi-fi internet access throughout the hotel [considering the hotel I staying in last week charged £15 per day for internet access, this was excellent value]. I'd taken a laptop with us, and it was very easy to connect to the system.

The bathroom was a generous size, and included a shower in the bath.

The hotel doesn't have a pool. There were signs for a gym: we didn't use this so I can't comment on it directly.

This Holiday Inn has a "kids eat free" offer, which helps to reduce the cost of eating in as this can be expensive otherwise. This even works if you just order a bar meal: on one night we four had a one-course meal with drinks for £20.

Breakfast took the usual buffet form where you can choose from fruits, cereals and the traditional eggs, bacon, sausages etc. It was possible to order extras such as poached eggs and smoked haddock [my sons thought I was bonkers to order fish for breakfast!]. Breakfast was excellent on the first two days; on the third day the staff were different and it didn't seem to quite so efficient

The hotel is just off the A55. You approach it travelling west and it's about 9 miles from Chester. It shares an exit with a petrol station, a McDonalds, a Costa and an American-style diner. Because the A55 is a dual carriageway, you have to continue west when leaving the hotel before you can make a U-turn.

We stayed for three nights in the week after Easter: one night was £62 and the other two were £52 [all to include breakfast for the four of us]. For about £85 [depending on the date], you can get a combined deal which includes a family ticket to Chester Zoo [value £37.50 to £50.00 depending in the season] which seems good value.

Also on Ciao.

Summary: Excellent Value