Inn & Out (Holiday Inn Express)

Member Name: collingwood21

Product:	Holiday Inn Express
Date:	04/04/04 (123 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The room, Polite staff

Disadvantages: The breakfast, The location

The weather in this country seems to take great offence at the thought of me travelling. If it is not snow when I am on the train, then it?s a hailstorm whilst I am driving down the A1 or seasickness-inducing winds when I am on boats. Last month ? after I demonstrated my impeccable sense of timing by finding an exhibition I needed to visit for my research just days before it finished ? I was facing a long journey at short notice to Torfaen (The County Formerly Known As Gwent). The weather seemed almost to rub its hand together in glee at the thought of me spending 6 long hours on various trains, and conspired to throw everything it had in my way. The result was days of torrential rain and widespread flooding across the midlands and Wales, and a very long and tortuous journey for me (that incidentally ended up taking nearer 8 hours than 6). I arrived at Pontypool station at 5pm on a cold, windy day in what looked like monsoon season; I don?t think I had ever been so glad to see a hotel as I was then. Admittedly, Holiday Inn Express wouldn?t be my first choice of accommodation (previous experience had taught me that they were lacklustre at best) but there was nothing else locally available outside of summer season, and at least it was close to the county museum I would be visiting the next day.


**Where exactly??**
Let me start by explaining where this place is ? I am aware that I got a lot of blank looks when I told people I was off to Pontypool! Torfaen is in the South East corner of Wales, not all that far from Newport. However, just to be awkward, the museum I wanted was not in Newport (relatively easy to get to) but about 10 miles north in Pontypool (relatively hard to get to). Pontypool is only a small town, but has grown into the neighbouring community of &#
67;wmbran ? hence the listing of this hotel as Holiday Inn Pontypool/Cwmbran, as it sits quite neatly on the divide between the 2 towns.

Getting there is not the easiest thing in the world if you live outside of South Wales, but Holiday Inn do offer a free directions service; you can either phone the hotel ahead of your journey or visit the map and directions provided online (see details below). If you are like me and are travelling by train though, then the nearest station is Pontypool, about 2 miles away from the hotel. However, not a great many trains stop here, so you would probably be best going to Cwmbran station, which is slightly bigger and used by more services; this is about 5 miles from the hotel. (Neither station is large enough to warrant a taxi rank, so do remember to go equipped with local taxi numbers and change for pay phones, as mobile reception around here is patchy at best).


**They Say?**
?Take a fresh look at staying away from home. Express by Holiday Inn is the UK's newest and fastest growing provider of travel accommodation. There are over 65 Express by Holiday Inn hotels in the UK. You'll find us on major motorways, in town and city centres and at major airports. We concentrate on offering great value for money and the important facilities you need from a hotel - including many you might only expect in larger hotels. We're keen to set fresh standards for travel accommodation in the UK. What's more, booking is now even easier - and quicker - thanks to our secure on-line guaranteed booking system.?


**First Impressions**
Well, I think surprise was my first reaction ? the Holiday Inn website had led me to believe that this was a town centre hotel, and it turned out to be situated on a dual carriageway, next to huge roundabou
t on the edge of town. At this point I wasn?t overly bothered by this distinctly non-picturesque setting, though, and it was soon forgotten when I saw the rather impressive reception (well, impressive for a 3 star hotel at any rate). It was very clean, very modern, very comfortable and with a most helpful receptionist to hand. There was a small ?we can?t seem to find your reservation? hiccup, but that was soon sorted out and I could finally make my way to my room. The hotel has only been open for a couple of years and still has that air of everything being shiny and newly fitted and modern it does look good.


**My room**
Now, at this point, I should mention the rather unusual key card system that this hotel has. I think most of us are probably familiar with using plastic cards to open hotel room doors, but here you need to use it to turn on the electricity in your room as well. Just inside the room, there is a slot on the wall that you need to insert your key card into before you can turn anything else on. I have never seen this anywhere else and assume that it is a cunning way of stopping you leaving the lights blazing away while you are out all day, thus saving electricity (and money). However, I soon realised that the cards aren?t a terribly good fit for the slots and easily become loose ? thus randomly plunging you into darkness. After this had happened for the third time, I discovered the best solution for this was to take a teabag from the complimentary drinks tray and use it to wedge your card in place. Hey, necessity is the mother of invention, you know!

Overall, I was as impressed by the décor and cleanliness of my room as I was of reception. I had a comfortable double bed, a two-seat sofa, plenty of storage and hanging space for my clothes, a TV and a customer satisfaction survey (a promising sign that the manager is at least willing
to improve things for guests). My bathroom was similarly well endowed for a 3 star hotel; it was spacious and equipped with a power shower, plenty of towels and bottle of Dove body wash (not those awful little sachets that you can never open). Presently though, I also noticed that the room came equipped with another power-saving device ? a room heater that didn?t in fact emit any heat.


**Location, Location, Location?**
They say that the most important aspect of any building is where it is situated. I came to really appreciate this point later that evening when I began to feel hungry and thirsty. You see, the thing is that Holiday Inn Express does not offer a room service or restaurant to their guests, so anyone staying there has to go off-site in search of food and drink. This is not normally a problem, but as I mentioned before, this particular hotel in on a dual carriageway out of town centre. A glance from my bedroom window had spotted a McDonalds on the other side of the roundabout, and as much I don?t like their greasy offerings, it was the only way I was going to get a hot meal and get my hands on some bottled water to take back to my hotel room. So off I trotted, only to find within a couple of minutes of leaving the Holiday Inn that this is a hotel built for people with cars. There was no footpath beyond the car park, only a grass verge that had been turned into a mud verge by the torrential rain. The only way to get to the McDonalds was to wade through the mud and run across the road ? and there was no way at all of walking into town, despite its proximity, as even the grass verge tapered away after a while. I did make it to the McDonalds and back, BTW, but had to spend much of the rest of the evening cleaning the mud of my shoes and trousers and trying to dry them out by the non-heating heater. 
4;he rest of the evening was spent on the sofa with my duvet wrapped around me, as the room was rather chilly; there are some times when I really do wish I drank tea, you know.


**Breakfast**
Fortunately, Holiday Inn Express do include breakfast in the price of the room (strangely enough though, they do not describe it as a B&B rate, but rather a room rate ?with complimentary breakfast?), so at least I wasn?t forced to have an egg Mcmuffin! Breakfast is served in a communal area just off reception. I say ?served?, but this perhaps isn?t quite the right word, as there are actually no staff serving there. Food and drinks are laid out in a buffet style and guests just need to wander in at some point between 7am and 10am and help themselves; they do state that you are welcome to take back to your room if you would rather not sit in the communal area, which I thought was a nice touch.

So what do you get, then? Well, there is a coffee machine and a cold drinks machine with ice water and orange juice; the usual selection of cereals and milk; American muffins, croissants, rolls and fruit. Curiously, there is no toast to be had here; the first time I have ever experienced this in a hotel. There were no staff around to ask, but I thought it might be due to the health and safety implications of leaving a toaster out for unsupervised guests to use. I liked the fact that I could have as much cold drinks as I wanted; I tend to find in hotels that there is usually unlimited free tea and coffee included both in the facilities in your room and at breakfast, so I lose out a bit, not drinking either. The cereal was perfectly fine as well, but after here things went downhill a bit. You see, the croissants, muffins and rolls were stale. I?m not talking a bit dry, I?m talking been-left-out-for-three-days sort of stale. The fruit had
the opposite problem; it was so under ripe that I would have needed my trusty Swiss army knife to be able to cut it. All in all, I was rather glad that the breakfast was complimentary ? I would have been a bit miffed if I had had to pay for it.


**Departure**
Check out was reasonably quick and straightforward, and the receptionist was helpful enough to call a taxi for me to get to the museum ? after all, I couldn?t escape this hotel any other way. I did complete my little customer satisfaction survey and hand it in, although I have never heard back from Holiday Inn. I don?t expect I will, either. They probably take offence at people who call their breakfasts ?pathetic? and suggest that £52.50 might be a little pricey for the service I got. I?ve certainly had better value for money in hotels, that?s for sure.


**My Opinion**
I have mixed thoughts about this hotel, to be honest. On the plus side, the online booking was straightforward, my room was clean and comfortable, and the staff I met were all polite and helpful. On the other hand, the location wasn?t brilliant; my room was freezing cold because the heater didn?t work, and half the food served up for breakfast was inedible. Considering that they ?concentrate on offering great value for money? I really don?t feel that my stay was worth £52.50 ? for that kind of money I don?t expect to leave feeling cold and rather hungry in the morning, or to have the lights turn off randomly during the evening. This was a distinctly mediocre experience.

I suppose the burning question is would I stay there again? Well, it is unlikely I will be travelling to this area again anytime soon, but if I did, I would only stay at the Holiday Inn Express if all other local guesthouses were shut and I could bring my car. Not recommended. r>

**Details**
Express by Holiday Inn
Lower Millfield
Pontypool
Torfaen
NP4 0RH

Check in is after 2pm; check out is by noon. There are 49 rooms across 2 floors.

Phone: 01495-755266
Website: www.hiexpress.co.uk
Directions and map: www.ichotelsgroup.com/h/d/ex/925/en/hd/pnypl?irs=n ull