Holiday Inn(former Posthouse) Gloucester- Stay Inn there!UPDATED-LOndon-V ictoria Holiday Inn (Holiday Inn in general)

Member Name: dan 2000

Product:	Holiday Inn in general
Date:	26/03/03 (354 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Comfy Rooms with good facilities., Good service and restaurants, Good Health Clubs

Disadvantages: None

Most UK Holiday Inns are former Posthouses. The reason why is because Holiday Inn who is part of Six Continents(Bass) bought Posthouse who had aroung 80 hotels whilst Holiday Inn only had about 20(counted them from the directory). I have stayed at the Holiday Inn GLoucester in 1999 when it was a Posthouse and in 2001(December) when it, along with most Posthouses had recently changed. Not all Posthouses are HIs though, most yes but some are being sold. Now I am reporting on my recent trip because it wioll be like this one more will it or will it not?

LOCATION
The location is in Crest Way which has a handful of stores and restaurants. The hotel is behind a Cheltenham and Gloucester C&G building and there are is a petrol station there too. It is the suburbs, not right in town, neither in the countryside. There are a few houses around.

EXTERIOR
Not the most fanciest, but has brown bricks with black wood at the top where it says Holiday Inn. There are quite alot of parking spaces too.

CHECK-IN
My most recent visit in 2001 greeted me with contemporary colours with warm style. The carpet has red, purple and orange colour co-ordinated squares. At first makes your eyes go weird but then gives you that sense of style. The hotel is in the new Holiday Inn/Psthouse style which is modern. The sofas and armchairs were the same style but had different colours. They had leather at the top with fabric everywhere else exept for the place you sat. The colours were either black leather with green fabric. Red leather with orange fabric, dark blue leather with light blue fabric. These were dotted around.

On the left as you came in was the Traders Bar, Lounge ad Restaurant/Grill. On the right was the Academy, Holiday Inn/Posthouses own brand of conference centre. Many have them, never been in one but I have read and seen that they have the usual meeting facilities, and a break out area with cafe and reception and lounge. I was on leisure so



never went in there. Looked very stylish when I saw in there though.

At the end is the main Banquet suite. This is not in the Academy, but next to reception. Speaking of reception, we walked along and it is on the far left. Our recent visit was at Christmas and featured a large Christams tree next to the desk.

The friendly receptionist done the usual questions. You could have a complimenterary copy of the Times or on a Sunday a Times on Sunday. You could pay the usual price for a paper for the others as they went to the shop to get them. We were given a key, it wasn't a card because the doors weren't new but I think they will have now as the Posthouse Kengsington has and the HI(former Posthouse)Cardiff-North has.

CORRIDORS
Opposite the desk, next to the academy was payphones and satirs. We were in room 55 which was on the ground floor. As you enter the corridor you will find on the left a Spirit Health Club which was Holiday Inn/Posthouses own Health Club brand although a few has there own(know that from the brochure. The corridors are long as you pass one half you will find refreshing vending machines(its not that long though!). Half way there it goes left and right and straight up again after double doors. There are more stairs there too. I saw the staff cleaning the stairs! Very thourogh!

SPIRIT HEALTH CLUB
As mentioned earlier, this is Holiday Inns own Health Club brand. As you entered, on the left you will find the Spirit Health Club reception. The staff will ask you to sign and you must put your name, rooms number(if aplicable), date and whether you are a hotel guest, local member or whatever else.

On the right is a passage leading to the gym, treatment area and venders. Straight up(or next)to helth reception is a window to the swimming pool. There are male and female changing rooms seprately. The males one(the one I went in) was clean and I expect the female one to be to. My mum
said
it wa
s whe
n we went there in 1999. In 2001 she stayed in the room. There are a reasonable amound of wood lockers which requires a £1 deposit which you slot in the lock. When you unlock, it ivces it you back. There are toilets, sink, soap, showers shampoo, showergel. When you went out the rooms to the pool, the pool was great. It was medium sized, clean and relaxing.

When I went there it had been refurbished and had white walls, green, blue and yellow parts of the ceiling. All colour co-ordinated. You could enjoy a gentle swim, relax in the warm spa bath(which was lovely), or cleanse your body in the Sauna or Steam Room. There was a solarium for tanning outside of the pool near the gym. The Spirit Health Club was great. It was really nice to know that you could leave the rooms to go to a clean, relaxing club in the comfort of your own great hotel. This is definate must if you stay at a Holiday Inn. The one in my local one is great as I had a free day pass. Most Holiday inns have Spirits but some have there own and some don't have any. Don't worry, I think that Holiday Inns are good regardless of Spirit Health Clubs...

TRADERS BAR, GRILL AND LOUNGE
The Traders Bar and Restaurant with Lounge is a great pleace to dine. I have heard that all Holiday Inns have a restaurant. This don't include Express by Holiday Inn which has a lounge bar with some having a restaurant. There are different brands. Most have Holiday Inns own but some have a high street brand such as Callaghans Bar and Garfunkels. I had HI's own brand. The restaurant was contemporary, airy and comfy. The staff were great like in the rest of the hotel and the portions were also good. Do not think that it si one of those hotel restaurants which rips you off and gives you just a tiny bit of food in the middle of your plate. Oh no, it gives you genourous amounts so you can satisfy your hunger. WE never had breakfast in the restaurant but had it in our roo
m. Most pr
ices inclu
se breakfa
st but some Room Only rates do not. Some rates include breakfast and dinner. Breakfast was great as it is the same as in the restaurant just delivered to your room. In your room was a card which you filled in requesting what breakfat you want and at what time. Youu then put it on the door handle in the corridor and they brought it to you at the requested time.

BEDROOMS
I jumped for joy when I saw the room. The room was in the new light, contemporary style of Holiday Inn/Posthouse. There was a beech open wardrobe in the small passage as the rooms layout was in the L shape layout. Opposite was the bathroom complete with a toilet, sink with round mirror, bath and shower over the bath. They supplied and washed/repleneshed your free towels, toilet roll and holiday inns own bar of soap, shampoo and shower gel. It was spotless. There was a circle flush light built into the wall at the centre with two downlighters over the mirror and sink. The tiles were in a pattern of white and a very faint green. The tiles at the top were scarlet and gold. The floor was tiled and everything was sparkling and stylish. In executive rooms, aswell as the facilities I will mention later they provide you with Neutrogena toiletries instead of Holiday Inn toiletries. There is a towel rail and lights are switched on/off just outside the bathroom.

The passage colour was green but have saw and learnt that they could be orange or blue. The main large part of the room was a light white colour. The beds were comfy. We had a family room which, in the new style rooms, incorporates a double bed and a sofa. The linen was a white duvet and pillows which were fresh on arrival and you also had a colour co-ordinated throw. The throw in our rooms was a blacky purple and green colour. This can vary to orange and red, blue and cream, purple and cream. Have learnt that rooms have there own colour scheme. Mine was green and blacky purple. Behind
the bed was an
inset which was
black but can
vary from colour depending on scheme.

They also had a pillow menu which lets you select from five types of pillow and are in cases which are numbered. You will know the number of your selected pillow because of the pillow menu on your bed.

The linen I think is changed between customers and every few days with the same colour(some members of family works/worked in hotels). There was a large dressing table opposite the bed with a colour tv which had a remote control and had terrestrial channels and a selection of satellite channels and your account channel, radio channel, hotel info channel and pay per view movies(there was a list of movies on a, erm... list!) There was menus for the restaurant, lounge, and rooms service.

There was draw space and there was draw space on the bedside tables. There were a few pictures on the wall. The rooms are carpeted(except for the bathrooms). The curtains were... surprise surprise, green! Some are different depending on the colour scheme. The windows were large but, as with most hotels, don't open ver wide because of security reasons I suppose.

There was also a tea and coffee making unit next to the wardrobe complete with mini bar .lighting was subtle aswell, as you came into the room, along with the bathroom switch was a room switch which switched on the modern round downlighter/spotlighters(the type over the sink in the bathroom) which were in the passge way and in the inset of the bed. You could control these lights from next to one side of the bed. On each side of the double bed was a lamp built on the wall in the inset. These were controlled seprately from other lights and from each other. They were controlled by the side of the bed on the side they were on. There was also a table lamp on the dressing table which was operated by the dressing table. The rooms were great. One thing I forgot was there was a trouser press. Reading
the brochure, Execu
tive rooms at many h
otels have extras. N
ot all rooms are in this new style. The new style was made by Posthouse in 1999. Enjoy and rel
ax!

OVERALL

I know that Holiday Inns are good because of things I have heard about them. Enjoy your stay. Please could you rate the review and leave a comment. You can only do this if you are a member of dooyoo. Please remember aswell- don't get confused between a normal Holiday Inn and an Express by HI. They are part of the smae group but Express is a budget brand. Holiday Inn is the main brand. Holiday Inn are not a new name for Posthouse as such- they merged and both operate as Holiday Inn. Holiday Inn are also world wide but have seperate brochures in each country.

Dan

PS:
IIf you want to see the Kensington Close Hotel Review which used to be a Posthouse but didn't make it into being a Holiday Inn then I have a review on that in Posthouse Hotels In general. As I said before, a few Posthouses are being sold to other hotel chains and that includes Posthouse Kensington.

I know this is silly but I will be adding a new review for the London-Victoria Holiday Inn as this review is long. It is still under this product title though- Holiday Inn in General.

LONDON-VICTORIA

I recently stayed at the refurbished London-Victoria Holiday Inn, it was brill- why? read on...

The hotel is right opposite the Victoria train station on 2 Bridge Place, London-Victoria, London. It is a modern building and it is like that all the way through.

On arrival at the lobby, I was very impressed because, although it was decorated in pale whites and creams, it was ultra-stylish. It was very contemporary(that is what I like) and had congierge and reception facilities. Like all of the hotel, the staff were very friendly. Holiday Inn call it their 'can-do service'. This is one of their hallmarks.

The 2 bridge place lo
unge and bar is again modern and has leather sofas and a large modern lamp. It obviously has more lamps though in the lounge. The bar staff were also friendly.

The restaurant is cosy and again modern and stylish. It is called '2 bridge place'. The Holiday Inn breakfast is excellent- with choices and choices of croissants, muffins, danish pastries, cereals, sausages, eggs, bacon and much more. Then is the juices. When you step in the restaurant for breakfast they ask you if you want tea or coffee and toast. Again, breakfast is one of Holiday Inns hallmarks.

The leisure facility was in the basement and although it was small, it was so relaxing. The changing rooms, lockers, towels, showers were complimentary things whilst there was a tea and coffee making machine for a relax. There was a swimming pool which was quite warm and a luxurious spa bath was next to it. There was a sauna in each changing room and a gym was near the pool.

The corridors were modern, although some of the floors were being refurbished and so were he higher floors of the stairs.

The rooms were contemporary and stylish. They were en-suite with blue tiles and toilet, sink, shower (actually two- a hand held one and a power shower), bath along with their compliments- toilet roll, towels and one bar of Holiday Inn soap and extra soap in the soap dispensers.

The room had light furniture and had TV, wardrobe, trouser press, coffee table, dressing table, safe, ice bucket(free to use ice machines on floor 2, 5 and I think 9), phones, hairdryer and more. The beds were enveloping and seemed to give you a hug. They have duvets in all Holiday Inns now (or introducing them at least) and, as always, have pillows on the bed when you arrive but you can choose from 5 different types which is excellent.

All I can say is Holiday Inn are the best!
I will again be changing this review as I am staying at the Holiday Inn Cardiff-North because of someones
wedding.

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