There are a number of Holiday Inn properties at Heathrow and they often provide good value. At the moment Priority has a number of offerings make this stay a good source of points.

I have stayed at the property several times before and usually had good experiences – at least better experiences than at the (usually) cheaper, Holiday Inn Ariel. However, the Ariel is an older and more run down property, with very small rooms and a patchy history of upgrades. The Holiday Inn Heathrow has usually treated me well and whilst transport from the property to Heathrow is more of a problem (only one route, every 15 minutes by free public transport), I liked it until this stay.

I booked an Executive Room (I like having a bathrobe), and paid £75 (plus VAT) for the night.

Check-in

There was no wait and very helpful person took my credit card and then looked for the pre-registration card. They usually print these out and pre-allocate rooms for Platinum and Gold members. (I am Platinum). No problem that she could not locate it, but it meant no welcome letter either.

Room

I was allocated room 2202, which was an Executive at the end of a short corridor. I usually prefer this sort of room as it is away from most of the footfall to and from the lifts.

The room was standard for this property:

The rooms are comfortable enough, and larger than at the Ariel. The internet is chargeable at £9.95 per day, but I used my iPhone for access. The bed is of average comfort with the usual Holiday Inn selection of hard or soft pillows. The TV only a few TV channels and 4 Radio stations which is pretty poor in my view. There was free tea and coffee in the room with a kettle.

Room Service

The hotel has a new Room Service menu since I was there last time and I thought I would try one or two of the new dishes. I placed the order but the member of staff at the other end had trouble understanding me. When the order arrived one item ordered was missing and the delivery guy was clueless as to what I meant.

The food was hot and perfectly pleasant.

Noise

At around 8pm, I was lounging around in bed watching TV when I noticed that there was door to an adjacent room being open and banged closed every 15-20 minutes. When I looked outside after about an hour of this I noticed that I was close to the Housekeeping office. In fact my door was about 1m (3ft) from the door and the Housekeeping staff were coming and going. I was too tired to make an issue of it then.

The thing I did not realise at the time was that the paper sign on the door said ‘Please knock before entering’ in 5 languages.

Of course, as soon as the Housekeeping staff started work, around 6am, it was knock, enter, bang….and repeat.

I gave in, got up and checked out.

Check Out

The bill was correct at check out but the agent was a bit snippy, asking for the card I had checked in with the night before to use in  the Chip and Pin machine. Her manager was standing, available at the counter and I spoke with her about the Room Service and Housekeeping issues mentioned above, and about the 6 or so long black hairs I found in the bathroom this morning. She said she would make a note of it.

I left to a damp morning, only to just miss the bus at the bus stop. As it was operating early, I had to wait 25 minutes until the next appeared.