Express by Holiday Inn Doncaster - Doncaster, United Kingdom     

We stayed here one Saturday night recently at a cost of ?40 including continental breakfast. If using sat nav to fine the hotel dont rely on the post code getting you there, the nearest landmark if you get lost is to ask for B & Q near the lakeside shopping centre, the hotel is next door . Nothing much to complain about really, its quite a nice hotel and at a bargain price. Breakfast wasnt too nice.( juice, coffee, toast , cereal etc) but at the price who can complain, most hotels in this price range are room only A pub is next door and ample free parking outside. The room was very clean and the staff friendly. TOP TIP, you may think the shower is on full power but press in the button and it turns up some more. Minor niggles were the air con was turned off but in fairness it was quite cold anyhow ( about 20 c) , at one point our room briefly stank of smoke but this was probably a one off, perhaps someone was having a cigar outside by the air intake vent? A few weeks prior we stayed at the purple hotel that just around the corner. The first time the purple was ?42 but a few weeks later the price was ?70. We were not prepared to pay that much so found the holiday inn. The purple hotel is slightly nicer but only just. If staying in Doncaster again I would probably stay at the cheapest or pay only slightly more for the Purple. The pub near the purple hotel did a nicer steak.

Stayed here with my partner for one night and as we have stayed in quite a few Holiday Inn express hotels, we knew what to expect. We always find them good value for money, much better than Travelodge etc and have a good rewards scheme too. The hotel itself was nice, modern, clean and comfortable. We checked in and went for a meal in the nearby pub a minutes walk from hotel, which was nice, and on returning bought a drink in the bar which i found very expensive - ?10 for 2 x Bacardi & cokes! Haven't been charged this much in a Holiday Inn express for drinks before, so we just had the one before going back to our room. Shortly after we could hear children in the corridor running up & down and banging doors etc. This went on for some time so my partner looked out to find the corridor full of children walking & running up and down and going in and out of the rooms. An adult appeared to be attempting to organise them but failing miserably & my partner pointed out to them the noise they were making and it was midnight. The adult, which turned out to be a teacher took no notice but a staff member from the hotel appeared and apologised stating there was over 100 children staying in the hotel that night & they were just settling them down. However, an hour later the noise was unbelievable with children laughing & shouting & going in and out of the rooms constantly. We couldn't sleep and my partner got up & went out again but the noise continued. I rang reception & the night duty staff came up, he told us that we should expect a bit of noise and would have been told on booking that the hotel would be full of school children that night. I pointed out we had been told no such thing as we would have thought twice about booking, and weren't told at check in either. Also the noise was unnacceptable at that time of night. He offered to find us alternative accomodation at another hotel as the hotel was full, but at 2 am in the morning, who would want to pack up and drive to a hotel? Also we'd had a drink so couldn't drive anyway. He said there was nothing else he could do as he couldn't turn out all the children, and he clearly couldn't get them to quieten down, nor could the teachers! I asked for a refund of my money and he said it would be sorted out for me.Hence to say we got no sleep and complained again on checkout the next morning expecting the refund to be given, only to be told the staff member had gone off duty and left no word about it & only the manager could authorise refunds and she wasn;t there. We retuirned home and rang the manager the next day but couldn't speak to her. I was promised she would return my call, but 3 days later I was still waiting so rang again & got to speak to her at last. She stated she knew nothing of my complaint or phone call & said I would have been told that there was a party of schoolchildren staying at the hotel when I checked in, I again pointed out I had not! She admitted there had been another complaint and asked who checked us in but I hadn't took notice of her name & told her surely she must be able to find that out for herself. Eventually I got a refund but my stay had been ruined and did not like the treatment we were given from the staff at this hotel. I wouldn't stay there again but have continued to stay in other holiday inn express hotels and only ever had one other problem which was dealt with quickly and effieciently by the staff, which is just how you expect it to be. I have always recommended Express by Holiday Inn to anyone & will continue to do so, just not this hotel!