Holiday Inn Birmingham Airport - NEC

Liked: Clean and tidy.
Disliked: Additional cost of £29.90 for breakfast which I thought was included.

Fab staff, Great Stop-Over Hotel

Liked: The hotel was great - especially check in staff. Happy, inviting atmosphere even though the hotel was clearly very busy with lots of clients requiring attention at the same time (2 huge families of over 8 people with children running around were checking out at the same time plus a big queue of other holiday makers waiting to be seen to - but the staff handled it so well, were so professional and calm despite the mayhem around them).It was the same situation at the Costa Coffee bar at check out - (with the same big families having multiple requests, changing choices and answering many dietary questions while still keeping tabs on what was being bought, put back, chosen again, straws flying everywhere), while others queued behind them and only one amazing, patient and very professional member of staff working at the costa/whole bar area. She handled it all so well while also speaking calmly and smiling to the customers queuing to let them know she would be with them soon.As she eventually managed to attend to my daughter who was wearing her VIK band excitedly (fabulous idea!!) and had ordered her free treat ice-cream at the bar, she had to go to the kitchen to get it and while she was away, the executive chef (said so on his uniform) and another member of staff arrived at the bar area to see how things were looking, check service. The chef said quietly to the other member of staff that the straws were untidy and fixed them. I just want to say that the girl who had been working there, responding to the madness so calmly and professionally on the morning of the 8th Aug '25 had absolutely managed the crazy situation amazingly and is an absolute credit to your team - so please could you forgive that some straws were not sitting perfectly in the jar - there was no way the chef/accompanying staff member could have seen the madness just before she left.
Disliked: We arrived late at night as we had been travelling all day. Our room carpet next to the first bed had a big chunk of hard bread on it and bread crumbs over an area of the carpet next to it. Our headboard had 2 oily palm prints on it, spaced apart in a certain position which looked a bit......as if the previous occupants had had some fun (!).I thought we were to have slippers and gowns in our room but we didn't have any (however I might be mistaken on that and will need to check our booking).The conditioner in our room was empty but it was so late at night when we arrived and had our after-pool showers in our room that we didn't bother saying. The next morning we had our showers early to continue our journey onwards, so also didn't bother saying.We had booked half board and due to our late arrival the fab reception staff said we could use our half board for dinner that night against room service. We had £25 x 2 adults and eat free for one child. Our room service came to £75 including drinks (for 3 mains, 2 starters) but I realised when I checked my bank that we had been charged £57 for this - which doesn't equate (dinner allowance for 2 adults was £25 each and our child ate free). We obvs expected to pay for the 2 soft drinks and the beer but this doesn't equate to £57. My husband and I had a starter each (one garlic bread, one nachos), a main each (one curry, one pizza) and my daughter had a pizza. Our dinner allowance of £25 each adult (x2) and child eat free (one course of pizza) really should have meant we should only have paid for the drinks and room service plate charge of £5 to the room. I have contacted them about this.Otherwise, great staff, great service, happy inviting atmosphere and clean everywhere apart from the bits mentioned about above in our room (which we were too tired to say about so late at night when we arrived). We had our puppy with us and he dashed for the bread and ate it straight away anyway!

Passable

Poor

Liked: Staff not trained correctly all told me different things regarding parking charges
Disliked: Staff

Exceptional

Pleasant

Very good

Good

Exceptional

Liked: The staff here are amazing. Nishu on reception and Padma in the dining area particularly made our stay very pleasant.

Very good