Review of Holiday Inn London Bloomsbury, an IHG Hotel 4*

Regular visitor to Holiday Inn, usually in London. The Bloomsbury being the one that edges it due to location. After today's visit (yep I'm writing this from my hotel room) I'll be pushing this place down to "everywhere else is full" choice. Simply put, the service is haphazard at best. I had reason to visit the duty manager shortly after checking in. Standard items were missing from my room. They corrected this. I'm here for two nights. Got back today and same things are missing again. It's clear they really don't pay any attention to standards. Let's review the accommodation… Bathroom — small. Think Harry Potter. Think his cupboard under the stairs "bedroom" and imagine it had an ensuite. That would be bigger than this. Bath/shower. It may be bath shaped, with high sides, but it's about as wide as the average shower cubicle. You have to straddle the toilet to enable you to close the door — otherwise it hits you. The room itself is spacious — which makes no sense as to why the bathroom is soo small! Lighting in room is dull, think really dim. No ceiling light in main part of room (one downlight by the door). Just two dim bedside lights and a small desk light on the dresser. New menu in restaurant though! Shame the staff have no clue what condiments are. Ask for mayonnaise or vinegar and they are lost. It's a special promotion at the moment — double points when check in or normal points and a drink. I collect points so no brainer. Somehow the 300 points you get every time you stay is 500 when doubled?!?!? So at every turn they've got things wrong. Think it's time to switch to Hilton Honours next year! Update — I wasn't going to complain further upon checking out — except it was a duty Manager who processed my details, and just as I was leaving he said"Thank you for staying with us, as an IHG Member we really do value your business". Well clearly I think they don't, so I decided to tell him about my full experience. I always give credit where credit is due — he was very very apologetic, said he would of course take the details away and look into the problems with the haphazard service. I was credited 5k bonus points "by means of apology" — which wasn't what I was expecting — and I thanked him in person — and here too if he gets to read this (I expect he will as they have emailed me directly about this review! ) It's not about bending over backwards for an awkward customer, it's about consistency — something that just isn't in place currently. However — they have acknowledged the details and I fully expect they will do something to improve those small details. We'll see. As a sideline — after I checked out I checked in later that day to another IHG hotel — Crowne Plaza in Liverpool. Now if you want to feel valued as a customer — REALLY valued — then they have customer service SMASHED. Excellent in pretty much every respect. And that was for a booking that didn't cost a penny as it was from IHG points.