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

My Mom and I were staying at this hotel for one week while visiting my sister who was studying abroad. There wasn’t a single day spent at this hotel where we did not have to call the front desk for an issue. On the very first day, we realized that the place where our refrigerator should have been was empty. No accommodations were made for this issue. While attempting to resolve the problem, we were informed that if we needed anything such as an ice bucket that we would need to call the front desk and they could bring it up to us. This was another inconvenience. There were no ice machines, vending machines, or anything on our floor. On another day, our room was cleaned and they forgot to refill our shampoos, conditioners, and body soap. We called the first time, only to have NO ONE come up to the room to bring us new ones. We then called a second time and asked again. When someone finally came up to our room, they only brought two bottles of shampoo with them. At one point after a shower, my mom was trying to blow-dry her hair, but the blow dryer was broken, so we had to make another phone call. There was also no ironing board nor iron in the room. This hotel did not have printers available to guests, and required that any and all documents (containing personal information or not) be sent to their email, and then they printed the items for you. The water pressure in the bathroom was nearly dripping out of the faucet, to the point of having to stand directly above the drain and below the shower head to even get any water onto your body. For people such as myself who have long hair, this was a nightmare. A typical 15 minute shower quickly turned into 25. The hotel staff left a note saying someone inspected this issue, but it was never resolved. During our last two days at the hotel, including the night before having to catch an early flight, our thermostat broke. It was stuck on 20 degrees Celsius with no fan or air flow. It was also not 20 in the room. We called the front desk again to explain, only to be told that we should open a vent, and that the maintenance man couldn’t help until the morning. There was no other accommodation recommended here, and after 7 days of issues my patience was definitely wearing thin. There was no initial offer to switch rooms or to help make our stay comfortable. We received three phone calls back explaining that we couldn’t adjust our thermostat and they requested to know what temperature we were looking to set it at. We requested 21 degrees Celsius. They proceeded to turn the HEAT on, and up to 27 (80 degrees Fahrenheit). I then made the decision to go downstairs and speak with a manager and requested that we be allowed access to our own thermostat. The manager informed me that he had a central unit he could use to change the temp. I informed again of the 21 degrees Celsius, and once returned to the room it was set on 20 (the same broken setting as before). I proceeded back downstairs, because I didn’t want the phone ringing so close to midnight as I’m sure it would wake or keep others in the rooms next to us from falling asleep. The manager did not act in a caring or empathetic manner. He acted annoyed, as if we were an inconvenience to him, and finally suggested switching us rooms. At this point, it was past midnight and my mother was asleep. I did not see any positive resolution, and decided to return to the room. And another random but inconvenient aspect of the room was that there were no outlets next to the beds or nightstand. The only outlets were on the far wall across from the beds. The Wi-Fi access is spotty, so you can never really tell whether you will remain connected or not. This was on the complimentary service, so I’m unsure of how much better the ~9 pounds/day connection worked. If you’re looking for an easy and relaxing stay, I can honestly say that was not my experience here. While the location is amazing, the price is not worth the poor customer service and broken amenities.