Holiday Inns are usually a pretty consistent experience, a notch above Premier Inn but still reasonably priced. We were looking for somewhere to stay not too far from our family while visiting and this looked OK. Arriving really late (thanks to all the daftness going on with the M60 at the moment) our first experience of the hotel was waiting around to be checked in for around 20 minutes before the night clerk found us. The venue opposite had a party going on which of course we didn't find out about until we arrived, but were too exhausted to care. Though the night clerk was extremely friendly and welcoming, he did warn us we might not get much sleep. Ironically it was nothing to do with the party (which wrapped up around 1 am) but a weird unidentified buzzing noise that seemed to start up when we settled down to sleep, almost like someone was constantly ringing the front door buzzer (though we don't think it was that). It seemed to come from inside the room. We tried all sorts, locking / unlocking the door, switching the air con off, fiddling around with the fridge. Imagine someone constantly playing a really loud version of the old board game ”Operation” all night at random time intervals and you'll get the general idea. Even with my trusty earplugs (which are usually essential in any hotel) I couldn't settle and the noise cut straight through them anyway. I think in the end we must've just passed out from sheer exhaustion! To be fair to the hotel, they were extremely apologetic (though seemed equally clueless about what the noise could have been) and did offer a discount (not a huge discount but better than a slap in the eye I guess). Even when we left the room in the morning the noise was still going on - so if the hotel ever DID find out what the heck it was and would like to clue us in, we're all ears... The rest of the experience was OK. The room and bathroom were both spotlessly clean (so kudos to the housekeeping staff), the breakfast was great (plenty of hot and cold options and a nice comfy breakfast room). Location was handy for Stockport / Marple and nearby National Trust places and parking was OK (though with the party going on we did have to park around the back of the building). This would have been a higher rated review as the staff were really helpful here - but that darned buzzing noise really knackered our chance of a good night's sleep.
46 Reviews