Hotel Review: Express by Holiday Inn London Greenwich

I have stayed here on a few occasions now and only this year did I fully realise what a great location this hotel is situated in – we decided to venture out of the hotel a little more and explore the surrounding area and were surprised at what was on offer.

Location

The hotel is located on an A road, which is mentioned in the hotel title and could put you off a little, but its location makes it extremely easy to find and it  is not noisy at all.  With the rush hour traffic in London being as it is, the stream of vehicles never go fast enough to create any kind of noise but with the hotel being on a direct route to the Blackwall Tunnel, there does tend to be a lot of traffic at peak times that you need to take into account if driving.

Holiday Inn - Greenwich

However, the traffic was not much of a concern to us as we were using the tube. The good thing is that the hotel is just a 10 minute walk from the North Greenwich tube station where you are able to get onto the Jubilee line (a quick change onto the DLR at Canning Town and 2 stops later you arrive at ExCel)

The North Greenwich tube station is actually located at the O2 arena.  We didn’t realise we were so close to the arena and it is perfect for dining out of an evening. There is a good variety of restaurants in the arena that makes it hard to choose what to eat, hence the reason that each time we went, we choose somewhere different – perfect if you are staying at the hotel for more than a couple of nights.

As a result of the hotel being perfectly located for the O2 arena and in easy reach of the  ExCel centre, I would presume that it does get fully booked very quickly if events are taking place.  As the location is so perfect, it would definitely be the first hotel I would check for availability so maybe planning a little more in advance would be a good tip for this hotel.

Another local attraction to mention is the new David Beckham Academy.  We didn’t visit this, but the hotel is also only 0.3miles away and it is ideal for football mad youngsters.  A full day of training with professional coaching is a great alternative to sightseeing in London, more information is available at  www.thedavidbeckhamacademy.co.uk.

Check-In

The hotel itself is a modern, clean building which must have undergone a refurbishment not  too long ago as it is still looking fresh and certainly not tired.  The lobby and reception area are really spacious and there were plenty of staff available when we arrived to check us in promptly.

We were a group booking and the hotel had already checked us in and allocated us rooms before we arrived, which meant we just had to sign for our keys, with no waiting.  The staff were friendly and knew the name of our company straight away, which immediately made me feel welcome.

Rooms

The Guest Rooms

With 162 bedrooms, the hotel is spread over 7 floors. The bedrooms themselves are spacious, with ample wardrobe space, a desk and tea and coffee making facilities. I had a double room which also had a sofa bed and as I was based in the hotel for a week, there was more than enough room to store a large suitcase, hang all my clothes and find homes for all the shoes and toiletries that a girl thinks she may need!
The only downside would have to be that neither Sky or Freeview is available in the rooms, but this is only a small note and we were able to watch Sky sports in the bar so no football was missed!

Food & Drink

A continental breakfast is included in your rate at the hotel, this consisted of various cereals, bread rolls, pastries, toast and fruit – a good kick start in the morning, but I must admit that towards the end of the week I did sit in the restaurant imagining that I could smell bacon, sausage and eggs cooking as a small ‘hot’ buffet would have been welcomed as an alternative.

The hotel  advertises that a hot snack menu is available Mon – Fri from 6pm till 10pm, which I do not think does them justice.  The menu is actually quite a nice selection of bar meals from lasagne to burgers and scampi & chips.  Some hotel restaurants charge over the top prices for meals, but I think the Express by Holiday Inn was fairly priced and for the selection available was one of the better hotel restaurants I have eaten in.  Don’t get me wrong, we are not talking about the same quality of food that you would expect to be available in the restaurants of the Hilton or Kempinski hotels for example, but it was decent food at a decent price.

There is a bar located towards the end of the lobby, with the slight problem that the staff checking customers in are the same staff manning the bar, so if there is a rush at reception you can wait a while to be served. Once served though, again, the staff were really friendly and quite hospitable….we even managed to get them to show the X-Factor in the bar so we didn’t miss out on the evenings events!

Restaurant

The Restaurant Area

If you want to get out of the hotel to eat and don’t fancy walking to the O2, one really great feature of this hotel is that it has a very large Chinese restaurant located directly beneath it. 

We ate there twice during our stay, we didn’t need to reserve and were able to be seated quite late in the evening.  The food was delicious with quite a large menu, see www.mychinesefood.co.uk for more info.

Overview

Overall, this hotel is good value for money and is the perfect location for visiting ExCel or the O2 arena.  Being so close to the North Greenwich tube station, it could also be an alternative to staying in the middle of the hustle and bustle of London itself and I would say it is suitable for all travellers.  The facilities are ample for a family on holiday or business people looking for a base.

The hotel is easily accessible by tube or car and as it is outside of the city where space is at a premium, it has the benefit of 120 car parking spaces.

For a large chain, the staff did a good job of making their hotel feel welcoming and as in most cases these days, it is the service that you receive that goes a long way to ensuring that you return to a hotel and I think the staff during our visit did enough to ensure a repeat visit from Sixt.

Express by Holiday Inn Greenwich A102 (M)
Bugsby Way, Greenwich, London, SE10 0GD
Tel: +44 (0) 208 269 5000
www.expressgreenwich.co.uk

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