My review of the Holiday Inn Express London Ealing hotel

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This is my review of the Holiday Inn Express London Ealing hotel.

Last week had a wild and crazy travel schedule even by HfP standards. As well as visiting Southend on Monday, I headed out to West Ealing on Friday.

The reason for my visit was to take a look at the new Holiday Inn Express London Ealing. This is the first Holiday Inn Express in the UK to feature a new ‘next generation’ design which will be the template for all new properties going forward.

I have to say I was impressed.

The first wave of Holiday Inn Express hotels was developed around a ‘cheap and not hugely cheerful’ prefabricated room template. There was nothing wrong with the quality but it was pretty dispiriting. If you’ve ever stayed in one, you will have marvelled how the bathroom door also doubles as the toilet door.

The problem is that chains like Premier Inn, which are pitched at the same market, chose to invest in a more upmarket design and HIX was getting left behind. This ‘new generation’ of design is meant to reverse that trend.

Here is an overview of a room at the Holiday Inn Express Ealing. I saw a corner room so it is brighter than usual:

The room is bright with neutral colour scheme, offset by red accents in the Bodum kettle, chair, document rack and cushion. I liked it.

Let’s look in detail at some of the features. There is no wardrobe, just a few open hangers:

The TV is a Smart TV. This is the first time that I have seen one in a hotel as far as I can remember. You can call up BBC iPlayer, YouTube etc. It swings back from the wall to face the bed. You still get a kettle, tea, coffee etc.

There is no desk. You get a funky but not hugely comfy chair and the wooden table. At least it is a wooden table and so can be used with a mouse, unlike the glass table I had at The May Fair Hotel last week.

Unfortunately, they messed up here. There is no plug socket anywhere near the desk so unless you have a 10 foot power cable you will be doing some furniture rearranging if you want to work.

Speaking of power cables, the hotel has powered USB sockets as well as traditional plugs.

Here is a nice touch. What you have below is a mirror which, instead of being fixed flat to the wall, pivots out at 30 degrees. This creates a void where an ironing board and iron can sit.

The net impact of all of the above is that the room felt very spacious even though it was actually relative small in square metre terms. Even the lighting had been well done – you can see the hidden downlights in this photo:

I then opened the bathroom door and was genuinely surprised.

What you have is a huge open plan wet room. I have stayed in five star hotels with far smaller bathrooms. (EDIT: the comments below suggest that I may have been shown a wheelchair-accessible bathroom. It may also have been, as a corner room, the bathroom was simply bigger to fill the space. I know from the fire escape floor plan that normal rooms are the standard shoe box shape.)

and

Down in the lobby, there was also a fresh new look. Here is the dining area:

…. with a rack of free magazines to read:

…. and an all-day coffee machine (tokens bought from reception):

…. and a lighter, brighter bar:

I would be perfectly happy to spend a few days in a hotel like this. It reminded me of the Hampton by Hilton in Berlin where I had a great stay around five years ago and when I first realised that Holiday Inn Express was going to be in serious trouble if it didn’t modernise.

But what about the hotel itself?

I should add a few words about the hotel itself rather than just the ‘next generation’ design. Holiday Inn Express London Ealing is not the best located hotel in the world. It is well over a mile from Ealing Broadway underground station. A far better option is West Ealing mainline station, about 6-7 minutes walk away, but that has only four trains an hour and is closed on Sunday. West Ealing trains connect to the tube at Ealing Broadway or you can travel into Paddington.

Sitting directly on Broadway, you are not short of shopping options – although mainly of the Poundworld variety. I can imagine that it could also get noisy at night in the rooms overlooking the street.

This is all reflected in the price – one of the cheapest Holiday Inn Express properties in London. Given the high quality and general all-round ‘newness’ of the hotel (with free breakfast for everyone) I would recommend it as a decent option if your budget is low but your standards high. You can find out more and book on the hotel page of the IHG website here.

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This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Phil says:

2 May2 May 08:18

Interestingly, accor are building a new ibis along the same stretch of road. Not sure why the area needs so many cheap-and-cheerful hotels, bit there must be a reason.
- Geoggy says:
  
  2 May2 May 08:25
  
  It’s the “cross rail” boom that’s seen a proliferation of average chain restaurants open at Ealing Broadway and the Dickens Yard development with horribly over priced apartments
  - William says:
    
    2 May2 May 10:36
    
    Tell me about it!
    
    So Ealing has two ‘retail’ claims to fame now…The first Nandos in the UK! Never mind Ealing Studios, these are two great commercial stories.
    
    I’m curious about this location tbf…West Ealing is trading on the ‘crossrail’ story but the train frequency will still only be 4 per hour. Is this the logic for Holiday Inn or is there something else about the location I’m missing? I’m not sure when its pomp was but that part of West Ealing is pretty horrid…HfP’s reference to poundshops is putting it politely. There is a Waitrose though 😉
    
    I imagine the problem for hotel groups is there’s nowhere to go on the Broadway proper (next to EB) until they knock down the whole strip opposite the station and the station itself. Even then I’m sure it will go to overpriced tiny flats.
- Lady London says:
  
  2 May2 May 11:08
  
  er…. because the area is cheap n cheerful?
  
  I stayed there on points a couple of weeks ago. The photo is definitely an accessible room not the regular one. I had a regular shower which was very nice and large. It had a door, so did not soak the entire bathroom.
  
  I found the staff to be hugely helpful and willing, whilst claiming the hotel is in Ealing which is utter tosh. It’s in West Ealing which is very different. There’s a minicab office practically opposite. I suspect a taxi to Heathrow would be 20-30min on a good day and not that expensive. I agree with another poster that the coffee was forgettable. The bacon quality was good but it was like the old BMI lounge in T1 – bacon hardly cooked at all and flabby. It needs proper crisping please guys otherwise your nice bacon is a waste of time! At least round the edges.
  
  I would happily stay there again noting there’s no tube that nearby, but a very decent waitrose walkable and a sainsbury’s in the courtyard next to the hotel set a little further back from the street than the hotel.
  
  Think I still prefer the US Hamptons I’ve stayed in although breakfast is a waste of time in those if you’re not into the overloaded-with-starch totally synthetic American breakfasts moderate chain hotels seem to serve in the US.
  - Geoggy says:
    
    2 May2 May 13:45
    
    The Piccadilly and Central lines are easy to get to from there.
    
    Jump on an E3 from West Ealing Broadway to Northfields- less than 10 mins.
    
    Jump on 427, 207, 83 to Ealing Broadway for Central line – again less than 10 mins but could be more with traffic.
    
    There are a couple of decent independent restaurants around the area – so easy to avoid the chains!
Cupoftea says:

2 May2 May 08:38

I stayed there a couple of weeks ago and can confirm that normal rooms have much smaller, although very nice, bathrooms. My room had a more standard (non wet room) walk in shower.
You also get free breakfast, it was perfectly OK, only a few hot items, but nice enough.
Chris says:

2 May2 May 08:52

HIX Newcastle City Centre has had the refresh. It has kept the old fixtures such as the desk and headboard etc so it looks a little odd with the new colour scheme and bedding.

Glasgow Riverside is being done at the moment – both are managed by the same group
Andrew (@andrewseftel) says:

2 May2 May 09:09

That selection of magazines is a bit narrower than it looks at first glance!
Harry says:

2 May2 May 09:11

It is not that cheap and there is no point redemption availability for the whole of 2016! For me the lack of a proper desk and the need to find a long extension lead is a killer. Despite being an IHG Spire, I would actively look for another hotel now if a refurbished HiEx was the group’s only option. Am I alone in actually liking the current HiEx style of room?
- PT says:
  
  2 May2 May 09:38
  
  Would fully agree. I often use HIX for business trips and need to work in my room. Despite being IHG Ambassador Spire I might well have to abandon HIX for alternatives that have a proper place to be able to work at.
Sebastian says:

2 May2 May 09:32

I am glad HIX is getting an update as I’ve been disappointed with those I’ve stayed in, whilst the majority of the Hampton’s I’ve stayed in I’ve always been statisfied with. So hopefully, they’ll get pulled up to that standard.
Imbruce says:

2 May2 May 09:32

Just stayed at the Crowne Plaza Stephenson. Quarter, the room was nice and big, bed a bit to hard,
soft pillows,nice shower room with a very big shower. Very modern as is the hotel itself. It was a Deluxe Queen Bed room
Great breakfast
Things that let it down:
Bright light coming from the Mini Bar all night
Bad sound proofing, you can hear the trains and also other guests when the come in the early hours from the clubs. They talk loudly and bang into everything
Did not know there was coffee making facilities until check out apparently the stuff is in a drawer
Very expensive with breakfast not included although you can pay £9:00 per person per day at check in, £16:00 per person on the day
Lots to choose from for breakfast and you can make it to take away with you disposable bags and cups are provided. They even have yummy healthy smoothies.
Coffee let it down: from the machine the cappuccino is weak and the coffee in the pot the staff brin you is bitter.
- Raffles says:
  
  2 May2 May 09:37
  
  I had a problem at the Hilton Heathrow T4 with light coming from the mini bar, I think I unplugged it in the end.
Thunderbirds says:

2 May2 May 09:42

The refurbishments of HIX from the old brown themed rooms to the blue themed rooms have been ongoing for a number of years. This looks like a minor variation on that theme, or is it just some artistic flair from that particular hotel owner!
I think the blue rooms are functional but effective (HIX T5) though the breakfast arrangements at some can be chaotic at busy periods (HIX Dunstable).
Try the Holiday Inn Garden Court near Bedford if you really want to go back in time
- Rob says:
  
  2 May2 May 10:42
  
  This is, officially, the first hotel with this design model so I expect others to be very similar going forward.