Holiday Inn Cardiff City Centre

When we returned to our room after being in the city all day, it was absolutely freezing - the air conditioning had been left on by someone who presumably had serviced our room (in late October) whilst we were out all day. The service we received on calling down to reception was excellent, as someone came to visit our room immediately and brought some radiators to heat up our room. However it was disappointing that we couldn’t control the heating in our room, as we were told this could only be done centrally for the entire block. Our bed was fairly small for two tall people! The room otherwise was perfectly clean.

The hotel was close to the town centre which was good. When we arrived and checked in I was told they needed my card, I had already payed the full amount online so was a bit confused but I figured they needed my card as proof of purchase so I put it in the machine, put in my pin then went upstairs to the room.The room was freezing so we tried to use the thermostat on the wall to correct the temperature, after we set it to the temperature we wanted we went out for dinner. When we came back up to the room it was just as cold as before and I had checked my bank and seen an additional £80 taken from my account by the hotel so I went down to reception. When I asked at reception about the money they told me they were holding that amount and I would get it back when I said the room was too cold they did bring up a portable heater which was good. Breakfast was stunning, the hot foods were hot and the layout was nice. When I checked out I was again asked for my card, confused I asked what I was paying for and was told I still needed to pay off the room. I said I had already payed the full amount online through Expedia and the woman at the desk said she’d check again but there was no record of me paying another woman came out to join her and asked what was wrong, when the situation was explained the other lady said it was fine and I had already payed so I asked about the money they were holding and if I could get that back, she apologised for holding so much and gave me my money back.

We picked this hotel for the location and were not disappointed. It overlooks the old Cardiff Arms Park and is a short walk from shops and restaurants. There is parking at the hotel, quite rare to find this in Cardiff city centre, but it does cost £13. The bedroom was bigger than usual but the bathroom was exceptionally small, probably the smallest we have seen our our various travels. The breakfast was adequate, not exciting. The hotel is showing its age. Having said that our room looked like it had been refurbished and the facilities were good. It is reasonable value for money and we might stay there again.

The staff were very helpful and warned me in advance that some wheelchair users had experienced difficulties with the shallowness of their customer lifts. This was very much appreciated as it gave me time to make alternative arrangements if I wished. However, when they then said, if I would be happy to do so, they have a goods lift I could use, I took them up on the offer as I didn't want to have to look around for somewhere else to stay. Unfortunately it turned out that, despite the helpful staff, there were other access problems with the building. In particular, a) the doorway from the goods lift was not a recommended accessible width such that I could only get through if both of my rear tyres rubbed against the door frame - Yes, it really was that tight! b) the accessible toilet on the entrance level was not, by any definition, an accessible toilet because there was not a wheelchair space on either side of the loo to enable people to transfer. This was such a shame because the accessibility of my room and en suite was much better than I experienced at comparable hotels and, as I've said, the staff tried their best to assist.

I visited Cardiff with my sister and enjoyed every minute. The hotel is in a great place, next to the Cardiff Castle and stadium. It's also across from the city center and shops. Our room had two twin beds (singles). The bathrooms were a little dated but everything was clean and fresh. The staff was really friendly. We arrived late on our checkin day, minutes from the bar closing, and the bartender still took our food order. The hotel also stored our luggage on our last day as we did our final sightseeing. Highly recommend it! (One thing tonite of staying close to the stadium - make sure you know of the events going on because during our last day Coldplay was playing and the nearby streets were closed, making it hard to get to the train station)