voco Leicester by IHG — Attraction in Great Britain

I chose this hotel because of a fantastic experience at another IHG property in Edinburgh, but unfortunately, this stay was a complete letdown.

To start, £20 per night for parking in Leicester feels excessive — although that’s a personal view. The hotel’s location is also inconvenient if you’re planning to explore the city centre.

Now, to the main issue: I originally booked one room, then cancelled it and rebooked for two rooms instead. At check-in, the receptionist told me only one room was on the system, as the other had been cancelled. I showed them my itinerary, but that didn’t help. After a 10-minute wait, the manager appeared and, instead of trying to resolve the issue, simply told us to contact the third party we’d booked through.

I explained that while the booking may have been made through a third party, the hotel is still the service provider and should take some responsibility in resolving the issue — especially when they’re unable to deliver a service I’ve already paid for. The manager, with a completely dismissive attitude, claimed there was no one they could contact at the third party. That was surprising — if a hotel gets a significant number of bookings through a major platform which in this case was Hotels.com, you’d expect them to have some kind of support channel for resolving issues. But no — the message was loud and clear: “We can’t help you, and we won’t help you.”

After 30 frustrating minutes trying to reach the Hotels.com’s non-existent customer service and even calling my bank to consider a dispute, I had a moment of realisation — maybe the second booking was under my mother-in-law’s name. Turns out, it was. Astonishing that neither the receptionist nor the manager — who proudly stated they’d been with Voco for three years — could think of checking that.

On a positive note, the rooms themselves were lovely, although the bathrooms are beginning to show their age. The black vinyl wrap around the shower and tap is peeling off, and the TVs don’t support Chromecast or any kind of phone syncing.

After checking in, I ordered fish and chips to the room, and the food was excellent — no complaints there.

All in all, the hotel itself deserves four stars review. But the poor service and lack of initiative during check-in left a really sour taste. Not sure I’d stay again.

Update to Hotel's response (07/04/2025):

Saying you "normally get great feedback" doesn’t address the very specific service failure I described — in fact, it reads more like a deflection than an attempt to understand or acknowledge what actually went wrong. The issue wasn’t just a small hiccup; it was a fundamental breakdown in customer service and accountability.

Mistakes happen — I completely understand that. But what really matters is how those situations are handled. In this case, both the receptionist and the manager failed to show initiative, empathy, or any real effort to help resolve the issue. That’s what turned an otherwise decent hotel experience into a frustrating and stressful one.

I hope this feedback is taken seriously, not just “looked into,” so future guests are treated with more care and professionalism — especially in moments where things don’t go...

When we first had a walk around this hotel, before its opening while planning our wedding at the Tigers, which was on 23rd July, we were pleasantly surprised by the overall look of the hotel, the rooms, and the bespoke style of the place. The staff that showed us around were friendly and appeared to have a good knowledge of the process.

However, sadly this is where the positivity ends! We had a typical large Indian wedding, with close family and friends attending from all over England, Scotland and Canada! We were pleased that there was now a hotel attached to Tigers, which was supposed to make their and our stay easy and stress free. Unfortunately, this was not the case as from the start we were not simply able to get a promo code to send to our guests so they could book their rooms as the discounted rate. Instead, we had to proceed with a long, convoluted process of completing contact all our guests to ask for all the details. This is not ideal, when we had a lot going on already with planning the big day. Things then proceeded to get more complicated for no reason, firstly many of the guests did not receive links to their reservations (even after correcting for a couple of mistyped emails). Moreover, when they did finally receive these, many where incorrect with some guests being charged for the wrong days, incorrect rooms and being charged parking when not requested (which is extortionate at £25 per night for Leicester!!). The email correspondence to sort this out was very slow, which added stress, especially to our foreign guests who were keen to get this sorted before they travelled. What made things even worse was that quite a lot of time, no one picked up the phone in the reservations team and when they did, they often didn’t have any idea of this block booking! Things then continued to get worse, with check in confirmations going to the bride only, instead of the guests and then several rooms at check-in being assigned to the incorrect people, including the bride the night before the wedding (see separate review for this!).

As if this was not bad enough, we and our guests withheld writing any public reviews as we wanted to give Hotel Brooklyn management staff a chance to explain and accept their part in the issues. This was the final nail in the coffin, as the response from Paul Bayliss, although polite, completely missed the point and did not even offer a proper apology, just a very PR response without addressing the core issues. Furthermore, they even had the audacity of saying they checked the CCTV to see the comings and goings, which suggested a lack of trust.

Overall, Hotel Brooklyn has the potential to be a really great bespoke hotel and just what is needed in Leicester, however, big improvements are required before they get to this standard particularly in relation to group bookings/reservations and post stay customer service, which...

Before I write anything, I'd like to thank all the staff and managers I met who REALLY make the place great, Sammy, Adam, Kelly, Helli, Anissa, Argen and Dylan and the other people who told me their name, most notably guy who was always on night shift, the waitresses and the other bartender who i saw on the final two days. I am terrible with names but please know i appreciate you guys. I've never been to Leicester before so this was a great first experience in the city. I arrived at the hotel and was greeted with smiles by the staff in there, Kelly and one of the managers Sammy. They could tell I liked to talk I bet as they immediately asked me about why I was here out of curiosity. I thought it was a lovely first impression. Room looked absolutely lovely once I got in. The bed was really comfy too! Immediately went downstairs after to go get food in the restraunt and please, do yourself a favour and indulge in the weeping tiger steak. I loved it. After, I went to the bar, naturally... I wanted to chat to people and Argen was more than happy to! A bar is only as good as its bartenders and Argen set a great first impression. Over the next few days I got to speaking to more of the staff on the night times. Kelly, Helli and Anissa were always there to greet me and open to chatting to me aswell at reception (apart from when they were busy, give them space lmao) so that made getting back in after work that much more pleasant. At the bar and the restraunt, Sammy and Adam would try to strike up a conversation and make me feel welcome and Argen and Dylan would chat to me whenever I came to the bar. I also went to see Europe aswell and I told, Helli, Kelly and Anissa that it was my birthday. I returned a little bit tipsy to find a lovely note with cake there saying happy birthday from the three of them. Honestly it just goes to show how lovely everyone is there. On the day that I left, Adam made a point on exactly how great the hotels drinks are... he was convincing and I would recommend visiting the bar straight after eating. I would absolutely return and I did, I rebooked the second week from a different hotel to this one because honestly I dont think this one could be topped. Im hungry from thinking about the food now..

Thanks guys, If I'm in Leicester again, I'll be back.

Update - I did come back, repeat service, I love...