Holiday Inn Strasbourg - Nord by IHG — Hotel in Strasbourg

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Strasbourg Nord in order to visit the famous Strasbourg Christmas markets. We chose this hotel mainly because it is not in the town centre, it is in a business park in the suburbs, just off the autoroute. This is because we had guessed that getting into a town centre hotel by car and finding somewhere to park would not be easy in the Christmas period, and this proved to be totally correct - when we travelled in to the town centre on the bus later on, the main interchanges were gridlocked. ||There is a bus stop about 50m from the hotel. It runs very frequently, and gets you into the town centre very easily – bypassing all the traffic because it has its own dedicated lane. You can buy a 24 hour unlimited pass for about 4 euros. The town of Strasbourg is a textbook example of how to do public transport right.||We arrived straight off the autoroute, parked easily in the hotel car park, and were welcomed with free Christmas drinks at the bar. If you like mulled wine then you will like Strasbourg in December! It’s everywhere.||The room was spacious, with a large comfortable bed, and a view over some lakes on the edge of the business park. However after about 20 minutes in the room we started to feel weirdly cold. Despite fiddling with the heater controls it was impossible to get warmer than 18C, and we suspected the actual temperature was colder (it was near-freezing outside). Next morning on the way to breakfast I noticed a sign in a corner of the lobby mentioning (in French only) a policy of “energy sobriety”. Basically they had turned the heating off to reduce energy consumption. We were impressed with this gesture, we didn’t mind being a degree or two colder in the room. However on our second night it was so cold that they had to bring up an electric heater and a second duvet, which rather defeated the purpose.||“Energy sobriety” also explained the weirdly dark bar at the front of the hotel, where you were dimly aware of other people sat at tables but you had to wait a few minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness to avoid tripping over them. Again, once we got used to it, it actually created a very pleasant ambiance. The barman attempted to ply me with more mulled wine, but when I refused he turned out to be very knowledgeable on some of the local Alsace beers so I tried them instead.||Breakfast was exactly as expected, a good choice of hot eggs and bacon, and a diverse range of continental meats, cheeses, breads, patisseries. Thankfully no mulled wine.||A quick shout-out also to the restaurant. It’s not actually a Holiday Inn restaurant, presumably the owners lease the space. We had dinner there one evening after having exhausted ourselves walking around Strasbourg all day. It was not busy (whereas all the restaurants in town were un-bookable). My burger was however one of the best I’ve ever had and Maureen declared her "well done" steak au poivre was perfectly cooked - to English standards.||In summary we are bound to go back to Strasbourg, it’s a great city, and when we do we will certainly go back to the Holiday Inn. The “energy sobriety” is probably a good idea, they just need to fine-tune it a bit. The location is perfect, all the benefits of a city-centre hotel with none of...

We have favoured Holiday Inn and its partners for probably 30 odd years. Holiday Inn has for the most part, been quite dependable and has usually been a sure bet for good standard of accommodation. So it's sad to rate this Holiday Inn at 2 stars. Because staff are great and management do take action and notice of what their customers say. But I think their hands are tied by corporate who are reluctant to invest in improvements. The room we were allocated was shameful. The bath was disgusting from the day we arrived to the day we left (5 nights) because it was not possible to clean it. I would be embarrassed to offer visitors such facilities in my own house. The in room safe did not work, the bathroom heater did not work, the shaver socket did not work, the inroom thermostat had a life of its own, completely useless. The in room WiFi either did not work or was virtually non existent and because there were no English channels on the TV I did not have the alternative of streaming Netflix on my mobile (in complete contrast to the boutique hotel we visited in Luxembourg!) We stayed over Christmas and were told on arrival that the restaurant was closed over the Christmas period with the exception of breakfast. Great start! On the plus side, the staff are multilingual and truly great. The free parking is a blessing and the breakfast on all but one day, was excellent. Not sure why they slipped the last day but a complaint to the front desk resulted in management intervention and things were very quickly resolved (I have posted pictures of bad breakfast day versus a good day). Not sure I would stay on my next visit, but if their website indicates renovations have since taken place I may...

Stayed for 1N whilst visiting Strasbourg, and it was perfectly fine for this purpose. ||||The room was ok, however it was unclear how the heater/air conditioning system in the room was supposed to work. I don't consider myself to be a dunce - but without the aid of instructions I was mystified. That said, the room didn't appear to be cold during my stay...so maybe the heater was doing it's mysterious job! If all the rooms have the same confusing panel, maybe some instructions to guests next to the panel would be useful.||||The hot water in the shower was a little variable - it fluctuated between hot and verging on tepid as I was using it. Either way it was far from perfect.||||Finally, the matter of the deposit was not handled quite as smoothly as I would like. 150 euros was "per-charged" to my card as a deposit on arrival, and this then showed as "pending" on my card for about 30 days. I kept checking this every few days, as I was concerned it, and eventually after the 30 days the transaction disappeared, presumably when it came to the point where my card issuer voids it automatically. This process was a bit aggravating while I was monitoring the transaction for changes - however no harm done in the end. But overall, it isn't an ideal...