Holiday Inn Doncaster A1 (M), JCT.36 — Hotel in Doncaster

We booked in for two nights as wedding guests. The receptionist was very pleasant and helpful. The twin room was clean and the bed comfortable. The only down side was that the air conditioning wasn't working, and was replaced by a tall fan. This was OK if you stood right in front of it. Went down to the restaurant for late evening meal. I ordered chicken and mushroom in a creamy sauce with pasta which was very nice and plentiful. The rest of my company enjoyed their curry, carbonara, soup, beefburger and chips. The next morning we went down for breakfast at 8.00 am. The choices we had were continental breakfast, cereal, full English. Fresh fruit was also available along with croissants and bread rolls. The English breakfast consisted of fried eggs, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, black pudding, mushrooms, beans, hash browns and tomatoes. The sausages were a bit heavy and pasty, the bacon wasn't very appetising as it was in bits with quite a lot of fat. I was just in time for fresh eggs so I expected them to be at least warm, they were cold but the yolk was soft. Everything else was okay apart from being nearly cold. The toaster, an ordinary style one, only had one side working and took ages to toast the choice of brown and which sliced bread, and a loaf which you could slice yourself. The yoghurt and fresh fruit was very refreshing. Good selection of cereals too. Along with the usual fruit juices was a container of water, lemon and ice which was very nice. Now onto the wedding. The staff were very pleasant and helpful and kept the guests informed of where to go for different parts of the celebrations. The meal started off with soup and a roll. A lot of the diners were hungry and had eaten the roll before the soup arrived and we asked for more, along with salt and pepper. The soup was luke warm on a hot bowl. The rolls and condiments didn't arrive until we had finished the soup. The main course consisted of a very large breast of chicken, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, roast potatoes and gravy. Once again, the meal was just warm and no more. The vegetables were al dente which suited me, but not some of the other guests. The roast potatoes were not really roasted, they weren't crispy or very brown. The gravy was very thin. The chicken was fine but not very tasty. The dessert was a custard tart with strawberries and fresh cream, which looked very nice. I had fresh fruit salad and asked for cream. The service was very slow resulting in the meal being slightly warm, none of the meal was piping hot, which makes me believe that they didn't have enough staff serving and or the meal was sitting around before it was served. Now on saying that the staff were very nice and we got what we required even though it was a bit late coming to the table. The meal would have been okay if it had been even a bit warmer. All in all my stay at the hotel was a pleasant one and I had two good nights sleep, even though it was a bit warm. I think more attention should be made to the catering end of a sit down meal for weddings etc. The choice of menu was a good one just that it wasn't very tasty or warm. I think mashed potatoes and stuffing balls would have been a nice addition. This is my first experience of the Holiday Inn. Would I stay again, yes I would. The receptionist on the day we left apologised for the lack of air conditioning but explained that they were hoping that it would have been working due to the good weather, and was expecting it to be fixed the day we...

I stayed for two nights on a business trip and it was probably one of the worst experiences I have had in a hotel.

Although the public areas were very well presented, the room I was provided with was very poor and in desperate need of a renovation. The room was very tired with old furniture, old stained carpet, broken lampshade, chipped paintwork and mouldy sealant in the bathroom. My room was on the ground floor, all windows along the ground floor had net curtains, as did one of mine. The other window was missing a net curtain, therefore the curtains had to be permanently closed to allow for privacy, as my window looked out on the thoroughfare to the restaurant.

On my first night I ate in the restaurant on my own, and it took 40 mins for my meal to arrive. The restaurant only had a couple of other tables occupied, so wasn't particularly busy, and at no time did a member of staff apologise or explain for the delay. To be fair, when the food arrived it was very good.

On my second night eating in the restaurant with other colleagues, the experience was even worse. Again the restaurant wasn't particularly busy, but it took 1hr 15mins for our meals to come. Again, no explanation and no apology for the delay. There were lots of young waiting staff working, but there didn't seem to be any signs of a FOH Manager overlooking proceedings. The food on this evening though was laughable...

Bruschetta, which was described as being served on ciabatta arrived on a soup roll turned on it's side.

King prawns which should have been served in a lemon, garlic and cream sauce served on sourdough arrived as garlic king prawns on yet another soup roll.

To be fair mozzarella sticks were difficult to get wrong.

Then along came the main courses - 3 x chicken Caesar salads. One of the bowls literally had half a lettuce dumped in there, no anchovies (as described in the menu), instead of herby croutons (as described in the menu) it was obviously just old wholemeal bread from breakfast that had been made into croutons, and no parmesan crisp (as described in the menu).

When we very politely gave the feedback to one of the waitresses, she simply said "I don't know what to say". I don't blame her lack of response on her, she should have received the relevant training and her manager should have been on hand to deal with the situation.

I come to Doncaster on a regular basis for business. I certainly will not be visiting this...

First time to Doncaster and, as a long standing Priority Club member, was looking forward to notching up a stay at another IHG-branded hotel. I rang a couple of days beforehand to ensure everything was okay with the booking and told room would be guaranteed to be ready by 2pm. I was kindly also provided with an upgrade.

Friendly welcome by the receptionist and upgrade confirmed. Unfortunately the room was not ready and my wife and I had to wait in reception for 20+ minutes, although were provided with coffees, which was greatly appreciated. During that time we watched a wedding party going backwards and forwards past us to have photos taken, get more drink etc.

When the room was ready, we were advised that it was in the annexe, which was much quieter there. With bags in hand we went to the annexe. As soon as we walked into the underwhelming entrance we were greeted by stenchy and dirty looking carpets that lined the way and the staircases to our right. We opened our room door on the ground floor hoping to escape the smell, only to be greeted by a more pungent one. Tried opening the window to let the room breathe, but for H&S reasons this only allowed a few inches of fresh air to come in. The room had clearly been cleaned in a hurry, with one glass in the bathroom being face down (as expected) and the other still face up - the toothpaste dripping down the side wasn't the best sight.

Having a function elsewhere we left the hotel by 3pm, returning at about 10pm. A party was still in full swing somewhere close by and my wife was kept awake until after 2am by people shouting and a full-blown fight right outside our window.

We checked out at 11am the following morning and were greeted by lots of empty beer and wine bottles, as well as glasses in the annexe foyer, outside in its courtyard and all along the road/grass leading to the car park. To make matters worse, the car park had even more bottles and lots of glass, where the party obviously got a bit too raucous. Given it was 11am and the party was clearly held at the Holiday Inn, it could have been something that was predicted and sorted by a member of staff early on the Sunday, perhaps?

All in all, sorry to say not the best experience ever at an IHG hotel. I am happy to discuss with management if they would like to reach out to help improve future customer...