Holiday Inn Express Leigh - Sports Village by IHG — Hotel in Wigan

On first appearance, this hotel is welcoming, considerate of its customers and the staff friendly.

However, on the day we attended, even though we had a confirmation, the hotel had no notification of our booking. (In fact, it came the following morning)

We had tried to book an accessible room, which had been allocated already, so we were placed in a twin bed room. Not ideal for 2 wheelchair users. There was also a third (put me up style) bed . This meant there was not enough room for the wheelchairs. When I mentioned this to the hotel, they promptly offered and removed the put me up bed, creating the extra space we needed. Apparently the room had initially intended for a group of three, who were allocated another room.

On the day we stayed there several parallel events going on. These parallel events clearly stretched the the hotel.

From what we could make out there was a group of kids from a football competition in the Stadium across from the hotel staying. There were also several coaches tours who put their guests in the hotel for the night. There was also a 21st birthday party.

The hotel didn't seem to have enough staff to cater for such large numbers, either that night or the following morning at breakfast. (In fact we had to come down for breakfast no less than 5 times, before we were able to get a table to sit at).

The dinner was delayed, with apologies and the explanation that the 21st birthday party was a catered event and had a pre-booked meal for large number of guests. (Some other guests didn't wait, choosing to eat out instead. The hotel lost business as a result and the guest potential points from eating out.) In all fairness to the hotel, it did appear as if the groups had conspired to all eat at the same time, creating an exceptional demand on the kitchen and staff.

The room also had a few problems, even though the hotel as a whole seemed well maintained and furnished. All the issues were raised with management who entered them into a log for the maintenance team

This was far from a perfect stay, but I would not view this stay as typical, in many ways. The hotel was clearly much busier than it was used to. The booking not being confirmed with the hotel was not their fault and they still managed to arrange adequate accommodation.

On the plus side the hotel was very bright, spacious generally well maintained (At least in the public areas) and clean. There was clear evidence that assistance was available for mobility impaired customers, from signs in the car park and by actions in the hotel.

Overall, I would have to say that while my first impressions were not brilliant and this hotel in no way met my expectations, the hotel did manage to accommodate us, despite the numbers of clients they already had. They also recognised that this stay was not a typical stay and compensated for the failings.

I would most likely stay here again, if I was in the area to do so.

The hospitality and the welcoming environment definitely outstripped the issues mentioned above.

Commendation to the Hotel for coping so well under such pressure, and still being able to keep up a smile and a...

I’d booked the accommodation 4-6 weeks in advance.|Despite having pre-paid for the room, you have to put a £50 deposit charge via your credit card at reception when you check in. |When I checked out at 08:30am on Sunday morning, I specifically asked if everything was good i.e: did I owe anything for any charges etc? I knew I had spent £45 (cash) at the bar for a couple of drinks for some colleagues and potentially another £45 for another few further drinks that may have been placed on my room, but the reception staff (with the hotel IT system at her fingertips) said everything was good and I would obtain my £50 charge in a few hours.|Just after 4pm I rang to ask about the charge, as it remained as a debit in my bank account. Reception said the refund would occur in a few days, dependant upon my bank, but she said I may have had a charge at the hotel, which I didn’t dispute, but it wasn’t the full £50, so why wasn’t the interim amount refunded, to which she said that it may take up to 5 days. |They’re quick to put a charge on your room but not so quick to refund it, or parts thereof…!?||Room corridor noise is excessive, so do not expect a good nights sleep unless you have ear plugs, as the noise from the corridor an the auto-slamming door springs mechanisms from other guests rooms reverberates through the door, which in turn, wakes you up from 07:00am onwards when other guests go to breakfast, especially when the ‘Tour de France’ are clip-clopping down the corridor in their cycle shoes and banging their bikes off the walls and doors from 7am onwards.||The TV controls did not work when I returned to the room after 10:30pm on the first night, which I didn’t find out until I was in my boxer shorts.|The next morning I went downstairs to reception at 08:20am after I had already asked one of the room cleaning personnel if they had spare batteries on their trollies, to which she informed me she did not.|I informed reception that the batteries were dead in the remote, to which she informed me that the maid (?) would bring up some…?|5-10mins later a maintenance chap arrived; I informed home that the remote’s batteries were dead, so after 2-3mins of him trying to work the TV unsuccessfully using the remote, he informed me that the batteries were dead or the remote was faulty...? He came back 5-10mins with a new remote. It was like a comedy sketch…?!||The shower was excessively dirty, with orange/black mould around the edges of the floor and lower shower tiled-tray area of the walk in shower, as well as cigarette melted burn marks on the main room 3 metre wall table.||I went to breakfast at 07:30am on the Sunday; not all of the breakfast hot menu meal options were there, including the hash browns. There was no-one from the hotel staff to ask where the missing items/trays were, or when they were going to be re-filled (which had hinged lids covering the empty trays), so despite paying approx £15 for breakfast for each morning, I had to go without some of the choices that I would normally have made on this occasion …!? |Someone did eventually come out from the back, but not with the missing menu options, just to...

Made a phone booking and lady on phone either did not understand or was not listening to our requests re Double Room, Parking, Breakfast etc.|Had to ask her to read back what we were asking for, as she did not seem to be communicating it back to us very well.||Arrived at hotel late in the evening, was raining heavily outside and we had just travelled some distance to get to the hotel and just wanted to get up to room asap and unload our luggage.||The above became apparent, only when we got up to our room, we were disappointed to find it was a twin room and not the double we had requested!||Annoyingly, there was no telephone in the room to call down to reception and we had to make that call on our mobile. That again was even more frustrating when reception or manager's option did not answer and we had to then inconveniently travel all the way back down to reception to address this issue.||We requested that we be allocated a double room, as we had stated, only to be told that there was no double rooms available and that the lady on the phone should have been clear when booking....she wasn't at all and at no point was we informed that there was not or possibly was not any double rooms available, or we would not have continued with our booking at that time!||If we had been informed before our drive to the hotel, that there was not a double room available, we would have booked elsewhere. ||Being so late at night and being tired from travelling, we did not have the time or energy to be going back to room, hauling luggage out and going to the car in the pouring rain to move to another hotel, at this point. We were advised by the staff to make a complaint, if not happy.||Neither of us slept well at all and had a restless night, in separate single beds.||This was very disappointing for 3 reasons....||1. It seemed like a nice hotel and staff were as helpful as they could be at reception, in the circumstances.|2.It was a location and hotel we were checking out for potential business use for both accommodation and business facilities, for us and our clientele and events.|3.It was supposed to be a relaxing personal stay for us also.||I must say, this was not a very good experience at all and nothing was even offered in any way to even alleviate this, apart from saying that there was nothing they could do and we would have to raise a complaint.||Unfortunately, this was a very uncomfortable night and a disappointing experience and stay for us both and on such a miserable night weather wise,...