South hampton hotel

[azgrandmax3]

Has anyone stayed at the holiday inn on Herbert walker Ave in Southampton good or bad?

[wowzz]

10 minutes ago, azgrandmax3 said:

Has anyone stayed at the holiday inn on Herbert walker Ave in Southampton good or bad?

Common or garden Holiday Inn. Clean and comfortable,  but instantly forgettable.  Fine for a night.

[PacnGoNow]

6 minutes ago, azgrandmax3 said:

Has anyone stayed at the holiday inn on Herbert walker Ave in Southampton good or bad?

Great forum to jump on.  2nd page has Southampton hotel info.  You may find it very helpful planning your trip.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/148-british-isleswestern-europe/page/2/
 

I would post this question on that forum for more answers.  But, it’s spelled 

Southampton.

[skynight]

Yes. Decent hotel. Walking distance to downtown. Short ride distance to the pier.

[LadyL1]

If you want a very nice hotel to stay in (possibly one of the most expensive by waterfront) look at the link below. We use this, and it is very comfortable. There are very many budget type hotels in the area, catering for one night pre-cruise stays, if that is more suitable for your needs.

 

https://www.harbourhotels.co.uk/southampton?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Southampton GMB&utm_content=Listing

[PacnGoNow]

4 minutes ago, LadyL1 said:

If you want a very nice hotel to stay in (possibly one of the most expensive by waterfront) look at the link below. We use this, and it is very comfortable. There are very many budget type hotels in the area, catering for one night pre-cruise stays, if that is more suitable for your needs.

 

https://www.harbourhotels.co.uk/southampton?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Southampton GMB&utm_content=Listing

It is very nice, but very expensive. I show their rates are all non refundable for my dates. 

 

[tillys mom]

We used Premiere Inn West Quay and found it fine for one night.

[dreaminofcruisin]

We have stayed in Room 2 a couple of times now. It's a little unique, but we really enjoyed the location and the price is reasonable:

 

https://room2.com/

 

[MustangGT]

Just now, dreaminofcruisin said:

We have stayed in Room 2 a couple of times now. It's a little unique, but we really enjoyed the location and the price is reasonable:

 

https://room2.com/

 

We loved Room2 for our cruise in 2019.  We booked it again for next year.

Great boutique hotel and we walked to the pier the next morning!

We loved the walkable area with restaurants and stores for those last minute needs.

[san diego sue]

Weird , the hotels in Southampton don't have wash clothes. We stayed at Holiday Inn our first trip , no wash cloths. next time at  Premier Inn, none there either.

Both hotels we clean and comfortable.Convenient to the big indoor shopping center  in case you need to shop for anything.

[dreaminofcruisin]

10 minutes ago, san diego sue said:

Weird , the hotels in Southampton don't have wash clothes. We stayed at Holiday Inn our first trip , no wash cloths. next time at  Premier Inn, none there either.

Both hotels we clean and comfortable.Convenient to the big indoor shopping center  in case you need to shop for anything.

 

Room 2 doesn't have them either.

I have found this true often in European hotels. Doesn't matter to me, but I know some people really miss them....

[shellbeachjim]

10 minutes ago, san diego sue said:

Weird , the hotels in Southampton don't have wash clothes. We stayed at Holiday Inn our first trip , no wash cloths. next time at  Premier Inn, none there either.

Both hotels we clean and comfortable.Convenient to the big indoor shopping center  in case you need to shop for anything.

We've run into this all over Europe and the UK. The explanation we get is that washcloths are "not sanitary". You may want to consider buying micro fiber washcloths to pack.

[Thrak]

38 minutes ago, tillys mom said:

We used Premiere Inn West Quay and found it fine for one night.

 

We stayed there one night before a cruise. My wife described this place as "Too weird for words".

[Thrak]

17 minutes ago, san diego sue said:

Weird , the hotels in Southampton don't have wash clothes. We stayed at Holiday Inn our first trip , no wash cloths. next time at  Premier Inn, none there either.

Both hotels we clean and comfortable.Convenient to the big indoor shopping center  in case you need to shop for anything.

 

In the UK isn't that known as a "flannel"? We don't find a need for them in a hotel. My wife sometimes uses one to wash her feet...

[sewgood]

59 minutes ago, azgrandmax3 said:

Has anyone stayed at the holiday inn on Herbert walker Ave in Southampton good or bad?

We stayed there for three nights in October 2019.

It was clean and the food in the restaurant was fine, nothing too exciting though but as I thought at the time we are going to have lovely meals on the ship soon.

It was very close to the main shopping centre but you did have to cross a busy road.

We were able to walk to the train station (about ten minutes) to take a day trip.

The hotel was rather under whelming upon arrival in the car park and I thought what have I done and the room was smaller than I would have wished. I couldn't remember any road noise in our room so it couldn't have been too bad and we had a room close to the busy road.

There was something weird in the layout of the bathroom but I can't remember what, we just had a basic room and it might not be in all room levels.

If you want a special or wow hotel don't book this one but if you want a cheaper, clean and mostly comfortable hotel this will do the job for a night or two. I do remember thinking I'm glad I didn't pay too much for this hotel stay.

[yyjguy]

I stayed for 2 nights in July prior to boarding Emerald Princess.  It was clean and well run. The room was quiet.  I liked the waterfront park across the lane.  Breakfast was good.  My cab driver said the hotel directly across the street was a bit better,  but more costly. 

[wowzz]

8 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

We stayed there one night before a cruise. My wife described this place as "Too weird for words".

Premier Inn is our go to hotel chain in the UK.

I'm really intrigued  - why did your wife think it was wierd ? 

Seems extremely normal to me. 

 

[wowzz]

8 hours ago, san diego sue said:

Weird , the hotels in Southampton don't have wash clothes. We stayed at Holiday Inn our first trip , no wash cloths. next time at  Premier Inn, none there either.

Both hotels we clean and comfortable.Convenient to the big indoor shopping center  in case you need to shop for anything.

I haven't used a flannel (wash cloth) since I was 10 years old !

As far as Europeans are concerned they are really only used for washing other people. (Think bed baths).

.

[John Bull]

12 hours ago, sewgood said:

We stayed there (Holiday Inn) for three nights in October 2019.

It was clean and the food in the restaurant was fine, nothing too exciting though but as I thought at the time we are going to have lovely meals on the ship soon.

It was very close to the main shopping centre but you did have to cross a busy road.

We were able to walk to the train station (about ten minutes) to take a day trip.

The hotel was rather under whelming upon arrival in the car park and I thought what have I done and the room was smaller than I would have wished. I couldn't remember any road noise in our room so it couldn't have been too bad and we had a room close to the busy road.

There was something weird in the layout of the bathroom but I can't remember what, we just had a basic room and it might not be in all room levels.

If you want a special or wow hotel don't book this one but if you want a cheaper, clean and mostly comfortable hotel this will do the job for a night or two. I do remember thinking I'm glad I didn't pay too much for this hotel stay.

 

That's about as comprehensive a review as I've seen for this 1970's-built Holiday Inn.

Except no mention that it's right by the port gate for City Cruise Terminal (RCI, Celebrity, NCL. MSC and several smaller lines) and rooms at the back overlook the terminal and ship.

Or rooms at the front look down Southampton Water and you can watch your ship arriving.*

Yes, also an excellent location for the city centre shops, the pubs & restaurants & few sights of old-town & the waterfront, and the rail & coach stations. But ensure that what you're booking is Holiday Inn, Herbert Walker Avenue -  there are two H.I. Expresses, but both are inconveniently-located on the city boundary.

 

Premier Inn West Quay has been mentioned, also a popular hotel for cruisers and with an excellent reputation in its price-range. Premier Inn is the UK's favourite hotel chain at the budget end.

It's a couple of hundred yards from H.I., so equally convenient. There are two other Premier Inns in Southampton (New Road & Cumberland Place), both in the city centre but not as convenient as West Quay.

Like wowzz, I'm not sure why Thrak's better-half considered it as ""too weird for words", it's pretty standard for UK hotels. That'd more suit the adjoining Moxy Hotel (a Marriott brand), though it's more "quirky" than "weird".

Several other hotels and a couple of boutiques in that part of the city - see the map at the bottom of

 https://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/southampton_accommodation.htm

 

I was weaned off flannels (wash-cloths) at about the same time as my mother gave up telling me to "wash behind your ears" 😄

 

JB 🙂

* provided that you set your alarm for about 4.30am. 😉

[wowzz]

16 minutes ago, John Bull said:

I was weaned off flannels (wash-cloths) at about the same time as my mother gave up telling me to "wash behind your ears" 😄

 

That would make two of us !

[Thrak]

I think my wife was unhappy because there was nobody at the desk to check people in. After quite a while someone said to just "put your luggage in this storage room" and leave it there. It took quite a while to actually be able to check in and then the person who was finally available wasn't friendly at all and seemed to find checking people into the hotel to be an inconvenience. She just didn't feel "welcome" at all. We were only there for one night before sailing to Norway.

 

Of course, compared to the Hotel Continental in Barcelona which was our next hotel on that trip (we flew to Barcelona and spent 3 nights there before boarding our next cruise) Premier Inn West Quay was waaaaaaaaaaaaay normal. Hotel Continental was a very "different" experience for us. Very quirky but a great location right on La Rambla.

[wowzz]

3 hours ago, Thrak said:

I think my wife was unhappy because there was nobody at the desk to check people in. After quite a while someone said to just "put your luggage in this storage room" and leave it there. It took quite a while to actually be able to check in and then the person who was finally available wasn't friendly at all and seemed to find checking people into the hotel to be an inconvenience. She just didn't feel "welcome" at all. We were only there for one night before sailing to Norway.

 

Of course, compared to the Hotel Continental in Barcelona which was our next hotel on that trip (we flew to Barcelona and spent 3 nights there before boarding our next cruise) Premier Inn West Quay was waaaaaaaaaaaaay normal. Hotel Continental was a very "different" experience for us. Very quirky but a great location right on La Rambla.

No excuse for rudeness from the staff.

Premier Inn do operate a fairly rigid check in policy. If you try and check in early,  you may find that reception is not manned.  And if there is someone there,  you will not get early access to your room, hence the need to put your luggage into storage.  This may have been what happened in this case.

 

[dreaminofcruisin]

On 9/6/2022 at 12:24 PM, Thrak said:

Of course, compared to the Hotel Continental in Barcelona which was our next hotel on that trip (we flew to Barcelona and spent 3 nights there before boarding our next cruise) Premier Inn West Quay was waaaaaaaaaaaaay normal. Hotel Continental was a very "different" experience for us. Very quirky but a great location right on La Rambla.

 

Now that's a WEIRD hotel for sure! Stairs and hallways everywhere and every which direction. Reception on the 1st (?) floor, but that meant about 6 half flights up and the elevator was  broken so we had to lug our suitcases....that was the end of the handle on mine. Great location, though not sure I would stay there again---once might be enough for that one!  😁

[Thrak]

11 minutes ago, dreaminofcruisin said:

 

Now that's a WEIRD hotel for sure! Stairs and hallways everywhere and every which direction. Reception on the 1st (?) floor, but that meant about 6 half flights up and the elevator was  broken so we had to lug our suitcases....that was the end of the handle on mine. Great location, though not sure I would stay there again---once might be enough for that one!  😁

 

It was weird for sure. We tried to take a tour of the place and there were incomplete areas and, at one point, we had trouble finding our way back down from the upper floors. The outdoor eating area "bounced" when people walked on it. It was like a poorly constructed plywood floor or something. They did have free food - some of it we had to figure out what it was - available as self serve and there was a beer tap and a wine tap that were included as well as a soft serve ice cream dispenser that was also included. The room was pink.

 

However, we might stay there again as it was a great location and the hotel and room weren't "bad" - just different. I think people from the US aren't familiar with hotel rooms in other parts of the world so what may seem weird is actually not weird at all. (Okay, the fact that it was on parts of several floors and some of it was obviously not complete was odd.) There was a control panel on the wall near the door and it controlled everything in the room. Not something with which we were familiar but it worked just fine. We could look out our window onto a very narrow street and, if we looked to the right, we could see a small section of La Rambla. (Weird street name as it is sometimes La Rambla and sometimes Las Ramblas. Take your pick.)

 

When we were there they had just (mostly) finished with demonstrations in the streets, blockage of the roads to the airport, etc. We had been watching it on the TV on Sapphire Princess (12 day Norway cruise before flying to Barcelona for our next cruise) and wondering if it would affect us when we arrived at the Barcelona airport. Fortunately, they had cleared the blockage of the roads and we were able to get from the airport to our hotel.

 

It was unrest as they don't want to be part of Spain. When you walked the street and didn't understand what people around you were saying it was Catalan rather than Spanish. We did have a big - and LOUD - group of people march down the street shouting slogans and stuff one night and we saw another demonstration when we were leaving La Sagrada Familia but they were not at all violent. We did see separatist graffiti on some of the walls in town. Barcelona was a very interesting place and we would like to go back again. Having several days there before boarding the ship was great.

 

 

[PacnGoNow]

7 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

It was weird for sure. We tried to take a tour of the place and there were incomplete areas and, at one point, we had trouble finding our way back down from the upper floors. The outdoor eating area "bounced" when people walked on it. It was like a poorly constructed plywood floor or something. They did have free food - some of it we had to figure out what it was - available as self serve and there was a beer tap and a wine tap that were included as well as a soft serve ice cream dispenser that was also included. The room was pink.

 

However, we might stay there again as it was a great location and the hotel and room weren't "bad" - just different. I think people from the US aren't familiar with hotel rooms in other parts of the world so what may seem weird is actually not weird at all. (Okay, the fact that it was on parts of several floors and some of it was obviously not complete was odd.) There was a control panel on the wall near the door and it controlled everything in the room. Not something with which we were familiar but it worked just fine. We could look out our window onto a very narrow street and, if we looked to the right, we could see a small section of La Rambla. (Weird street name as it is sometimes La Rambla and sometimes Las Ramblas. Take your pick.)

 

When we were there they had just (mostly) finished with demonstrations in the streets, blockage of the roads to the airport, etc. We had been watching it on the TV on Sapphire Princess (12 day Norway cruise before flying to Barcelona for our next cruise) and wondering if it would affect us when we arrived at the Barcelona airport. Fortunately, they had cleared the blockage of the roads and we were able to get from the airport to our hotel.

 

It was unrest as they don't want to be part of Spain. When you walked the street and didn't understand what people around you were saying it was Catalan rather than Spanish. We did have a big - and LOUD - group of people march down the street shouting slogans and stuff one night and we saw another demonstration when we were leaving La Sagrada Familia but they were not at all violent. We did see separatist graffiti on some of the walls in town. Barcelona was a very interesting place and we would like to go back again. Having several days there before boarding the ship was great.

 

 

We thought it was fun and different. We stayed there twice!  Our room was pink too and we had a little patio off ours.

Crazy times!